We are not used to traveling to and from London in a post Brexit world. Say what you will about the policy, I know that it added some unexpected timeframes to our travels. When we flew into London we were stuck at the airport due to a railway strike on Monday and Wednesday. It worked out that we took the train out Tuesday morning at 8:15AM, luck was on our side!
We made our plans to arrive by 8:00AM to give us plenty of time to grab coffee and biscuits and hop on our train. This was our 2015 experience after all. But the phrase “Oh that trains closed, go over to the ticket desk and they’ll sort you out.” brought us firmly into 2023. I prayed that God would work something out. He helped us in the form of a kind british woman who had mercy on us after gazing upon our sweet tired children. She printed up tickets for us for the 11:04 train, with a table, and told us we’d need to line up 1 hour 45 minutes before our train takes off just to get through the line. Apparently they’ve been reading TSA manuals and figured, everyone loves the TSA, why not?
That being said, it was a blessing to get on the next train, it just us back around 4 hours on our arrival to Amsterdam. It does not help that my bag weighs about 70 pounds and I’m … in the shape that I’m in. We went to a coffee shop, sat down, I worked, the girls tableted and Bethany grab some coffee and treats until we popped in line. The line was massive but to their credit it went pretty quick aside from the leaving UK passport check followed by the entering EU passport check 10 feet later.
The train itself was lovely, no seatbelts, a table, an actual solid travel meal, beautiful view and people who wanted to chat. It took about 5 hours with delays but was overall easy breezy.
We arrived in Amsterdam, popped on another train in about 5 minutes to take us to an area outside Amsterdam called Hilversum where we were to stay above an art gallery, across from a costume store with full on sushi dress and adult size unicorn man costume. Welcome to the Netherlands.
We offloaded our packs, took a deep sigh and headed over to my friend Gayle’s house, a quick 10 minute walk, to meet her 3 month old Ivy and her husband Rob. We had a lovely time, an awesome meal and headed back around 9:15 for bed. Not that bedtime happened, Spencer has not adjusted to the time change yet, but we’re getting there. All in all it was a great day. I don’t imagine we’ll see as much of Amsterdam as we wanted with adjustments and what not, but we plan to see Gayle and her family tomorrow as well so that will be lovely.
Also, here is Gayle’s music
https://open.spotify.com/embed/artist/2NLpPMRaslQ9HDebOlN1Os?utm_source=generator
