European Adventure Part 1

Ok, it's about time I write about the wonderful European Adventure we had earlier this month (sorry this is so late, I've been busy!) It's going to have to be in Parts because there's no way I can sit down and write about the whole thing in one night...

My sister, parents and I all met in Minneapolis to catch our flight to Amsterdam. Everything seemed to be going fine. Jenn and I picked my parents up from their gate and escorted them to the next gate. We were a little bit tight on time, so we did a lot of fast-walking. When we got to the gate, we were told that the plane was coming from the hanger. Ok, makes sense. Half an hour later, the plane was STILL coming from the hanger (or the haner like the Delta lady said...) An hour later, the plane was STILL coming from the hanger. Really? The hanger must have been a long ways away. Once the plane arrived, the boarded first class then had to close the jetway because a flight (50 passenger flight) was arriving from Canada and they can't have two international doors open at once. More waiting... Finally got onto the plane, took some prescription sleep medicine and didn't wake up for 7 hours! We got into Amsterdam and found out we had missed our connection to Munich. Of course, that weekend being the first day of European holiday, all flights were sold out to Munich. So, they re-routed us through Paris.. yes PARIS to the west, when we were trying to fly east. Didn't make much sense. But, the flight to Paris didn't leave for some 6 hours. We found a tour desk in the airport and ended up doing a quick city tour of Amsterdam. We started with a cheese/wooden shoe factory tour (who thought of putting those two together). Then we headed to see a windmill and downtown Amsterdam and all the canals (or as our guide pronounced it kennels - very confusing at first...) We saw the Ann Frank house and some interesting sites then headed back to the airport. We got on the flight to Paris and arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport on time. However, we were hurrying because we had to go out of security then go back through security. My dad was the last one in line and they told him they found a knife in his bag. He told them that he had no knife, but the guy insisted and re-ran the bag through the x-ray machine. Again, he said my dad had a knife. So, the French security guard, who was not too patient with Americans nor the 80 degree airport with no A/C dug through my dads bag. Low and behold, he pulled out a knife! I started laughing uncontrollably because the day had been so ridiculous already.

Ok, so now the story about how my dad, a savvy traveler had a knife in his bag. The first thing my sister and I noticed was that it was a metal silverware knife. Jenn asked how he got a metal knife since they only give you plastic ones in coach on the airplane. Well, come to find out, my parents were upgraded to first class on their first flight. Busted! They weren't going to tell us! :) But, their cover was blown with the metal knife in the bag because during the food service, my dad knocked over a tray and the knife ended up in his bag.

Anyways, it was a long day but we made it to Munich that night. More to come on that later though.

Here are some pictures from Amsterdam