The flight to Amsterdam was shorter than I expected. . 90 minutes. We had allowed an hour to go from that flight to the flight to Luxembourg. It took the whole hour! Not only did you have to traverse about 2 miles of airport, but you had to go through customs again. Fortunately, we look somewhat upstanding, if not clueless occasionally.
We were the last people of the flight. KLM had run out of gates so we had to get on a bus which took us to a plane on the tarmac. It reminded me of the 1950’s at the old Honolulu International Airport along the road and the seaplane runway. Fortunately, this flight was not full!
Luxembourg airport is a small, but very well appointed, airport. All the standard items . . counters, chairs, restrooms . . are upgraded. In a typical airport, after you leave the baggage area, you are headed to the parking lot or rental car area. Not here. You enter another nicely-appointed, spacious part of the terminal for people to use while waiting for weary travelers. There were food vendors, stores, leather seating . . really very nice.
The downside was the lost baggage. It was still in Amsterdam. It probably got lost trying to find the random airplane on the tarmac. Although it could have been the customs agent, frustrated with dealing with the clueless Americans, who ordered the baggage to be held for detention. Either way, we were out of luck, out of hope, and whimpering in line to submit our claim.
It is wonderful to have good friends! René and Elsy were there to take us to lunch at a delightful French restaurant in the downtown area of Luxembourg. It is a thoroughly beautiful, quaint, downtown area with buildings 1000 years old and a king who lives right there and drives a motorcycle. Nancy took some photographs across a stunning valley with trees and a castle. If I hadn’t been whimpering so loudly and shivering in my loafers, I would have taken a few also. But, take my word for it, it was stunning.
When we finished eating lunch, we discovered that our bags had just been loaded onto a plane to Luxembourg. It wasn’t arriving for awhile, so we drove to Gaubiving and resigned ourselves to a night without our normal, comforting possessions . . underwear, toothbrushes, French dictionary.
Such is the life on the road! At least it was nice being with friends!