Stress free travel. Or not.

I've been meaning to add a couple snippets about the flight back to the Netherlands.
First of all, we had some issues trying to get seats together on the way over, (to Canada) and were becoming less and less enchanted with the whole process, especially after having been directed upstairs to the First Class lounge, only to be told that there was nothing that could be done.
Of course, this was after having previously unsuccessfully tried to go online and book seats like we had always done.
For my part, I have to say I was surprisingly calm, even after a rather long and fruitless hike, since I try to put myself into a bit of a trance for any visit to an airport anyway, to more or less deaden the effect of the whole unpleasant experience.
My travelling companion was however, a little more vocal.

That's fine, I'm willing to pass that particular torch.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it has something to do with KLM no longer being associated with One-Pass, since normally it's a breeze to go to their website and put yourself in a couple adjoining seats. Usually in a fairly decent location on the plane as well.

Couldn't do it.

So I ended up in row 30, and Gabe was back in row 38.

Swell.

After getting myself situated in my little hell hole (I fail to see the point of a window seat when first of all, over the Atlantic Ocean and secondly at a bulkhead) and coming to terms with the notion of being pretty much stuck there for eight hours, I realised that there was a lot of movement on the plane. Everyone seemed to be changing seats. Were we suddenly on Ryanair?
It was taking a quite a few minutes for everything to get sorted out, and I thought we were pretty much done, when one of the flight attendants got my attention and asked something about wanting to sit with my wife?

Whu? Well, sure!

That was a bit of a pleasant surprise especially since I was quite willing to accept my fate, with the realisation that the good times are over, and we'd no longer be flying with KLM all that much anyway, since we'd be moving to Vienna.
Somehow the word must have made it's way through the rank and file. Not sure how these things work.

One thing for sure, you won't ever see that sort of thing on Air Canada.
I'm just saying.

So that more or less put KLM back in our good books.

Now, you have to understand, you're still in "steerage", it's still pretty much eight hours of hell (note previous blog entry referring to screaming children) and for my part, I have to be really pretty careful with the diuretics, otherwise I have to get two people to move out of their seats so I can visit the loo.

At least by sitting together, we could commiserate.


For this reason, once back home, my travelling companion felt it was worth all the time she spent on the phone with the One-Pass service centre in Houston so we could get ourselves into first class for the trip back to Kikkerland. I mean, we have these points, and after the end of October, we wouldn't be able to use them on KLM anyway, so there was no point hanging on to them for dear life.
Admittedly, we can still use them on Continental, but that always involves doing a stop-over in the United States. Don't get me wrong, Newark is a perfectly fine airport, but getting into and out of the US by air is not something I recommend.

That's all I'll say.




Well, I think a few photos might shed some light on the experience.


Here's something we both did for about half the trip....

...which meant not feeling like a complete zombie when we finally got to the house here in the afternoon of the next day.

Here's me trying with all my might to even reach the seat in front of me.....Had to really stretch!!


And here we are, on the decent into Schiphol, feeling pretty danged happy....
Holy Moly, what a difference from "steerage"! Now, I've been in First Class before, on the aforementioned Continental, and I have to say, KLM has it figured out.

Really cool power seats.
Your own little video thingy.
Gobs of room. (the byproduct of which mean diuretics be damned!)
No screaming children....

Oh, I could just go on and on.....

Probably will never happen again in my life, so it's worth while hanging on to every moment.

Shopping at Ikea.

I can't say that I highly recommend it.

It was however, a necessary evil since the place we're moving in to has nary a closet. In spite of it being a new renovation, there was no thought about installing built-in closets. That is one of the very few things that I have to say has been a real convenience here in Delden.

Can't have everything though.

Would have been just way too much for us to handle if we had had built-ins here along with heat upstairs. I mean, I think I would have been beside myself with joy.

Best leave that alone, or I'll just go off on a rant, and get accused of being "negative"...

I'm just surprised that I haven't yet seen a "for sale" sign out front. Notice has been given, and I bounced the idea off our neighbours that maybe the owners might move back in, but there was some talk of the Mrs. suffering with her rheumatism when they were here. (getting more snippets of the real story)
Kind of makes sense when you consider that my heated shop back home is cozier than this place.

Once again, best to just stop....





But I digress.

What was I saying? Oh yes.

The Ikea thing.

I don't really shop at Ikea in Canada, any more than wandering in and picking up whatever I can carry out in two hands and getting away from the place, so this was a new experience for the two of us.

We had quite a list.and ended up using three of their goofy little unidirectional carts..


