After yesterdays “discussions” with the Head of Baggage (Schiphol Sunday evening shift), we set forth to retrieve our luggage. Queues at Amsterdam Central station were out of the door, with people attempting to buy tickets to just about anywhere. Announcements over the tannoy system “We are sorry for the untidiness of the station this is due to the cleaning company being on strike so the station is not as beautiful as it should be”. Being told that it was impossible to buy a railway ticket with notes and our credit cards not working , because we don’t have Chip and Pin, we scraped around to find 7.60 Euro. Finally after buying a Starbucks the correct change was found and we boarded the train to Schiphol for the short 15 min ride.
Arriving at the airport, the experience was one of calmness, nowhere was any one worried or rushing, even in the train ticket queue where the 50 or so people lined up to purchase tickets anywhere out of the Netherlands.
On of the railway staff was standing there with a megaphone ..
“ if you wish to travel to France you can buy a ticket here which will be valid for travel tomorrow, we cannot guarantee that you will get a ticket further than Paris as there are strikes in France” A thought flashed through my head , “nothing new there”
“If you wish to travel to Germany, you buy a ticket today for tomorrow, but when you get to the German station, you will find the same problem as here”
“There are no tickets to anywhere today”
Oh well any contingency plans that we had should our flight be cancelled tomorrow, may have to go on hold. So after finding door C16, as directed we were faced with an electric door, a long walk to an official behind a PC screen
After showing our baggage tags from last Thursday a door suddenly opened and there facing us was baggage carousel C14 …… about 20 passengers either looking for their bags or sitting around waiting hopefully and about 20 KLM staff, no Head of Baggage (Sunday Evening Shift) could be seen.
Sitting on the floor around 50 various cases and baggage and right at the front in the middle were one shocking pink and one acrid green North Face duffels, which looked surprisingly like our bags that were not meant to be anywhere in Schiphol. I think Head of Baggage (Sunday Evening Shift) must have spent too much time in a coffee shop, because in a sea of black luggage these bags looked like they had been having some mushroom spores…..
So bags liberated we set back to Amsterdam Central where we could buy a ticket from a human, although the price had risen by 1 euro over the space of 90 mins from 7.6 euro to 8.6 euro !!!
On arriving back at the Hotel, Helen immediately broke open her bag to release Private Paddington, from his false imprisonment amongst her undies….
Private Paddington finally sees the light of day
So with retrieved clothes a quick change was in order to freshen up ………..
Mean while
Private Paddington was writing his complaint e mail to the Icelandic PM