The title of this post refers both to my delay in getting it written/posted and the major delay in our return flight home from Amsterdam. I'll begin with our last two days in The Netherlands.
Friday, November 19th, 2012
The second to last day of our trip was a Friday, and we wanted to see more of the country. We booked an all day trip with a company that would take us to several smaller towns and show us some of the crafts the Dutch are known for. It was a gorgeous morning as we boarded the bus and headed to our first stop--Zaanse Shanse. This is a small community that has preserved their historic homes and windmills. People still actually live in the houses, but the windmills are mostly just for show. They welcome tourists into their community, and apparently, they don't mind all the photographs and people walking through their tiny town. We were able to walk through one of the grinding windmills where grains were turned to flour. Each windmill is built on the water to make loading the product onto boats easier. The beautiful morning became even more picturesque with the windmills on the horizon.
Our next stop was a small town near Edam, called Volendam. They used to be known as an artists' retreat, hosting Picasso and Renoir, but are now more of a fishing village. Many tourists visit Volendam for their quaint main street and scenic harbor views. Our visit to Volendam began with a stop in a cheese making factory. We saw the equipment used to change the milk to cheese, the large molds used to shape the cheese, and the whole process was explained to us. Then, we got to taste a variety of cheeses, but chose not to buy any from this tourist trap and waited until we were back in Amsterdam. We had over an hour to explore the small village, so we walked around and then found a cute diner with a patio right on the harbor. Jeremy and I shared a pannekeuken, which is a puffy Dutch pancake made in the oven. I have had one in the United States before and it was actually pretty similar; however, the boats and harbor made the atmosphere much nicer in Volendam.
After brunch, we boarded a boat to Marken. The boat ride only took us about 45 minutes, but we learned a lot about the village in that time. Marken used to be a prosperous fishing village; however, when The Netherlands began trying to reclaim land for farming, a dam was built which turned the salt water near Marken to fresh water. It killed the fish living there, and in turn killed the only industry in the village. The town was abandoned until somebody realized that it was a cute, non-modernized town that would be a big tourist draw. Rich people began buying up the houses as a second home on the water and tourists began flocking there for a romantic getaway or a quiet holiday. Our stop in the village also included a demonstration in clog making. The Dutch still wear wooden clogs for their practicality. There are different styles depending on the type of work that one does. For example, someone working with large livestock wears very thick clogs to protect their feet from clumsy hooves while someone working in the boggy fields wears wider clogs that won't sink into the deep mud as much. Of course, they also have overpriced decorative clogs, clog key chains, and clog flower planters, but we didn't buy any of that!
The next stop on this all day adventure was Delft, a small city known for its pottery. We toured one of two remaining shops that still hand paint their pottery in the traditional fashion. After the pottery is shaped and heated in a kiln, it is hand painted with a special black paint by artists that have years of experience. The ceramic is then re-fired in the kiln, which turns the black paint to the traditional blue finish that Delftware is known for. This craft was adopted from the Chinese and was initially sold at the huge markets in the port cities. We wandered through the shop and found a beautiful piece that we purchased as a souvenir.
We spent about an hour in the city of Delft, where we wandered the cute side streets, the quaint shops, and enjoyed some delicious gelato before heading to the next destination.
We drove through The Hague, which is a city of about half a million people and filled with government buildings, ambassadors' homes, and International court proceedings (i.e. war crime trials, etc). Our guide explained significant buildings and she pointed out that the flag was still up in front of the Noordeinde Palace, indicating that Queen Beatrix was still hard at work and had not yet headed home for the evening.
Our final stop was the least impressive of the day. The Madurodam is an outdoor children's museum with a "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" feel. There is an expansive interactive city with displays representing the major Dutch cities including harbors, factories, and farmland. It was built in the 1950s by the parents of a Jewish student who was killed in a Concentration Camp after fighting in the Dutch resistance against the Nazis during WWII. The park was very well done, but it seemed a bit out of place on a tour that was filled with adults.
We didn't get back to Amsterdam until nearly 8 PM, so we just found a restaurant on our way back to the apartment. It was a small Indian restaurant and there was only one table left, so we assumed that it must be good. We split a couple of entrees and each had a lassi, which is a fruity yogurt drink. It was some of the best Indian food that we have had, and we actually considered going back the next night but it was full!
Saturday, November 20th, 2012
Our final day in The Netherlands began with rain, but we had planned on sleeping in a bit anyway. We headed to the city of Haarlem, which is the same distance to Amsterdam as Harlem, NY is to New York City (it used to be called New Amsterdam). The train ride took just thirty minutes and then it took about another ten minutes to get to the heart of Haarlem. We got to the market square where we wandered through their weekly Saturday market. It was filled with fresh fruit, homemade breads and pastries, clothing, and other crafted items. We decided to snack on a stroopwafel, and this is where we made one of the biggest mistakes of the trip! When Jeremy asked me if I just wanted one or if he should get the six pack to snack on later, I replied that just one each would be fine. How could I have so quickly forgotten how delicious the Dutch stroopwafels were? This was our last chance at this delicacy and I blew it! Here is some sound advice if you ever find yourself in this conundrum: Never, ever buy just one stroopwafel when you can buy six!!!
We roamed through the market and some of the shops in the city before heading to a department store for lunch. It sounds strange, but this store has a rooftop cafe that has some of the best views in town. We enjoyed soup in the cool, fall weather while looking down on the buildings and wandering shoppers.
