Posts filed under 'amsterdam'
May 17th, 2010
My flights to Amsterdam and Sao Paulo were cancelled today because of the volcanic ash cloud, so I have been watching the news about the issue in the hope that I might be able to arrange to get away either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Edinburgh Airport, unfortunately, has a way to go to catch up with Aberdeen and Glasgow Airports, both of which make good use of Twitter to keep passengers informed.
Technorati Tags: edinburgh airport, aberdeen airport, glasgow airport, twitter
January 9th, 2010
The last thing people want to see, especially those living in the UK or eastern US at the moment, is more pictures of snow-bound cars, but that’s exactly what I’m putting here. After spending 6 days in Riyadh and Dubai, where average midday temperatures were in the mid-to-high 20s Celsius, it was disconcerting for me to come back to the scene above in Lauder. I had seen some of the BBC reports emanating from my home town while I was away, and my wife, Jan, had of course kept me up to date with the continuing snowfalls, but it was still a rude awakening for me when I arrived home - certainly something of a contrast with the warm sunshine in Dubai (see below).
Like so many yesterday, I had a bit of a nightmare journey home from Dubai: the flight from Dubai to Amsterdam overnight was uneventful and on time; the problems began when my flight to Edinburgh was cancelled as we were lining up to board the plane (the aircraft was switched to Glasgow instead); KLM assured us we would all be re-booked onto later flights, but a quick call to Amex (Cisco’s travel agent) told me that the two later flights due out of Schiphol to Edinburgh were already fully booked; Amex found me an alternative route by BMI via Heathrow, and so I found myself in London late in the afternoon boarding a flight to Edinburgh; however, after sitting on the tarmac for 40 minutes or so beyond the scheduled take-off time, the captain announced a computer fault which, if it could not be fixed, would necessitate our disembarkation; thoughts of a second cancelled flight in one day were dispelled 20 minutes later when the announcement came that all was well; and so off we went.
I arrived in Edinburgh at 7.15pm and found myself back in Lauder at around 8.30pm after a slow and cautious drive down to the Scottish Borders in the back of a taxi. Even with the snow, it was a welcome sight when I finally arrived home!
Technorati Tags: lauder, scottish borders, klm, bmi, dubai, riyadh, snow
May 7th, 2007
A long trip today: Edinburgh to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Istanbul, and then Istanbul to Ankara, with a couple of waits in between each leg. I left Edinburgh at 6.00 this morning, and I got to Ankara on schedule at 7.0pm local time (2 hours ahead of the UK), but my luggage did not! There’s a bag floating somewhere between Amsterdam and Turkey in that great big virtual carousel in the sky, and it’s mine.
Ankara seems to be an attractive, low-rise city - lots of space, clean streets, bustling without being impossible (or impassable). The new airport (Esenboga) is just 7 months old - it is vast….and empty! I presume it will get busier over time.
I’m only here for a little over 24 hours, but I’m looking forward to meeting some people from the Turkish Ministry of Education tomorrow - should be a good discussion!
Technorati Tags: turkey, ankara, istanbul, education
May 6th, 2007
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| Ankara - a pretty city at night - and beautiful in the daylight too.
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I’m heading out early tomorrow to Ankara (via Amsterdam and Istanbul). These are interesting times for Turkey - there can’t be many countries around the world that can bring a million people onto the streets to reiterate the strength of feeling around the separation of government and religion. Ataturk’s establishment of a secular state in Turkey is evidently still much-cherished, even though around 99% of the Turkish population is Moslem.
On Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning I head from Ankara to Dublin - I’ll have a 7-hour layover in Amsterdam, overnight, so I’ll be seeking out one of Schiphol’s recliners to catch some sleep before I fly to Dublin on Wednesday morning.
Technorati Tags: turkey, ankara, ireland, dublin, ataturk
March 15th, 2007
Just another boring photo of a boring plane in a boring airport? Well, may’be, but the name of this KLM Airbus A330 on the tarmac at Schiphol, Amsterdam, caught my eye. Click the photo to see the name below the cockpit window!
Technorati Tags: klm, airbus, a330, parliament square edinburgh, schiphol, amsterdam
