London to Amsterdam

15 November 2011

After a night in Bristol, we joined the morning traffic on the M4 heading for London.  To be fair, the traffic wasn't too busy and in less than two hours we arrived at the Holiday Inn at Heathrow where we were parking the car.

Having sorted out the formalities, we ordered a taxi to take us to the airport.  A swish new Mercedes turned up and whisked us round to Terminal 4 and dumped us at departures.

The usual airport chaos didn't seem to be so evident at T4, especially as most check-in is done on line or on self-service computer terminals.  Seat allocation for the long-haul, which had been an issue, was resolved and we printed out boarding passes for both London to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Quito.  Following a quick coffee, bag check-in all the way to Quito was quickly sorted.  Will our bags turn up in Quito tomorrow? Tune in for the next episode.

The rigours of the security were relatively painlessly endured and there was time for a drink and a snack before our flight.  The terminal was really quiet compared to other times I've been there.

The small, very full,  'City-Hopper' KLM jet took 45 minutes to get us from Heathrow to Schipol Airport, Amsterdam.

We had booked to stay at the Mercure Hotel inside the airport terminal, but it took us some time to actually find the hotel near the 'F' area of the airport.  Rather unusually, this hotel is 'airside' so the choice of food, drink and shopping was pretty good.  The hotel itself, is very quiet and well equipped, but unusually,  none of the rooms have windows!

Dinner was eaten at the Dutch Kitchen, decorated with giant wooden tulips and delft-ware followed by locally brewed Heineken beer.