Strike, rain, midsummer night, Heidi…

… Some keywords of my latest week of work. Some numbers:

4 different destinations in 5 days, 4 different hotel rooms, 2 crazy but wonderful fellow colleagues, many, many other great colleagues (cockpit and cabin), 100s of passengers, 4 delays, 2 suitcases missing and countless joy and fun!

I started my week in Venice. I requested this special working week as I wanted to spend more time in Venice and Edinburgh (2nd destination). I was so happy when this request was approved…. My happiness was just getting bigger and bigger when I found out that my colleague Marieke is a big fan of Venice and knows all the special and not touristy spots!
But the happiness disappeared quickly: while checking in into the hotel I saw a big sign on the counter saying that the Italian railways were on strike, so there was no train going to Venice or coming back. A taxi was not an option, way too expensive! We even thought about hitchhiking, but the main road to Venice was too far away from our hotel….. A day later at the airport we found out they were not only ones on strike, we had to clean the aircraft ourselves as well, haha!
But hey, the weather was great, nice and warm and so much better than in Holland, so the cockpit and I just decided to make it a nice night and the next morning we would discuss with the whole crew how to spend our morning and early afternoon, before leaving.
It was a quiet night, we escaped the way too bright lighted bar and sat outside, on the ground, with our wine and beers and just talked for hours about life, the beauty of nature, light pollution and the joy of preparing nice food (not even mentioning the reward of eating it later!).
The next morning we decided to take the KLM mountain bikes and to bike along the riverside. Our hotel is situated in a small village, outside Venice, rural landscape. Nice houses hidden between the trees along the riverside, schools with nuns waving at us while passing, some boats on the river... All this combined with a bright sun and great temperature! For lunch we ate at a simple restaurant, outside in the big garden, where I had this wonderful pasta! Aahh, I just love simple Italian food!
By then my name already turned into Wolkewietje. The moment I met the co-pilot he was convinced that I looked like Wolkewietje, which is a (girl?) friend of Pinkeltje, a famous book I read when I was about 7 years old…. I had no clue who Wolkewietje was, so we looked it up at on the internet and I have to admit, this co-pilot was absolutely right! I have the same long legs, short hair and in uniform I’m blue….. So yes, the comparison was extremely clear ;-) Well, anyway, the rest of the week I was called Wolkewietje. Marije is no more…..
About food and cooking: with Marieke I went shopping in the local supermarket as well and this week Marije is making her own panacotta!!! :-D Next to a great recipe I got from the captain for a veal dish.

In Amsterdam we said goodbye to this cockpit crew and I stepped with Marieke and purser Peter Pan (who is living around my corner by the way….) on board of the next flight, direction Edinburgh. As I was looking forward to a Saturday evening in a Scottish pub, I was not so delighted with the delay we had (understatement). Arriving after midnight I decided not to go out anymore, but try to make something of my morning and early afternoon the day after. The next morning, Marieke and I stepped outside into the grey and rainy sky. We walked a little bit around the castle of Edinburgh, but because of the typical Scottish weather (which I didn’t mind that much, because it was absolutely fitting) we were forced to look for some adventures inside. So of course we found out how Scottish kilts are made, but we also did a tour underground, called Mary King’s close. A great tour, with an even better and crazy guide, showing and telling us how people were living in the Middle Ages in Edinburgh. Underground (later they build partly the current Edinburgh on it) there is some history left, and while standing in Mary King’s close (which is a street) you have the feeling that you’re in the middle of it, many centuries ago.
After this we just sat down in a pub and drank the real dark black tea (yak!), enjoying our time, getting surprised again about the fact how fast we change cities and atmosphere, but how much we enjoy it as well!

From Edinburgh, we went via Amsterdam again, to Stockholm. While boarding, a new colleague told us that the midsummer festivals would take place that evening. Of course the longest day was already 2 days before, but it seemed that the locals celebrate this the Saturday afterwards. We were getting excited! Although tired, I didn’t want to miss something like this, as you might never experience it again. However, it seemed as well, that all the locals celebrate this outside town…:-( So there we were, checking in after midnight again, but excited about these festivals when we discovered there were no parties at all…. We decided to make our own party and went out! Well, also because I didn’t want to miss the Swedish delights (read: handsome men) either. On our flight over there, we already voted a passenger ‘the most charming passenger on board’ (he had the most beautiful blue eyes and we rewarded him with a small bottle of champaign!) and later, waiting for our suitcases, there were some more handsome Swedish men passing. And then I even forgot to tell you about the flight with all Italian guys: it was a survival, let's put it that way! I was glad that they finally fell asleep... After a nice drink in Stockholm city we walked back to our hotel, 2.30 am and not completely dark anymore, such a strange experience, it felt like it was about 5.30 am…. Midsummer nights! Pity it was cloudy.

Our last night over was in Zurich, no time to discover the city or something, but I had no energy left either ;-) We arrived in the evening and my alarmclock went off this morning at 4h35. The only adventure we had was the trainride at the airport. From the gate to the arrival hall you take this short trainride and during this ride you hear the cows in the mountains, their bells, you hear the yodeling and you’ll meet Heidi, who is kissing you in a very sensual way, to say welcome….
Although no time to explore Zurich, I liked the fact that we finally had some time for dinner, as all the previous flights we were eating on board. Unfortunately the suitcase of Marieke and me didn’t arrive in Zurich, so no clean clothes to wear, which means no nice restaurant, just the hotelbar for some food :-( On the other hand, the good news was that first, I didn’t have to carry this way too heavy suitcase, 2nd, upon arrival we received a ‘first aid kid’, with some stuff you can’t do without. It felt like a present ;-)
So this was fun for a while, but not this morning, when appeared that our suitcases are really gone…. No clue where they are yet, they should have been on Schiphol airport. Hopefully they will find it somewhere soon as everything is in it…. For example the charger of my phone, charger of my camera, my jacket, my umbrella (and it is raining big time over here!).

Well, just to give you a summary of how a 'working' week for me in Europe looks like….I just love it! Europe is great, so many nice cities and great colleagues with whom you get rather close being around each other for 5 days....
But, it is exhausting too. It all can be less exhausting and done in one day, like last week with my friend Ingrid. We met in Den Haag for a drink and ended up first, in a tapas bar, moved on to the terrace of a Mexican restaurant (combined with nachos and frozen margheritas), then we went for food to the restaurant where she’s working (French cheese plate and great wine), and we ended the evening with a ride to the trainstation in a dutch TukTuk. Hey, you can go around the world in just one day, no jetlags, the only risk is a small hang over of all the nice local drinks…. ;-)