Atlanta to Amsterdam

Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
 Atlanta to Amsterdam
Since we had a few hours layover in Atlanta, we walked the airport for about an hour for some exercise before deciding on a place to eat. After dinner we walked a bit more and then headed over to Terminal F – the international terminal. We’ll be traveling 3184 miles (5617 km) from Atlanta to Amsterdam.
We boarded flight Delta flight #9375 and took off at the scheduled time of 10:30m pm. I am surprised to see how much of the flight will be overland.  I assumed we’d jump out from Atlanta, hit the Atlantic Ocean and be over water most of the trip.  But instead, we head northeast up the US coastline passing over Greensboro and Charlotte, NC, then proceeding up the east coast flying over Washington D.C., New York, and Boston. Then we cross into Canadian airspace flying over Fredericton in Newfoundland. Finally we cross some water – the Gulf of St. Lawrence. After passing over the northern tip of Nova Scotia, we will head out over the North Atlantic not seeing land again until crossing Northern Ireland – flying over Belfast, then over Leeds and near Manchester in England, finally over the oil-rich North Sea and into the Netherlands. A total of about seven hours in the air.
I learned from air travel advisor website that when you and you wife travel together on an international flight, try to obtain seats in the part of the plane that has three seats leading over to a window – in other words, an aisle seat, a middle seat, and a window seat. Book the aisle seat and the window seat, leaving the middle seat open. Middle seats are the least desirable and last to be booked, so unless the flight is completely full, it may be that the middle seat will stay open and you can stretch out. Thankfully this is exactly what happened! So Pam and I had three seats for the two of us. Nice!
Of course if the middle seat gets booked you can simply trade seats with the person in the middle so you and your wife can sit together. Nobody really wants the middle seat and in all likelihood will be happy to take the aisle or window seat. If the person insists on a middle seat, something is mildly wrong with them and you should request new seats in a different row far away from this person!!  :)  Our extra space made the flight quite comfortable – as comfortable as is possible while sitting in the same spot for seven hours and staying up all night! I dozed on and off and Pam slept only a little. For some reason she finds it very difficult to sleep on a plane. So we’ll look forward to a solid night’s sleep once in Ghana. Schiphol Airport in a modern and well organized – and extremely busy! The Dutch really have it down well. Since we had eaten twice on the flight over, we stopped and got a Starbucks coffee (how American, right?). We had more than a two hour layover here, so we did some exploring and found many interesting things there. The airport has a small museum featuring the paintings of some of the Dutch masters. They have a small science exhibit with interesting displays especially for children – which is why I liked them so much! They also have a library where you can check out a book and return it the next time you come through Schiphol. Near the books is a small café that features giant delft teacups as seating booths. (Anyone remember “The Mad Hatter” ride in Disneyland. Didn’t you ride in teacups there??)  After wandering like sleep-deprived tourists (which we were!) we headed over to our gate. And got in line with the other 400 or so boarding the 747-700 header for Accra. It seemed like most all the whites boarding were heading over for some type of service project or mission trip and all the Ghanaian’s were carrying thing back to their friends and family back home. The kind man in line behind, carrying a load of gifts, said the first thing his family asks when he arrives is “What did you bring me?”  It takes us about an hour to board, and then we are ready to take to the air for Africa!
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