A pretty relaxed affair leaving the Jing, saying good bye to Misha Deux, and organising her daily visit from the cat sitter….
A typical wait on the runaway that one experinces here in China ( only 35mins) and then off to Amsterdam , for the first leg of what should be a decent vacation hiking in Peru to Machu Picchu via Soraypampa, Huayraccmachy, Collpapampa, Lucumabamba and Aguas Calientes …. followed by a cruise down the Amazon.
However about an hour out of Amsterdam , was the first sign of the warnings … from the captain the following messgae was broad casted “passengers flying on from Amsterdam to London and other european desinations were advised to contact ground handlers and Amsterdam airport was shutting down at 7pm….” in fact we did not understand it in english, it was only when it was further annouced in mandarin did we understand what was happening. Our first thoughts we a terrorist incident but on speaking to one of the cabin crew we were told , in a misture of english and madarin ( this is bizzare as we are on a KLM aircraft) that there was a volcanic erruption and aircraft can not fly through such things as ash ..
As we were overnighting in Amsterdam we did not worry, our baggage was checked through to Lima and so with small back pack off we went to our “overnight” hotel.
It was the at the hotel and listening to the news that finally we realised our “overnight” hotel may not just be an overnight stop.