What happens at Schiphol...
Since moving to Amsterdam I have found myself spending a lot of time at Schiphol. Don't get me wrong. Schiphol is a fantastic airport and I have used it since my teen years.
Its familiar monotonous 'mind your step, mind your step' on the travellator makes me smile every time.
When I fell over at the end of a travellator at Dubai Airport some years ago and the Arab kids literally pointed at me and laughed out loud, I thought about the 'mind your step' warning fondly...
It's just... these days I fly every other week and am just a tiny bit bored of being at Schiphol. And there have been a lot of flight delays always due to runway being too busy or whatnot. 😕
This week I was at Schiphol again. I flew back from London Gatwick and landed at about 9 something pm. The bus took us from the plane to the terminal and after I got to the terminal I realised I left my handbag on the plane! My passport, purse, mobile phones and house keys were all in my handbag. Zut d'alors!
I headed back towards the gate I came in through and notified a member of staff. She told me to go to the Lost and Found in the F gates area (I was in D) and when I arrived I found that it was shut.
I followed a KLM staff upstairs to find that the KLM lost and found was also shut.
Then I spoke to another guy who put me in the care of a Dutch policeman. (Yes... very tall.) He told me most counters were closed.
Ohhh...😯 okay... great...!
Dutch policeman advised me to go to Arrival 2 for help. I said I couldn't get to the Arrival because I didn't have my passport. He was like
...ohhhhhhhhh....
Made a few phone calls...
He took me to an information point where I could facetime for help on a screen.
He left me to speak to this lady on the screen with a headphone. I told her what happened and she put me on mute... some minutes later she told me everyone has gone home and so please fill in an online claim form.
I enquired how as I didn't have my phones. They're on the plane. She put me on mute again...
5 min later my knight in shining armour arrived... well he wasn't in armour he was in a suit. Good enough!
Sander the nice knight took me to the KLM desk which was luckily still opened.
The KLM lady asked me for my boarding pass. I said I didn't have it coz it's on the plane...
They made a few more phone calls and informed me that the plane was shut for the night. (Marvellous... just marvellous...!)
Numerous phone calls later, sleeping at the airport over night looked very probable.
There was this big cuddly cat bear thing on which I contemplated on sleeping.
Finally after many phone calls and Sander very kindly updating me in English, my pink handbag was located! Yay! The KLM lady went to the other end of the airport to get it for me and finally at 11pm I could head home.
The moral of the story was, DON'T FREAKING LEAVE YOUR HANDBAG ON THE PLANE YOU MORON!
Secondly I think I'm quite thankful that despite many people just want to finish work and get home, some people are just fantastic and want to help.
Despite the Dutch reputation of being direct and could be misunderstood as being rude, I find them such darlings! (Not the Turkish guy who's out Dutching the Dutch in my previous post... obviously) And so so helpful (with the exception of waiters at restaurants in Amsterdam).
Not what I wanted on a week night after my business trip but glad not to have to bunk at the airport overnight. 😅😅
Its familiar monotonous 'mind your step, mind your step' on the travellator makes me smile every time.
When I fell over at the end of a travellator at Dubai Airport some years ago and the Arab kids literally pointed at me and laughed out loud, I thought about the 'mind your step' warning fondly...
It's just... these days I fly every other week and am just a tiny bit bored of being at Schiphol. And there have been a lot of flight delays always due to runway being too busy or whatnot. 😕
This week I was at Schiphol again. I flew back from London Gatwick and landed at about 9 something pm. The bus took us from the plane to the terminal and after I got to the terminal I realised I left my handbag on the plane! My passport, purse, mobile phones and house keys were all in my handbag. Zut d'alors!
I headed back towards the gate I came in through and notified a member of staff. She told me to go to the Lost and Found in the F gates area (I was in D) and when I arrived I found that it was shut.
I followed a KLM staff upstairs to find that the KLM lost and found was also shut.
Then I spoke to another guy who put me in the care of a Dutch policeman. (Yes... very tall.) He told me most counters were closed.
Ohhh...😯 okay... great...!
Dutch policeman advised me to go to Arrival 2 for help. I said I couldn't get to the Arrival because I didn't have my passport. He was like
...ohhhhhhhhh....
Made a few phone calls...
He took me to an information point where I could facetime for help on a screen.
He left me to speak to this lady on the screen with a headphone. I told her what happened and she put me on mute... some minutes later she told me everyone has gone home and so please fill in an online claim form.
I enquired how as I didn't have my phones. They're on the plane. She put me on mute again...
5 min later my knight in shining armour arrived... well he wasn't in armour he was in a suit. Good enough!
Sander the nice knight took me to the KLM desk which was luckily still opened.
The KLM lady asked me for my boarding pass. I said I didn't have it coz it's on the plane...
They made a few more phone calls and informed me that the plane was shut for the night. (Marvellous... just marvellous...!)
Numerous phone calls later, sleeping at the airport over night looked very probable.
There was this big cuddly cat bear thing on which I contemplated on sleeping.
Finally after many phone calls and Sander very kindly updating me in English, my pink handbag was located! Yay! The KLM lady went to the other end of the airport to get it for me and finally at 11pm I could head home.
The moral of the story was, DON'T FREAKING LEAVE YOUR HANDBAG ON THE PLANE YOU MORON!
Secondly I think I'm quite thankful that despite many people just want to finish work and get home, some people are just fantastic and want to help.
Despite the Dutch reputation of being direct and could be misunderstood as being rude, I find them such darlings! (Not the Turkish guy who's out Dutching the Dutch in my previous post... obviously) And so so helpful (with the exception of waiters at restaurants in Amsterdam).
Not what I wanted on a week night after my business trip but glad not to have to bunk at the airport overnight. 😅😅
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