3rd Leg — Amsterdam to Copenhagen
Clouds are pretty. They look more exotic when one is over a different part of the globe. If I were a pilot, I would be soooooo tempted to bob and weave through the tallest puffy ones as I flew. (“Attention, passengers. We’re flying at an altitude of— WHOA! There’s a good one.”) I took a balloon ride once. It was amazing how quiet everything was, despite the height. You could hear people talking from a vertical distance in the same way you could from a horizontal one. I kept thinking of Superman floating up above the clouds, soaking in the rays with his eyes closed, trying to listen for trouble. I wonder if he even needed the super hearing to do so.
The power outlet proved to be a bust. There was one, but it didn’t actually have any juice. Just as well. I remember why I hate air travel (well, one of the reasons): the cramped seats. The Amtrak train ride I took a couple weeks ago was by far the most comfortable public transportation I’ve ever had. Plenty of leg room and a feeling like I’m sitting on a cushy chair instead of a folding one. I mostly read my own paper (again) and took more notes. There was a nifty on-demand in-flight movie system, but I declined the headphones to force myself to work a bit on the presentation. Not having a computer hampered the actual power pointing, but I feel like I know pretty much what I should say.
One of the few perks of being a vegetarian showed up on the flight. Northwest surprised me by handing me my veggie dinner before anyone else. Logically, this was to make sure I got one and didn’t have to eat around the chicken (ahem, Informatics graduation dinner), but I pretended I was special. I was done with my yummy rice thingy before the actual chickens made it to my seat. Unfortunately, they didn’t clear my tray for quite a while, so I had to pull out a small book to read.
I managed to sleep a little on the plane. Time is all goofy for me (it being 8:16a to my eyes, but 2:16a to my computer), but it felt like the I-can’t-stay-awake wave of fatigue that hits me about 11p every night now. I leaned into the window in an uncomfortable way and got through the second half of the Atlantic crossing in some unconscious state. Some big turbulence shook me awake with about 2:30 to go in the flight, and an early-arriving veggie breakfast did the same about an hour later. Still, I feel rested and rarin’ to go to Copenhagen. In two more hours.
The Boingo 24-hour internet access I bought for $7 in Chicago didn’t have quite the punch I was hoping for. While this ATTINGO network here in Amsterdam does recognize Boingo, apparently all I got was 24 hours of U.S. and Canadian internet. The rest of the world cost me another 10 Euro (whatever the hell that means), but I figured it was worth it. I’m second-guessing that again, though, given that my laptop is showing 59 minutes left on the battery. I bet they have the weird plugs here, too.
One more death-defying trip into the air coming up. …
1 reply on “Things to do in Denmark when you’re dead III”
We travelled there with our three daughters. We found all informations on amsterdam.info. Amsterdam it is a very beautiful town and the museums are great. But with the exchange rate as it is, we found it very expensive. Some museums were closed for refurbishment, but the views of the canals and hi-lights such as the Anne Frank House and the Artis Zoo (an old-fashioned place with a great array of animals kept in somewhat cramped conditions) are very memorable. The food is awful unless you want to spend a great deal of money and there is a cynical attitude to tourists that is very out of date (e.g. tapas marinaded pork was one slice of fried bacon on 1/2 a bread roll). We stayed in the serviceable but expensive Singel Hotel which was okay but its close proximity to a red light area made going out with the children awkward and there really was nothing charming or liberated about hurrying past the ladies in the windows. The same is true of the legal dope selling ‘coffee houses’. The whole bicycle thing is interesting. It is almost, but not quite, the eco-city of the future. Some cyclists are quite anarchic and we spent a fair bit of time dodging pavement mounted bad-tempered riders. Overall verdict was we were glad we’d been but wouldn’t go again as it feels over priced, out of date and sleazy – not the cutting edge hip family friendly town it’s sold as.