Throwback: Schiphol Stopover and Arrival in London (December 2014)

Goedemorgen Schiphol

Our flight KLM 810 departed around 11.50pm from KLIA and arrived Schiphol, Amsterdam around 6.00am the next day. The flight was ok, the usual screen and watched movie before I was asleep. The terminal was under major renovation. But clean too! Renovated areas were sealed with plastic and everywhere you would see some sort of vacuum machine at these areas. Clean as you go, must be their motto.

The first thing we did after disembarking? 

Toilet! 

No water hose? Alamak (Oh no!!) Now to put theory into practise. Tq Madam for the instructions.

Great marketing tool. Brilliant, just brilliant.
In case you were wondering, NO, I did not buy any.

Our connecting flight to London was in 2hrs. So we decided to do some window shopping in the airport.

Ben and Fay in action, window shopping!

snap..snap.. Picture taken in front of
a huge souvenir store

The children were in good spirits. The usual smile from Ben, and ever loyal Fay followed his brother everywhere he went. Of course the body guard, moi (me) hovering over both of them. At the same time answering Ben's incessant question about the airport, KLM and Netherlands. Thanks to the habit of reading about the location I am going or visiting. I can say I passed with flying colours! You can ask Madam. In this family, I am the walking Wikipedia. 

Fay saw a McDonald's on the mezzanine floor and off we went. The view of the terminal was better here. And... 

Two biggest thing about the Dutch are cheese and tulips

Hmmmmm...

I was hoping to snap some 'nice' (hot) pictures of the salesperson of Victoria's Secret. But all were decent...damn these winter! Oh well, back to the children then. There was a small area for children and they were happy to play. At 6plus? Seriously?

I can see you!!!

Jungle Gym

Time to go! Hurry kids! (actually we had lots of time). But we..ahem..me, I prefer to be extra early. The waiting area  for us was small. Must be because our next flight to London is on a Boeing 737-800 (180 pax ?)

The amount of traffic Shiphol handles is a lot! You would see queue on the taxiway. A B747 Cargo taking off. An Aer Lingus landed and exiting the runway (picture below). Hustle and bustle of activities quite close to the terminal was awesome! 

Get in line, please!

We took a KLM flight to London. Flight time was about an hour, I think. Sat beside a Russian businessman on Blackberry. Must be very busy because he was on the phone until the moment we were about to take off. 

KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. It is the oldest airline in the world still operating and operating under its original name (wiki). wow! 

But, I have to say this...when we say 'stewardess', we imagine...young, pretty face, curvaceous body and lustrous lips. How wrong was I. It was the total opposite but they carry themselves very well. These must be the seniors. Let me rephrase that, super seniors. Still, they carry their duty with alacrity beyond their age. 

Sunrise! 

Landed at Heathrow around 8 or 9am maybe, and it was a long taxi to the terminal. As soon as we exited the skybridge, we were greeted by the Police K9 team. The dogs were sniffing the bags and I witnessed, in front of my eyes the dogs suddenly became agitated. The man was taken aside for questioning. Only Allah knows what happened to him. 

We patiently waited for our turn at the customs. Answering the occasional questions like our final destination?, where will be staying while in London?, date of departure? etc. It was circuitous to get to our baggage, but finally...

Arrived!!

Reunited with my dad (Abah) arrived weeks earlier

Happy to be back, although many many years after the first visit. I am thankful nevertheless, that I am finally here in London. Things certainly looking very much my way. Ma'am (that is the Queen of England), it is great to be back! See you in Buckingham!

Me and Abah

Madam's mom and cucus (grandchildren)

The gracious host, Fikri and Zuhaira

Off to Shepherds Bush by Underground first, and by bus. A lot to catch up with my sister and her husband. I wonder what our schedule in London would be. 

(note: some pictures I posted were of different quality, hence the difference in size)