On our way, sort of

Steve here. Friday we embarked on our marathon travel for Kaz. I think Terri and I were actually glad to get on the airplane as that meant we could no longer run errands, pack and repack our luggage, or do any of the other small things that conspired against our sanity. Our flight from San Antonio to Minneapolis was uneventful. We met a young lady going home to visit her parents in Wisconsin. I was compelled to make a cheese joke. The great irony was that here parents actually owned a cheese store. We arrived to a toasty –7 degrees… who would have guessed Minneapolis could get so cold? It was so cold, in fact, that our next flight was slightly delayed because the temperature caused the door sensors to show that the doors were not closed properly. At least that was the story they were telling us, and I am going to stick with it. The flight to Amsterdam was nice. We had a little more legroom (although after 8 hours my legs took no comfort in this fact), we could listen to music and got to select from movies on demand. My personal favorite perk was the free booze. We tried to get some semblance of sleep but being hunched over in a coach seat doesn’t make for the most restful slumber.

So everything was going somewhat according to plan. And then we got to Amsterdam. We wearily departed our plane only to go up to the helpful video screens which proceeded to tell us the flight to Kaz was canceled. I think I heard the screen snicker. Never being ones to fully trust technology we discussed these unfolding events with a human. The lady from KLM was incredibly nice, so nice that you didn’t really feel bad when she confirmed that we were indeed going nowhere fast. Apparently, there was a technical problem with the plane, which to me always means an engine is about to fall off. As Almaty is not the most popular destination they did not roll out another airplane to keep us on schedule. The nice people at KLM put us up for the night in the very cool Museum District Hotel and comped us dinner and breakfast. This beats flying a plane with an engine that is going to fall off any day of the week. So Terri and I just got back from taking in the sights of Amsterdam, and in all honesty, I can’t say I am completely broken up by not getting to spend another 8 hours on a plane. There’s always tomorrow, assuming tomorrow they have that technical issue fixed.

Here are some photos from Amsterdam—one is of the street our hotel was on looking down the canal and one just for the dog lovers out there, a sign we passed by while walking around.