Mosaic Monday #50: A Whirlwind

Fluffy rabbits at Amsterdam

airport

Dateline: October 16.  Durham Tees Valley Airport. Waiting for our flight to Hamburg*.

A little dizzy.  That's the best description of my feeling at the moment.  Maybe it's the strong coffee I'm imbibing, but I think it has more to do with four countries and four airports in as many days.  I haven't completely adjusted to the time zone and the new rhythm of the days.  Trust me, I am not complaining - we've had a smooth journey so far.

On October 13, the full moon cast the only light at the early hour of 6 a.m., as we navigated the silver thread of road in our neighborhood. The Toyota GPS predicted a travel time to Calgary of 6 hours and 37 minutes.  Well, that was a concerning moment - we had planned on five and a half hours.

I will cut to the chase and tell you that we made good time, even with two comfort stops.  At that hour, we were the only car crossing into Canada, and we passed through quickly despite a slightly grumpy Canadian border agent (I suppose I would also be annoyed to get out of my chair at 7 a.m.)

The drive from the border to Calgary traverses the Rocky Mountain range, and with the early snowfall in British Columbia and Alberta, the scenery was stunning.  Every few miles, we would say "We need to come back here."

Near Fernie, we saw 60 elk in a field along the Elk River.  Amazing.  A bit further on, Crowsnest Pass wowed us with alpine lakes lapping closely on either side of the highway.

As we descended toward Calgary, the scenery transformed to prairie and soon enough we had parked the car at the Hilton Garden Inn.  (Through friends, we learned of way.com, which offers discount parking at hotels - what a novel idea.  We will be staying at the Hilton upon our return to Calgary.  And in case you're wondering why we would fly from Calgary, it's simple - tickets were half what we would have paid flying from Montana!)

In no time we had checked in with KLM and were enjoying a late lunch at Vin Restaurant.  (We also watched the Cleveland Browns play the Seattle Seahawks - not so enjoyable with a loss, 32 to 28.)  So glad the Coconut Curry Soup was outstanding!

Our flight to Amsterdam was slightly over 8 hours, which "flew" by quickly, courtesy of a couple of movies (I watched "Rocketman" and "The Mule"), a meal and some napping.  

We occupied the four-hour layover with walking (who wants to sit after 8 hours in a narrow airplane seat?) and window shopping.   This was not our first time to Schiphol Airport; despite its size, I love it.   You can stroll for miles, it offers a plethora of unique shops, and you can still locate a corner or two with peaceful serenity. 

Cheese, anyone?

Left: Tulips, Middle: Robot welcomes you to the store

Upper right: HUGE amaryllis bulb; Lower right: Dutch blue pottery

I slept through much of the hour-long flight to Newcastle, but awoke in time to see the green patchwork of fields rising to meet us.   Was it tears suddenly blurring the view?  No, I'm sure it was just some wispy clouds! 

  *We were with my in-laws for a day and a half and now we are in Hamburg.  More to come from the UK and Germany!

Mosaic Monday

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