After stopping by the store to buy some salami to gift to Judge's family we got to the airport two hours before scheduled departure. This is insanely early for this particular airport as it is -tiny- and you can basically arrive 10-15 min before take-off and still make it on board. We wanted to rearrange some luggage though, and wanted to have to not stress about anything in case it didn't go too smoothly to check in. Good thinking, because adding Eliana to our tickets at the airport (as they had been purchased before she was born) took them 1:50 minutes, and even then they jimmied the system to get us through.
After a tummy-tickling take-off on the shortest runway ever, with fjords on the drop-offs at the tail-ends of the runway, and an uber scenic flight:
we got ourselves checked in at the airport hotel in a room with a double bed (were told we'd get a king-sized when we booked it, but it wasn't guaranteed as we were getting a steep discount), with a missing light bulb in the table light and some kind of crap dried and ground into the carpet. Joy.
We proceeded to successfully upgrade ourselves to a king-sized bed (which are wider than they are long) by turning ourselves 90-degrees. Simple as pie. And the view of construction and the runway wa perfect for a little two-year old:
We proceeded to successfully upgrade ourselves to a king-sized bed (which are wider than they are long) by turning ourselves 90-degrees. Simple as pie. And the view of construction and the runway wa perfect for a little two-year old:
Thank goodness for the family-lane in security, though, as we breezed right through without a wait, and after a brisk walk to the gate we arrived five minutes before boarding was supposed to start...and were met by "gate closing" on the monitor. What?! That's right, they wanted to leave early as they were ready early. First time that has ever happened in all of my travelling career.
Arrived in Amsterdam for our 9.5 hour layover, found a few awesome spots to play and rest:
met a group of Hakkanese from our neighbor town who were going on the same flight back, ate the three big portions of deliciously fried rice Judge had prepared:
and then had a 12 hour red-eye flight where Leona and Eliana did wonderfully well, despite the fact that we didn't get a seat with an infant basket, nor extra leg-room seats, and Leona did her darnedest not to sleep the whole flight (she slept about 4 hours total).
Got to Taipei, again got to sail through the customs' family-lane, and got three out of our four checked bags and one out of our two checked car seats.
Turns out the check-in guy forgot to register and tag one of our bags. Super craziness. And worst thing (or maybe not worst thing as the other bags had more unreplacibles in them) the missing bag is the one with my laptop, manual camera, the rather new baby call, our semi-expensive baby thermometer, my crocheting work for Leona's blanket's monkey faces, all the salami, lots of clothes and other nic-nacs, and just a few unreplacibles (like a jacket Judge loves and has worn for more than 10 years).
It has now been a week and there is still no trace of it, though we were this close to having our hands on it as my mom received a phone-call late on the day we left from SAS who had the bag with them as an old contact-info-tab was still on it from when we had traveled with SAS.
I've basically come to peace with the high probability of not seeing the bag again. It's just stuff. Though some of the losses, if they remain such, do sting a little.
Now, the KLM-fiasco doesn't end here, though, because not only did the clerk make such a major mistake, but the car seat that arrived with us was majorly damaged (we also have a claim in for this), and the delayed car seat was minorly damaged...probably still usable though.
Suffice it to say we learned a lot of (rather expensive) lessons on this trip. 1) Always pay attention to what the check-in clerk is doing, and count your checked-luggage slips before leaving. 2) Pack in car seats with extra padding so that they are very protected, as even if you do not see any external damage they may have been banged and thrown around hard enough to mimic a minor collision and have internal injuries severely lowering their effectiveness in a real car accident. 3) Always buy your tickets with a credit card or buy travel insurance. 3) Take as much of your unreplacibles in your carry-on as conveniently possible. And 4) When traveling with KLM make sure you bring enough food to cover all your in-flight needs (the food sucks).
So yeah, 'never again KLM' is our current mantra.
.
Got to Taipei, again got to sail through the customs' family-lane, and got three out of our four checked bags and one out of our two checked car seats.
Turns out the check-in guy forgot to register and tag one of our bags. Super craziness. And worst thing (or maybe not worst thing as the other bags had more unreplacibles in them) the missing bag is the one with my laptop, manual camera, the rather new baby call, our semi-expensive baby thermometer, my crocheting work for Leona's blanket's monkey faces, all the salami, lots of clothes and other nic-nacs, and just a few unreplacibles (like a jacket Judge loves and has worn for more than 10 years).
It has now been a week and there is still no trace of it, though we were this close to having our hands on it as my mom received a phone-call late on the day we left from SAS who had the bag with them as an old contact-info-tab was still on it from when we had traveled with SAS.
I've basically come to peace with the high probability of not seeing the bag again. It's just stuff. Though some of the losses, if they remain such, do sting a little.
Now, the KLM-fiasco doesn't end here, though, because not only did the clerk make such a major mistake, but the car seat that arrived with us was majorly damaged (we also have a claim in for this), and the delayed car seat was minorly damaged...probably still usable though.
Suffice it to say we learned a lot of (rather expensive) lessons on this trip. 1) Always pay attention to what the check-in clerk is doing, and count your checked-luggage slips before leaving. 2) Pack in car seats with extra padding so that they are very protected, as even if you do not see any external damage they may have been banged and thrown around hard enough to mimic a minor collision and have internal injuries severely lowering their effectiveness in a real car accident. 3) Always buy your tickets with a credit card or buy travel insurance. 3) Take as much of your unreplacibles in your carry-on as conveniently possible. And 4) When traveling with KLM make sure you bring enough food to cover all your in-flight needs (the food sucks).
So yeah, 'never again KLM' is our current mantra.
.
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