<<Pre-trippie
Goededag everyone, and welcome to our Amsterdam trippie. If you’ve read the pre-trippie you’ll know all about the how, when and why of this trip. If not, just click on the link above and all will be revealed.
OK – are we all ready? Then let’s begin!
You join me at about 2pm on Thursday 18th June. I’m at home, I’ve packed, tidied and cleaned up, and I’m just waiting to hear from Peter that he’s finished work.
As you probably know by now, yesterday was our 20th wedding anniversary, and we went to our favourite local Chinese restaurant for a lovely relaxed meal. Well, 20 years is a China anniversary, and since we don’t want any china and certainly can’t afford to visit China, we did the next best thing and went to the North China restaurant!
Today has been a normal work day for Peter, but fortunately a day off for me. Just as well, as I spent most of the morning getting my hair cut and coloured ready for the holiday. But now I’m all sorted and impatient to be off.
At 2pm I decide that even though Peter doesn’t finish for another half hour, I will start to make my way to the tube station with the case. And it’s a good job too, as manoeuvring the heavy suitcase and flight bag downstairs takes a while. What makes it even worse is that I suddenly realise that I haven’t put a luggage tag on the case – so I have to sprint back upstairs, open up, grab a tag from another suitcase and lock up again! Then it’s over the road to the bus stop, and by the time Peter phones I’m already on a bus to the tube station.
Peter’s got a lift to the station from a friend at work, so it’s not long before he joins me, and we make the short tube journey out to Heathrow. It’s only 20 minutes or so, but the tube is not the most comfortable way to travel right now, as we are sharing a carriage with a class full of excited children on their way home from a school trip. Fortunately they get out a few stops before us, and we don’t have to try and squeeze through with our luggage!
We arrive at Heathrow and go over to bag drop, as we’ve already done online check in the night before. But then we realise that not only did I forget the luggage tag, I also forgot to bring a lock! We’re not happy leaving the case unlocked, so Peter nips round to WH Smith to buy a lock. We then have an entertaining few minutes in the queue trying to get it out of the incredibly fiddly packaging, but by the time we reach the desk, our case is secured. Bag drop is quick and efficient as usual, and we head over to ‘Security North’ just a few steps away.
Unfortunately, just as we get there, they announce that ‘Security North is closed for temporary’. Temporary what, we never find out. So along with all the other people who’ve just arrived, we leg it over to Security South, which is not that far away, but is now rather crowded!
We scan our boarding cards and join the long queue for security, which seems to take forever. At the belts we are separated – I’m directed to a queue on the left, Peter to one on the right. We shrug and sort our belongings out, sending them through in their trays. But then we queue for ages to go through the scanner. Everyone is being given the full scan, and patted down afterwards. For some reason they have put all the women in the queue on the left, while the men are being allowed to go through with minimal hassle on the right. Imagine a Fastpass system arranged by gender, and you’ve got the idea. Very unfair indeed!
Eventually I get through and join Peter, and we discuss where to eat. Several times now we’ve eaten at Gordon Ramsey’s Plane Food, which normally does an express two-course meal for £16. At the moment, though, the kitchen is being refurbished, and although the restaurant is still open, they aren’t offering the express menu. We decide this is a good opportunity to see what else Terminal 5 offers, so we go over to Huxley’s, which serves traditional British food and popular favourites. It looks quite nice and not too busy, so we head in.
We are served by a friendly French lady called Ophelie, and soon Peter is enjoying his bacon cheeseburger, while I’m happily tucking in to fish and chips.
The restaurant is fairly quiet, apart from the occasional crashing noise of the staff throwing bottles of drink into ice, which initially made me think they were breaking glasses! Eventually a party of French people sit at the table next to us, and Ophelie expertly takes orders in two languages. We decide on some Jude’s ice creams to finish our meal. Peter has chocolate and strawberry, while I have chocolate and ginger. Both are delicious. This is definitely somewhere I would eat again.