Welkom op Amsterdam

The flight from Portland to Amsterdam could have been worse. I think. For 570 minutes we were trapped in an area that would make a domestic house cat claustrophobic. We had turbulent weather. Richard and I had to sit a few rows apart on different side of the plane. (Well, actually it was a two aisle plane. I sat in the middle in row 39 while Richard had a window seat in row 42.) The food was horrible and I couldn't sleep.

But I mustn't be so pessimistic. There must have been some good things about the flight.

I know, the headsets were really good quality. Yes, it was high quality music that was bouncing off my brain while my sorry old ass complained incessantly.

And there's all that neat duty-free shopping you can do during the flight. The flight attendants wheel carts down the aisles offering a wide variety of overpriced items to break the heinous monotony. As a man who is struggling with the old "quit smoking" routine 21 months later, you can imagine my reaction when I was face to face with a carton of Marlboro Light 100s. We're flying over Baffin Bay, four hours from our destination and I would have knocked the flight attendant down, grabbed the carton and smoked every single one of them right then and there, but for the fact that she could have easily kicked my butt.

I know!! I know!! We got to fly over Greenland. I've always wanted to see Greenland, even if only from the air. It was really cool. It would have been even cooler if there'd have been a window I could see out and if it weren't nighttime and if it weren't cloudy. But other than that it was super neat-o-jet.

Ditto Iceland.

Okay, there is only one thing that makes the 9.5 hours of hell worth it. The destination.

We are in Amsterdam.

All is good! (Actually, it is GREAT!)