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Wednesday 16/09/15
Finally Wednesday is here and we are all packed and ready to go, Chrissy arrives to take us to the station to catch the shuttle bus to Tullarmarine airport. as we are driving out of our driveway "have you got your passports?" asks Chrissy, "Yep" you know me I double check everything?
Just over two hours later we arrive at the airport and proceed to the check-in counter, we are already booked in online so proceed to the online check-in and this is when it went all the way down hill, the check in man asks for our passports and I cannot find them at all, my heart just sank and I then knew that I had left them back in Bendigo, quick phone call to Chrissy who rushes home to find then still in the photocopy machine, then in the car to get then to us, now she has less than 1 hour 45 minutes to get them to us and from Bendigo to Tullarmarine this is no easy feat to accomplish, the airline staff advised me that they need to close the check in at 3.00pm and proceeded to gives us all the alternatives if she didn't make it. the airline staff were marvellous and kept coming to us to see if we knew where she was and with 20 minutes to go and as I had photocopies of the passport they checked our luggage in with the proviso that if she didn.t get here they would need to take the bags off the plane. thankfully Chrissy made it with literally 5 minutes to spare!!!! a very quick thank you, a few tears and back into the counter to hand over the passports, then an express pass to go through customs. finally boarding the plane with a big sigh of relief.
Thank you to Darren also who kept in touch with Chrissy and us by phone, and kept us calm
The first leg of our journey was Melbourne to Singapore a good 7 hours flying with a two hours stopover, this gave us the chance to have a walk around and sit and have a coffee and relax, and surprise! no shopping.
Second part of the flight was the long one, Singapore to Amsterdam, a good 13 hours trip and this one was done in comfort, business class all the way, we were looked after, fed till we could eat no more and then our beds made, which enabled us to sleep the night away, finally arriving in Amsterdam at 7.30am. a quick exit from the airport to be greeted by our driver who then drove us to our hotel.
It was raining when we arrived so after checking in and going down to the lounge for coffee we waited until there was a break in the weather and ventured outside but this was short lived as the rain started again so back to the hotel for a few hours and finally the clear skies opened up and rain was gone,
We are staying at the Marriott Hotel which is near one of the canals and just over the bridge is a very busy town centre, a lot of restaraunts and shopping, we finally stopped to have some lunch and just sit and watch the passing parade
Friday 18/09/15
After a good nights sleep the day dawned bright and clear, and as I have been here before I wanted to show Peter all that we had seen but how to do it? we have always found the hop on hop off bus tours a great source of information and enables you to work out where attractions are and how to get to them, but this time I found the hop on hop of canal boat tours, so off we went, nice and relaxing, not overcrowded at all, getting off at the central train station and walking into the old town centre and just walking and looking around, and yes!!! I did take Peter to the Red Light District, to say the least that he nearly fell over his jaw is an understatement, the worse part is that he got talking to one of the girls and as we were leaving he said "goodbye, see you later" Yep! just wish away. then back to rejoin the boat and cruising the waterways, finally after a few hours we left the boat and proceeded to find somewhere for a cocktail and drink and we end up in Paddy's Irish Bar.
Tomorrow we leave the hotel and join the river ship to cruise the Rhine all the way to Budapest.
- comments
Michele Sound like an eventful trip so far Bev. Loving the blog. How did you manage business class.....very jelli!