I'm not sure who designed those abominations, but seriously....somebody needs a kick in the posterior. At least two wheels need to be the non-steering type, otherwise just a pain in the rear to negotiate.
Maybe that's why the place seems so busy, since nobody dares pick up any more than what they can carry out in two hands?
We knew that we would have to have some of the bigger things delivered, so it was a matter of first figuring out the "system", then going to the big storage area and picking out all the components to the cabinets that we had selected. That is, along with the beds and mattresses we know we'll need in Vienna.
You'll notice on the third cart back there, (um, just to the right of the baby buggy) that there are some "bed parts"?

The somewhat amazing part is, everything was delivered Saturday night around 7:00 p.m!!

Um....we shopped for this stuff on Saturday....

That, I must say was a huge pleasant surprise.

I thought I misunderstood the gentleman at the counter, even though he was speaking English! I figured for sure it would be the middle of next week. Probably took us longer to gather up all the stuff, pay for it, and get our items delivered than for the guy to get it here by truck.


It was at the unloading that I realised the true value of the "cunning plan", since a few of the components are bloody heavy, and the whole lot adds up to around 350 kg. I more or less shoved it in the garage,




and then today went back out to straighten it out some, since everything was all over the place.


I have to send a note on to the moving company dude to let them know of the extra weight, even though I'm not so sure we're completely done....

You see, we've been looking at what we'll call the "linear footage" of clothes we have, and something doesn't quite compute.
I really think we might need another cabinet or perhaps a couple dressers, because I can't quite visualise where everything is going to go.
Just now I went to the Ikea website and I'll be darned if I can come up with just what the heck we ended up with, and probably won't quite remember until I put the two of them together. (we made a selection and then doubled it)

I just have to remember to go back on Thursday and pick up the three drawers they were missing.

Best to have everything here ready to go, rather than waiting to get to Austria.



I'll start the countdown in a couple days.

You know it's Autumn when....

...solicitors start showing up at the door.

I noticed that within days of the kids going back to school, which was in mid August by the way, that the doorbell rang, and there stood someone about to put the bite on me for a couple Euros.

Actually, this young lad was selling some lame-assed greeting cards, and I already knew that I didn't even want to bother looking at them, since I still have the lame-assed cards I bought last year. (Well, as it happens, I think they must have gone out with the recycling, 'cause I was just looking for an example, and the cupboard is bare)
Um...not sure what the deal is with the sense of humour on some of the stuff over here, but it quite often has to do with cows and along with the cows... manure.

So I just gave him a couple Euros for whatever outfit he was collecting for, and sent him on his way.

Late yesterday afternoon again, the doorbell rings, which usually scares the cr*p outta me, and there stands a lady collecting for the "nierstichting"

Fine.

It just so happens that I remember them from last year, in addition to which, "Nieren" is the same word in German as it is in Dutch, so I had already clued in last year that it was the kidney foundation. I keep money right by the door in the mail slot thingy, so she got what was there, which was a whopping €3,00.
Now before you go all wonky on me and think that's a little on the cheap side, first of all, that's darned near five bucks and, in light of an analogy to Hallowe'en, which is right around the corner, one does not give out all the candy to the first kid that shows up at the door. There's simply going to be more kids, and you'll need some for later.

Oh yes, that doorbell will ring a few more times.

Trust me.

And...I'm sure you care.


In other news....

After a flurry of emails yesterday, (hey, anything more than five is a "flurry", OK?)
we now know that the movers are coming on the 29th of October at 8:00 a.m. to pack. They'll be in Vienna on the 2nd of November.
There was some question as to whether I'd need time to paint or clean? All I can say is, I hope not. The place is already painted the typical apartment "off-white", and we've been assured that it will be clean. Plus they need to rehang a door that wasn't installed properly, but that's another story, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Now, just to add to your knowledge base, I figured I'd make mention of just how these guys are most likely going to get our stuff up to the fifth floor.

Observe:
and on a different street, another version....

OK, those last guys were actually working on the building, but it's the same idea.

I took these last year in Brussels, but it really doesn't matter, as this practise is very common in the cities here in Yurp. The staircases are for the most part, just too danged hard to negotiate.

As for the travel plans over the next month or so, I swear I'd need to have a noggin' the size of one of these guys to try and repeat it here.
Lemme see:

Gabe is headed for Vienna next week, then at some point the two of us are going to be there around the weekend of the 10th of October, since we need to open a bank account and we're meeting up with some fellow Canadians who are flying in to Geneva and driving over to see us...., and then....oh cr*p....I'm empty.

Well, I know I have to be here for the 29th. I'm sure of that one.

I think my head is starting to do that Talosian twitch.

Stay tuned.