After attempting (and failing) to go on this trip to the Netherlands and Belgium last December (stupid rona), the Nethergium trip has returned, and accidentally during tulip time! Neat. This trip was timed entirely by flight deals and past data on the general end of respiratory virus season – and it paid off, because as of like three days ago, the Netherlands dropped basically all of its covid restrictions. Yeehaw. Lucky us.
This also meant that the travel guidance we could was all over the place. After losing so many trips to the rona, I was too chicken to risk canceling our covid test, so we did that anyway.
Didn’t need it.
The Netherlands require you to fill in a health declaration PDF and present it to …. someone on arrival. Delta’s app either asked for this or didn’t – no rhyme or reason.
Didn’t need that, either.
Bad app UI or thirsty app cache aside, Delta had their crap together and most of the forms we needed to provide were done for us based on information we provided in the check-in process. Technology: it sometimes works. I guess I will take all these screenshots of my test results and health declaration forms and gently put them in my digital trash.
Related to covid, we had made basically zero plans for this trip, besides decided on where we’d be staying. Planning around covid craziness is tiring so we’re just winging it based on weather and whatever we feel like. This is decidedly less organized than I like to be, but I’m ok with it this time.
But my peak trip organization ability was not forgotten: Checklists. I remembered Foohoosia for this trip!
To start things off right, the plane started smelling distinctively Very Burny after they turned on the air conditioning on the tarmac. We got to sit there for thirty minutes while they fixed it, and then we were off: taking off into 50MPH wind gusts. So lurchy. Barf (almost). But hey – the burny smell never came back, so that’s a thing we can all be grateful for.
I can never sleep on the way over to Europe, and doubly so this time because the flight landed only slightly later than my bedtime. Instead of catching up on neglected movies, I watched the entire Star Wars original trilogy and Encanto.
But for all my efforts, I won a rona travel pro tip: wear over-ear headphones and use them to stick your mask to your face instead of looping your ask behind your ears. Bam – no ear pain. Genius.
At last: Schiphol.
Organized. More than one person doing passport control (Iceland, get it together). Easy.
Surprisingly but also not, our longest line of the day was the rental car line, where we waited forever (an hour) as one person slowly dealt with five people in front of us….two of the five of the wanting to barter for an upgrade (bros why). I’m really glad we rented an EV – gas is about $10 a gallon here, and it’s only set to increase in the next few days. I assume this is because Biden was recently here so he could personally raise the gas prices himself, as he does in the States.
Our first home for a few nights is Delft! It’s a charming little canal town about 30 minutes south of Schiphol. After a brief landing nap, we grabbed groceries and set out to both find SIM cards and walk around the old town in a caffeine-powered fugue state. I didn’t have the brains to go in and explore any buildings, but there are lots of nice little streets to walk down and explore.
Before pictures, here are my jet lag-fueled musings about Delft:
- How often do the cars fall into the canals because they park very close to the edge, often perfectly situated between trees?
- Why did I underestimate the sheer amount of birds I would see on this trip? Kind of sad I left my zoomy lens home.
- If you were a giant, it would not feel good to step on Delft. It is a little pokey.
- There are so many small round doors. I feel giant (not too big as to step on Delft).
- Why aren’t the canals smelly? Is it because the cars do not fall into them?
- There are so many cool old doors!
- Altogether too few stray cats to pet (or not)
- Where are the Italian tourists that were literally everywhere in Iceland?
I may google these answers later (except I expect to find Italians without googling).
This is perhaps my most favorite picture, as it encapsulates the fact that the Old Church is Most Definitely Leaning Over, and how cray the parking is along the canals.
We returned to our ABB after acquiring tonkotsu ramen (as you do when you are in Europe, naturally) to cook at home. I have filled up on garbage sweet foods today. It was wonderful, and I was only hungry enough to swipe one ramen egg. As our lodgings lack bowls but have many pots, ramen was eaten straight out of the pots, like some kind of college goblins.
Perfect!
Tomorrow we are going to probably go to the Hague and perhaps Leiden. Or a beach. I don’t know!