The layover

Where I am in the world at this moment (Amsterdam airport) it is Tuesday morning, July 23, just after 9 a.m. I left Boston at 7 p.m. last night and made the flight here without a single issue.

My plan, since I had been up since 2:30 a.m. Monday morning to do the baking shift, was to fall asleep on the plane and sleep for much of the flight. The first hour I listened to a podcast and ate the dinner that the flight crew provided and then fell asleep for a little bit. My old age need to go to the bathroom woke me up a few hours later and it was a struggle to get back to sleep as my allergies seemed to take over.

That being said, I traditionally run on very little sleep, so I am not terribly worried about that at the moment. 

I got off the plane in Amsterdam and was able to work my way through the passport line (the first stamp on my new passport) and found my way to my connecting gate. A little food and a water later and I took a few minutes at the gate to write up a little update for the folks back home.

As I write this, I know my YumYum Shop coworkers are getting ready to go to the bakery for the early morning shift. Although it would be my day off anyway, I still know the feeling of heading to the bakery without a ton of sleep. 

The layover here is about three hours and then it's a quick hour and a half flight from here to Paris, arriving a little after noon in the French capital (after 6 a.m. back home). I imagine there will be a process in the airport once I get there (though not nearly as thorough and intense as the COVID-protocol-laced Tokyo and Beijing processes).

My friend Bob Tuttle, who has family in the Netherlands, told me that the Amsterdam airport was huge. He wasn't wrong. It is a massive place, but I've found my way around easily enough so far. This may very well be the only time in my life I find myself here, but at least I know I can find my way around if necessary.

Next update should come from somewhere in Paris.


The Amsterdam airport is a pretty big place, but I've found my way where I need to go so far.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

That. Was. Not. Fun.

Image
The idea was impressive. The thinking was outside of the box. The work that was put in was impressive. And the final result surely looked amazing on television. But the execution? That left a lot to be desired, at least on the part of members of the media that were there to cover the unique Opening Ceremony that the Paris organizers planned. As most people probably know, the Paris 2024 organizers decided to bring the Opening Ceremony out of the stadium and have the athletes float along the River Seine through the center of Paris, with various performances happening along the banks and a final ceremony at the Trocadero near the Eiffel Tower. The plan was fantastic. First and foremost, the organizers did not have any transportation planned for the media who were not at the Trocadero. Those who were there had buses leaving from the Main Press Center and International Broadcasting Center to deliver them to that location amidst all of the security closures. The rest of the press was asked t
Read more

A quick Opening Ceremony update

Image
Well, after more than an hour of walking, I reached the location where my ticket said I could be for the Opening Ceremony.  Yes, I walked an hour. There was the option of taking the subway, but I thought I might see more if I took the walking tour of Paris. From the media center, the walk brought me down past the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs Elysees and eventually to the Louvre, where my entrance is supposed to be. I saw all those places when I was here in 2002, but it had been a long time. I am pretty sure there was no Five Guys on the Champs Elysees when I was here back then. However, once I got to the gate location, there was no gate. My guess is it will be opening up shortly, but right now there is just a lot of barricades and guys with guns. For now, I am sitting along the Seine waiting for the chance to get in... And of course it is starting to rain. More updates to come.  The Opening Ceremony is coming.
Read more

One day, one venue

Image
I have made a habit over my time covering the Olympics to try and get to lots of different events and venues. Most of the time that involves going from venue to venue in a single day. Yesterday I was at rowing, then on to soccer and then finished up at track. Rarely does it happen that I spend one day in one venue. Today, however, was that day. I woke up wanting to head to the Stade de France for some track action. I wanted to see Gabby Douglas compete in the first round of the 200 meters. My hope was to get a quote or two from Gabby after the competition to send to my former colleague, Jeff Lajoie, who works for a paper in her hometown area of Massachusetts. I made my way down to the press mixed zone, where athletes come through after their events to talk to the media. However, Gabby walked right through the mixed zone without talking to anyone (she did do a TV interview in the broadcast mixed zone), so I left without a quote, which was kind of a bummer. My original plan was to possib
Read more