I’m at Schiphol. I survived! Mind you I expect to get very ill, because the guys on each side of me coughed and sneezed all over me for 10 hours.
I like the airbus though. There’s a nice little passage in the back where if things are quiet you can stand and exercise and stretch. I did that twice.
Glad you survived that flight!
I hope the coughs and sneezes were allergic reactions–or that your immune system will rout the germs. (Nothing infuriates me more than being coughed at. I have asthma–catching cold is not a minor thing.)
Welcome to our socialist hellhole, where gays have been able to marry for years, and yet somehow the airport still functions.
I was thinking that a mask might be a real handy item to have on a long aeroplane journey. Hope you don’t suffer severe jet lag on top of deprivation of sleep. Hopefully an Irish hot toddy or some such, will soon sort you out, somewhat, when you arrive on Irish soil.
I won’t complain about my hour’s drive and 55 minute flight then. I hope you don’t have too long to wait.
You get from Seattle to Dublin by way of the Netherlands? Isn’t that a bit of an overshoot? Airline routing is weird (I assume they didn’t go the other way ’round).
@5: Schiphol is a massive hub – huge international transit area there. I think it’s more efficient to bring people to these hub airports and then distribute them more locally.
@6: Ah, kind of like the O’Hare of Europe, then.
It just seemed sort of odd, since most of the times I’ve flown to England, I’ve gone direct from eastern Canada to Manchester or Heathrow. Except for the first time I can recall , when we touched down in Shannon (yes, I’m just old enough to remember when planes couldn’t make it all the way across without refuelling in Gander and Shannon). Which is the only time I’ve been Ireland (“in”, not “to” — if you never leave the airport, you weren’t really there).
@7: Heathrow is a hub airport too, so if you come from the US or Canada and the UK is your final destination, there’s a good chance you can find a direct flight there. When flying to Dublin, it may well be there are no direct flights from Seattle, though, and then you probably have to choose between a stopover in New York, London or Amsterdam. Depending on prices and gaps between connecting flights, either one might come out on top.
There are definitely direct flights from Chicago to Dublin, since I was on one.
Unfortunately, it looks like Rebecca Watson is a victim of airline weirdness — she’s had flights juggled and canceled and finally, her ticket canceled by the French (she was going through Paris? I don’t understand and don’t know all the details), and it seems she won’t be here for the conference.
It’s all Rebec…wait, that formula doesn’t work here. Who shall we blame now?
It must be Ophelia’s fault.
Welcome to my neck of the woods, Ophelia, even if it’s just a layover.
I got the most thorough testicular cancer exam of my life at Schiphol back in ’99 when my belt buckle set off the metal detector.
[Salutes French Brave Heroes]
Seriously, that’s super shitty.
Oh, airline weirdness – Jane said a storm, and I wondered what storm but was too jet-lagged to get the words out.
Hm, I thought she was merely delayed and wouldn’t arrive until Saturday morning?
I overheard Mick Nugent saying Rebecca would most likely not be here.
Marie-Therese’s suggestion @#3 of a mask is an excellent one. A week ago in Vancouver I picked up a hell of a virus, which became half-blown on the flight next day to Tokyo, (and then full-blown by the time I arrived in Sydney, though the authorities in Tokyo decided against sticking me into quarantine.)
The staff of JAL could not have been more helpful, and supplied a mask at my request. Not very useful for protection against picking a virus up, but an excellent measure IMHO against further spread once you have got it.
Omar @ 16
That’s why Japanese people wear them, iirc: They’re being thoughtful, not worried (which is sometimes assumed).
Eamon @ 7
I’ve twice been to meetings at the Lufthansa training centre at Frankfurt airport, each time staying in the airport hotel, and thus never actually leaving the airport before returning to the UK.
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