July 31 – Leaving on a Jet Plane…Don’t Know When We’ll Be Back Again

32 days, slightly more than 757 hours, 45,430 minutes, 2,725,800 seconds and we are in the air heading back to Nova Scotia.

With the chance of a Westjet strike happening in a couple days, we have been anxiously watching the news to know if we would be successful in returning back as scheduled today but there was not a single issue with getting up in the air on time (other than the long taxi to our runway…I think we went as far away from the airport as possible to take off).

After dropping off the rental car this morning at 9:00am, we had an hour wait before they opened the bag drop time. So we made use of grabbing a few last minute pastries for breakfast at the airport. Even though we can get a lot of these at home, the pastries in Europe are definitely fresher and somehow tastier than home. This could be just the fact that everything tastes better while on vacation.

Next stop, finding our check in desk. The Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is huge but we managed to find the counter again and were in line for when it opened at 10:00am (three hours before we were set to leave). This was another full flight so we ended up checking all but 1 of our carryon bags which made it easier to get through the airport.

Next step, security and passport control. Here we had a time slot booked so we didn’t have to wait in the regular line to get through security but as there was a huge lineup in the passport control area, they ended up closing down the security screening for 20 minutes to clear out the backlog. Once it was reopened, 2 of us (Tori and I) ended up needing a pat down with the other 2 were able to just walk through. As we only had 1 carry on bag (other than our personal items), it was sent to get screened due to a gift we purchased that they wanted to have a better look at.

As we have Canadian passports, we were able to just walk right up to the self scanners, put our passports in and away we went into the gate area. Well it took Patrick and Tori a little longer to figure out how to do it properly but they eventually joined Sable and I on the secure side of the airport.

Next up a little last minute shopping and we were boarding.

As I sit now on the airplane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, I remember all the highs and a few lows of the trip. From the sights we saw to the mess ups we made, I would not change the trip for anything. Now that Patrick is going to be officially retired (as of 4:30pm today), we hope to have more trips like this one…though maybe not as long or as spread out 🙂

To give an idea of what we have done in the last month (and why my total steps were 483,591!)…and I am probably forgetting some of the stuff we did:

  • Amsterdam:
    • Vondel Park
    • NEMO Science Museum
    • Madam Toussads
    • Lego Store
    • Zaandam – Windmills & Wooden Shoes
    • Canal Cruise
  • France
    • Bullet Train from Lille to Paris
    • Eiffel Tower
    • Notre Dame
    • Lourve (outside)
    • Arc de Triomphe
    • Pantheon
    • Vimy Ridge
    • Calais Beach/English Channel
    • Dunkirk Beach
    • Passchendaele Monument
    • Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial
    • National Car Museum (Mulhouse)
    • Montange des Singes (Monkey Mountain)
    • Mulhouse Zoo
    • Colmar
  • Belgium
    • Menin Gate Ceremony
    • Herge Museum
    • Atomium (Brussels)
    • Flanders Field Museum
    • SPA Francorchamp Circuit
  • Germany
    • Lahr tour
    • Baden-Baden area
    • Black Forest/Highway 500
    • Altes Schloss zu Hohenbaden (castle ruins)
    • Burgruine Hohengeroldseck (castle ruins)
    • House of 1000 Clocks
    • Apline Coaster (2 different ones)
    • Triberg
    • Hochburg hei Emmendingen (castle ruins)
    • Gasthaus Eiche restuarant
    • Lahr Stadpark
    • Eisenbach Volksmarche
    • Titisee Lake – Donut Boat
    • Neuschwanstein Castle
    • Triberg Waterfall
    • Freiberg
      • Old McDonalds
      • Schlossbergturm (Castle Hill Tower)
      • Freiberg Münster
    • Europa Park
    • Rulantic Water Park
  • Austria
    • Tree Rope course (Patrick & Sable)
    • UGA Express Chair lift
    • Mallau Gondola
  • Switzerland
    • Paragliding over Interlaken (Esther)
    • Kanderstag
    • Train in car through mountain
    • Subterranean Lake Cruise
    • Mürren
    • Allmendhubel
    • Lauterbrunnen
    • Trimmelbach Falls
    • Grindelwald & Grindelwald First
    • Lake Thun
    • Lake Brienz
    • Fondue Restaurant
    • St Beatus Caves
    • Zurich
    • Stoos Ridge Hike
    • Chapel Bridge
    • Lucerne
    • Lion Monument
    • Pilatus Kulm
    • Swimming in Lake Lucerne
    • Basel Tattoo
    • Rhine Waterfall
  • Liechtenstein
    • Vaduz (Esther & Tori)
      • Postal Museum
      • Treasure Chamber
      • National Museum
      • City Train Tour
      • Covered Bridge between 2 countries
      • Gaflei – Furstensteig – Planken Hike (Patrick & Sable)

What a trip it was!

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