2022.04 Amsterdam weekend, Keukenhof and Rijksmuseum Part 1

2022.04 Amsterdam weekend, Keukenhof and Rijksmuseum Part 1

A change in employer opened up the opportunity to do something that hadn’t happened since early in my career — travel around my birthday! The only challenge was that I didn’t have a lot of vacation days, so this turned into a long weekend trip. So, who doesn’t want to spend half their vacation traveling to go to Amsterdam?

Background

Through several promotions, and delayed plans, we had taken our last vacation using Aeroplan points. For this trip, it was a 50/50 mix, as the price to fly from Europe to Canada with Air Canada was significantly cheaper than vice versa. Perhaps competing with multiple airlines does drive down the price? 😉 With a flight from Amsterdam to Toronto booked, I needed to find a way to get us to Amsterdam. Again, I was able to use Aeroplan points.

The plan was simple, enjoy Dim Sum, and visit two popular sites, the Rijksmuseum, and the seasonal flower display at Keukenhof.

Now having to return to Amsterdam in less than a year (ooo, foreshadowing), resulted in us planning a return to Europe to visit more Christmas markets, in the hopes that travel restrictions due to the pandemic would be lifted and we could enjoy the markets as if 2020-2021 were a distant memory.

In retrospect, the timing of this trip was almost like Goldilocks from a travel viewpoint. Travel restrictions were in full effect during the booking and planning, however by the time our trip occurred, restrictions were being lifted. The best example was at passport control where the officer said “You don’t need to wear masks here.” Important to us was that flying restrictions into Canada were lifted during our trip. With restrictions removed travel returned in a large way in 2022, so much so, that delays, and cancellations occurred with such regularity it felt like everybody was trying to travel by air. Especially in the summer of 2022 airlines, airports, and support agencies, struggled to have staff to meet the increased demand. We were fortunate as we had none of those issues.

Airport and Check-in

The drive to the airport was effortless on a Thursday afternoon. Being a short trip we parked close to the terminal and within a few minutes were in the terminal heading towards check-in.

Check-in was quiet and after our additional travel documents were checked we had our boarding passes and were off to security. Flying in business afforded us the priority line for security that resulted in us being through quickly and already on long walk to the international pier where the gates, and the Air Canada Lounge was located.

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge

The lounge was quiet, with plenty of available seats to select from. We grabbed our beverages and then ordered some snacks from the online a la carte option. We selected to sit off near the “Children’s room” that was empty. Due to pandemic restrictions there was no buffet on offer. Instead items could be ordered using an online app.

At the time of our flight the a la carte options were:

We both enjoyed the butter chicken, and the mac and cheese. A new feature to use was flight notification by text. We left the lounge when we received the text informing us that boarding was going to commence for our flight.

Air canada Toronto to Zurich

Boeing 787
Flight number AC880
Seats: 3A & 4A
Scheduled departure: 18:30
Scheduled arrival: 08:00, the next day

We arrived at the gate to be the last individuals boarding under zone 1, where initially she stated we were budding in, however wasn’t the case as everybody was waiting for zone 2 boarding to commence. Boarding was through the second door, and we easily found our seats and setup for the flight. (I didn’t include a picture of the pillow, blanket, mattress pad, nor amenity kit for this flight)

Tip for those travelling in rows 1 and 2 — the centre overhead baggage compartments do not exist as that space is used for the airline crew rest area.

Regardless, there was still lots of overhead compartment space for our carry-on.

I always think it’s a treat to be able to view the flight deck, it’s just cool. The Service Director, Kim, introduced herself, followed by a welcome by the pilots. I cannot recall who was the Captain, however their names were Richard and Jarvis. They informed us that the flight time would be six hours and fifty-eight minutes. With the door was closed, it was shortly after 18:30 when pushback commenced. Our taxi took us to the northern east/west runway and along the way got to watch a few of the other aircraft moving about:

We arrived at our runway being fourth in line to depart.

In addition, four aircrafts landed while waiting being a Westjet 787, a DeHavilland Dash-8, and two private jets. Finally it was our turn for a smooth and gentle take-off from Toronto, followed by a 180 degree turn to east towards Europe.

Being early spring I took the beautiful sunset while the plane climbed to cruising altitude.

About thirty minutes into the flight beverage service commenced, with some packaged nuts to accompany the drink.

The appetizer arrived half an hour later:

Almost instantly after finishing the appetizer, it was replaced with the main course.

Overall the beef was good, I skipped most of the potatoes as I wanted to ensure I had room for dessert!

Service was efficient as dessert arrived approximately an hour-and-a-half after take-off. I stayed up for a little while watching a movie before trying to sleep.

Out of the total flight time I managed to almost get 3 hours of sleep. Not bad as that’s almost half of the flight. This was the first time where I woke up and breakfast service had begun! The added treat to me was being able to have breakfast while watching the sunrise.

Breakfast was served on a single tray. The Muesli was flavourful, and was the highlight of the meal.

Clouds greeted us as the plane made its descent towards Zurich. We landed in light rain just after 8am and was at the satellite terminal quickly. The temperature completely fogged up the windows. Departure was quick, and soon we were in the terminal.