Thanks for reading my journey to the Netherlands. To see how it all began read here first. So, here we go: Our first part is from Iowa to Chicago to Iceland. I wish the picture above we could’ve seen during our visit in Iceland. This is what happened instead:
The time had come. Blue Fish staff has worked hard and now we’re on our way to explore Amsterdam for a week.
It is really excited for me too, because first of all I’m going on a trip WITHOUT my kiddo’s and my husband and that is going to be very strange to be in the Netherlands without them. Second, I’m going to be there with people I work with. How will they react on those quirky Dutch things. We shall see!!! First stop: Chicago, second stop: Iceland and third: Amsterdam.
Wednesday January 10: Road trip to Chicago.
Everything is packed. I have one big suitcase mainly filled with presents and clothes for my nephews and a backpack. The kids are getting ready to go to school. I made sure I put my contact information and a schedule about who is doing what and when, on our refrigerator at home. Are they going to survive without me? I’m such a control freak!
My husband wanted to bring us to the airport in our van (yay for vans!). Mainly because he also wanted to be part of our journey! We picked 4 other employees up and met at the Blue Fish company. Everyone was there and off we went, the 8 of us. The trip was easy, even though there were several areas of fog (and dirty wind shields).
We had lunch in a town, we visited a few years ago with our family. It seems that Annawan in Illinois has some Belgian influences, which we found out by visiting the library and heard about the World Rolle Bolle Tournament.
Chicago Airport
We made it on time at the O’Hare airport in Chicago. I wished my husband “good luck”. It is not going to be easy for him. “Kiss and Fly”, we’ll stay connected by texts and FaceTime. We talked to the phone provider and added 100 texts and 100 minutes extra for using the phone outside of the US. Let’s hope that is going to be enough.
The check-in and security went smooth. I checked-in online the day before at home. We looked at stuff in the tax free zone and bought some water. A fountain with filtered water was right behind the store where I just bought a $5 bottle of water. Ugh…next time…!
Time to board. There is not much room on the Iceland Air flight.
So, here is the scoop with Iceland Air and many discount airlines. Be sure if you buy a ticket, you know what you buy. To reach customer service is not easy. You have to wait a long time, sometimes being cut off as well, but once in a while you’ll find an awesome person on the other end who will help you and you’ll get the answers you’re looking for. I started with Economy Light, but no suitcase to check in with this one. Then I upgraded to Economy Standard, but still no food. That was alright, because our plane was leaving at 6:30 PM, so theoretically I could eat something at the airport. I didn’t, because I was still full from lunch.
I decided to rest during the 5,5 hour flight to Keflavik, Iceland. Just closed my eyes, no movies, no reading books. No screaming kids….just peace and silence!
Thursday January 11: Iceland
Iceland flight attendants are a little cold. Maybe I’m biased having the over-friendly Americans around me. But even the people at the airport, the young, hip guys at the Juice Bar and the guy at the information desk, they were not very friendly or helpful.
Then I realized something… the sun was not coming up before 11 AM. Can you imagine, just having a few hours a day, daylight? It might affect the mood maybe or it is just in their culture?
Everything looked like it was coming from an IKEA magazine. It was nice, cozy, clean and functional. We found our shuttle and headed to our B&B. It started to rain and the wind was picking up.
The big storm.
At the airport we had to make a decision: What are we going to do in the afternoon? The decision was quickly made at the car rental when we found out there was a huge storm coming and the roads were going to be very icy. No sightseeing Keflavik or Reykjavik on this trip!
We stayed at our B&B for the afternoon, taking a short nap. It was light when I woke up. It was close to 3 PM. More people were hungry, but what to do? The winds were a whopping 85 mph. Across from the parking lot was a good restaurant and we decided to bundle up and try to walk to the restaurant in the icy rain and winds. Two people slipped and fell on the parking lot, and I was one of them. Luckily nothing serious, but I’ve never experienced winds like this.
Fun Fact: Iceland is #3 of countries with the strongest winds. #1 and #2 have almost no population.
We sat down and ate fish and chips. Pretty expensive, but a good meal. I was noticing that I was only eating one meal a day and I was fine with it. I drank a lot of water during the flight to hopefully fight the jet lag.
Fighting back in those strong winds, we made it back to the B&B room, took a shower, had a beer and watched some television. I went to bed at 8 PM. I did not fall asleep….at all!
I’ll see you all tomorrow for the next part of the trip to Amsterdam! Part 2.
Hello everyone,
Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.