Last Day

What a night Ben and I had. Well mostly him.

I woke up around 1 am with Ben making a noise and I asked him if he was ok. I think I’m going to be sick and do t think can reach the bathroom in time. The balcony was next to him so he pushed open the door and was sick there, twice in quick succession.

He came back in shivering so I put him in bed with the duvet and a blanket on top and I went in search of something to clear up the sickness. There was quite a large bin at the end of our room so I filled that with hot water from the kitchen and threw it from the floor to scoosh the sick over the balcony. There was a flat roof below and it made some racket and I had to do this twice. It cleared it all off thankfully.

Put the bucket next to him in case of more (a little) and then we settled back to sleep. But then I heard this loud snoring and thought it was Ben and then after asking him and him saying no realised it was from the room next to us, which had a change of guests. I banged my hand on the wall loudly. No change. Hand to bang it four more times before the guy wakened and changed his position (probably on back with his mouth wide open). Imagine sleeping next to him (or not as the case may be). I think I’d have divorced him if had to endure that every night.

We hadn’t to get up early this morning as it was our leaving day so had an easy time , apart from cleaning the floor on the balcony a bit more. I tried to look at the flat roof but couldn’t manage due to the structure of the balcony.

We packed up (it’s not a long task when you travel with an underseat bag). At 9:55 Petra arrived from her home upstairs and we had quite a chat. She’s my age and hasn’t any grandchildren as said it was very special that you go on holiday with your grandson. She has a daughter age 32 in London and a son still living with her as he cannot get a property in Amsterdam due to being priced out of the market and renting very difficult due to the airbnb scenario. She said it’s about 50/50 with holidays rentals and homes for people living permanent. She also said there are 18M people living in the Netherlands. I looked this up and it’s the most densely populated country in Europe followed closely by England.

She said we could leave our rucksacks there and also take the key and just leave it when we come back. Our flight wasn’t till 20:45 so this was a great help. I thought I was going to have to get a Bounce place in the city.

We went round the corner to a little restaurant called Oslo and Ben had yogurt and fruit and I had a coffee and pastry. We thought we would have a wander round Nine Streets, my favourite part with the pretty and quieter canals with the lovely bridges. It was a beautiful sunny day. We were so lucky with the weather, I know there is the possibility of rain a lot there so having dry days was fab. Rain makes me miserable, unless I’m all togged up like at home .

We got back to Petra’s around 3. Tram to Central then Got a train ticket for Schipol. Amazing airport. I like how it’s all under one roof even although it has 6 runways. EasyJet was at Departure area 3. I had downloaded the App for Schipol airport and in the app you can book a security time (free of charge), like our Speedy Boarding at Edinburgh but without the 6.99 charge). It worked well. There were four people and us. Very pleasant staff. All was well the bags went through without any pulling aside.

We got a good seat with charging point facing one of the runways. Ben had a toasty but I wasn’t hungry. I noticed also the app had an offer for €5 euro off if you spent 25€. I spotted a thermos Dopper bottle and 3 big Milka choc bars for 15 euro so I bought these.

Plane left 5 mins late and we arrived back I. Edinburgh to the rain - boo!!!

Of course the relative ease of a well run airport went out the window on arrival at Border Control in Edinburgh. Totally inadequate space for the number of flights arriving. It was full to bursting and we snaked up and down up and down for 30 mins. I felt sorry for a young family ahead of me that arrived at the passport machines. Border force person ‘oh you are a family’ please go to the officer behind the desk where there was yet another big queue…. Yep, the person herding us in hadn’t directed them there in the first instance so they had to queue twice!

S was waiting for us at pick up/drop off point and home we went. Dropped Ben off
, chat with L and D and then home to toast and banana and very soon afterwards my bed with hot water bottles (plural) .