Travels back to Holland

When we booked our trip I didn’t realize that we would have 3 flights in one day. After a crazy experience in Chile in 2010, I said I would never book 3 flights back to back again as so much can go wrong. I breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived in Amsterdam without a hitch.

Our first flight was just a short hop on a South African Air Express prop plane from Hoedspruit to Johannesburg. We passed our 3 hour layover time in the Emirates lounge until our overnight flight to Dubai. We booked the same 2 middle seats as we did on our way down. As soon as takeoff was completed I put my seat out flat and slept for 5 hours. Great service on Emirates.

When we landed in Dubai 9 hours later we had to park on the tarmac as the gates were all full. They brought buses that were designated by fare class to take us to the terminal. Again another 3-hour layover in the lounge of the Dubai airport. There are 2 lounges there, one for First Class and one for Business Class. The business class lounge took up

the whole second floor for 8 gates. They had check-in for people in the lounge directly to the plane and again they had a separate jetway to the upper deck of the A380.

Our final flight to Amsterdam was during the day so we actually got to enjoy the amenities of the A380. We went to the back of the plane and the flight attendant offered to take an instant photo of us and put it in a frame as a keepsake. She also offered the hat they wear as part of their uniform (which I love) and took a picture. We chatted with a few people at the back of the plane which was fun!

We arrived on time in Amsterdam at 2:00 pm on Thursday after 28 hours of travel. We had fun catching up with Bri and Kees, enjoyed one of Kees’s wonderful dinners and headed off to bed pretty early.

Friday was a relaxing day with Bri and Kees. Their daughter Lotte arrived from Ireland (where she is a nanny) to visit. We went grocery shopping with Bri. Their store has an interesting twist on the much-publicized Amazon Go experience. You get a cart (requires a coin to unlock it - similar to what we have here) but you also get a scanner that has a convenient holder on the cart. Each time you put an item in your cart/bag you scan it. At the checkout line, you hand your scanner to the clerk who advises the total and processes your credit card. They do have a random check process where the system will advise if the clerk should do a check to make sure you have scanned everything. Quick and easy. What surprised me was how many people were standing in line for a clerk to ring in their items, vs using the scanning process. I hope we see this technology in our grocery stores soon.

Our grocery shopping trip was to prepare for one of Kees’ famous BBQ’s. He uses the traditional charcoal method and it was delicious. Chicken, cheeseburgers, and amazing sweet red peppers stuffed with cheese, bacon, onion etc. They weren't the traditional peppers we get here - but long thin ones that he cut in half. Not to be outdone by her chef husband, Bri made us 3 delicious desserts. They were sending us off with more great food memories (with recipes to be

sent later)!

We enjoyed our final games of Mexican Train with the whole family!