After lunch, we headed to the Corrie ten Boom house. She was a Dutch Christian who helped countless Jews escape the Nazis in a sort of "Underground Railroad" scheme. Her family would hide Jews who were to be taken in by the Nazis and then help to transport them to a safer area. They also stole ration cards to give to the Jews who were denied this right. When the ten Booms were finally caught by the Nazis via an anonymous tip, the nine Jews that they were hiding at the time, remained safely hidden in the house for two days until they could be safely moved to another location. Corrie's father and sister died in the Concentrate Camp; however, she survived and spent the rest of her life telling her story through speaking engagements, books, and a movie called "The Hiding Place."
We took the train back to Amsterdam and stopped for pizza before heading back to the apartment. Our host had returned from his 99 year old father's funeral and was eager to meet us. He told us a bit about his home country of Curacao, a Dutch colony. He asked us about our time in Amsterdam and what our favorite parts of the city had been. He then insisted that we try some of his oregano tea that he had brought back from Curacao. I was a bit skeptical at first because the leaves looked a bit suspicious and we were in Amsterdam after all, but our host refused to take "no" for an answer. It was actually sweet and similar to a mild green tea. We thanked him for letting us stay in his home for the past several nights and then went to bed for a few short hours of sleep before we needed to get to the airport.
Sunday, November 21st, 2012
We slept for about 3 hours, left the apartment at about 3 am, and then walked to the train terminal. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to get checked in for the first leg of our flight from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, Germany. It took just an hour to get to Germany and then the nightmare began!
We had a few Euros left over, so we bought German sausages for breakfast. We didn't know it at the time, but this would be our only food for over ten hours. We were supposed to have a short layover of about 1.5 hours, so we attempted to get seats by each other for the long flight across the Atlantic to Toronto, Canada. We were able to get our seats switched, but then we watched the clock and realized as the minutes passed that there was no way that our flight would be leaving on time. After an hour of no information from the Air Canada staff, we went to the desk to see if they could give us any answers. We had a two hour layover in Toronto, but we began to realize that even with the long layover, this delay was going to be longer and that we were going to miss that flight back to Minneapolis. We attempted repeatedly to get our flight changed to fly into a different airport, so that we could still get home that night; however, we were continually told that there was nothing they could do until we got into Toronto. We did our best to communicate with our parents so they would not worry and so that my parents would not make the trip to the MSP airport only to find us not there. Meanwhile, after delaying the flight for four hours, Air Canada finally cancelled the flight due to mechanical issues. This stranded between 350-400 people in Germany with no way home and incompetent Air Canada staff to "help" them.
We noticed that the other 300ish passengers were waiting in massive lines at our gate, so we decided to try a different Air Canada gate to try to get back to North America that night. We found that they had a flight to Chicago that left in an hour, so we talked to the staff at this other gate and asked if they could help. They were happy to help and asked us to stand to the side and that they would call us when the arrangements had been made. By this point, other passengers from our original flight had formed a line here, and as it began nearing the departure time of the Chicago flight, I got the attention of an Air Canada employee and asked him to check the status of our tickets since it had been a half hour. He said that they weren't able to get us on, so we headed to a different "help" desk. There was only a line of about twenty people, so we thought we would still have a chance of getting out of the country that day; however, it took the staff 20-40 minutes per passenger and there were only two employees there. Other passengers began to trickle in from the initial gate after about an hour because they needed that space for a different flight. Things began to get ugly as these passengers felt that their time waiting downstairs should be rewarded with cutting to the front of the line. I'm sure the last people were in line for many, many hours after we were done.
When we finally got to the desk, we came face to face with an employee who we had spoken to during the initial four hour delay. At the time, she had said that she couldn't help us and that this was outside of her job, but now we were supposed to trust her with getting us home. Her initial suggestion was that we take a flight to San Francisco and then wait in that airport for six hours before we could catch a flight home. I'm not sure if she is familiar with U.S. geography, but this would have taken us 4-5 hours in the wrong direction and then included a miserable six hour layover. Our second option was to stay overnight in Frankfurt, where they would pay for our hotel, lunch (even though it was already 5 PM) and dinner. With the first option, Air Canada would have given us no reimbursement for food, beverage, or inconvenience and we would have gotten home only one hour earlier after having slept only in the plane and airport. We chose to stay in Frankfurt where we got a warm shower and a comfortable bed. We combined our lunch and dinner vouchers and had a delicious and expensive supper, which was still poor consolation for getting home 36 hours late. The wonderful staff at the hotel did, however, make our one night in Germany as nice as possible. I wonder if they are used to having disgruntled Air Canada passengers as guests?
Probably the most frustrating part of the whole ordeal happened as our new tickets were finally getting printed. They were having trouble getting them to print and asked if we had already switched into a flight to Chicago. They wanted to know why we hadn't just gotten on that flight! We were so angry that they had, in fact, gotten us tickets for that flight, but had neglected to inform us about it. We were so close to getting home that night after all the walking, talking, and research that we had done during the four hour delay and the initial period after the cancellation.
With all of the waiting in lines that we did that day with our fellow passengers, we learned a lot about Air Canada, and we will never fly with them again! First of all, the lack of flight vouchers, food coupons, information and simple apologies following their repeated delays and eventual cancellation shows their lack of concern for their customers. The incompetence of their staff during the delays and cancellation would have been understandable except that they are known for delays and cancelled flights, so their staff should all be well-experienced with how to handle these types of problems. Also, we learned from other passengers that Air Canada repeatedly cancels partially full flights and reschedules passengers onto later flights until they have a full flight even if this means that passengers have multiple flights canceled or overnight delays. We flew Air Canada because it saved us $200 per ticket, but given the likelihood of delays and lack of customer service, even this amount of money did not make the nightmare worthwhile.
We did eventually make it home the next day via JFK airport in New York (complete with a four hour layover) and then on to Minneapolis where my parents were patiently waiting for us at 9 PM. We were all a little tired at work the next day, but it felt so good to be home!
