My first ever European holiday started in the car. Before flying to Schipol and then onto Stockholm, we first had to drive to Toronto because the airlines always gouge you for flying out of Ottawa. The drive – unlike our one previous trip to Toronto - was largely uneventful. Luckily we gave ourselves plenty of time because the traffic for the last 20kms was terrible. We left the car at our hotel (2 weeks parking & shuttle to/from the airport for the cost of one night's accommodation – sweet!) and immediately set about checking in, clearing security, etc all of which was accomplished without incident. Even the flight across was nice enough. Jane got a really good deal on the tickets through a code-share arrangement between a Canadian & Dutch airline (Sunwing & ArkeFly). ArkeFly was easily as good as any flight I have ever had with United, Delta or any of the other usual North American airlines.
We flew out of Toronto about 6pm, and landed at Schipol in time for a proper dutch breakfast of ham and cheese on toast. I had never been to Holland before, and hardly consider it fair to make any judgements based solely on few hours in the airport. As such, all I'll say at this point is that it was a fairly unremarkable airport other than that every now and then an absurdly tall person would wander through my sleep deprived field of vision. Perhaps its an unconscious response after generations of living in a coastal country that is almost entirely below sea-level, but for whatever the reason there are an awful lot of very tall Dutch people.
Anyway, a few hours later we boarded our flight to Stockholm where we were met at the airport by Jane's family & a minivan. After much hugging we were whisked back to a hotel for dinner and sleep. Sweet, sweet sleep.
The next day was a bit messy. I found myself the designated driver of the minivan with Jane, her parents and our kids (plus associated baggage). OK, fine. It wasn't much bigger than our car back in Canada and the Swedes drive on the same side of the road as Canada. No big deal. ...unless you need to drive approximately 45 minutes to a ferry on the other side of a completely unknown city with all roadsigns in Swedish. Jane did her best to navigate from the Googlemaps print out we had been given, but (understandably) we still missed a turn and got lost almost immediately. To cut to the chase, we made the ferry but we spent most of the drive unsure as to whether or not we were actually going the right way. This is a very fraught way to travel when you have a hard deadline in a set location and I do not recommend it. To make matters worse, having reached our destination one of our backpacks was stolen at the dock. Thankfully it was not the bag with our passports. I lost the new Kindle I got in Iowa, and losing our camera on the 1st day of my 1st visit to Europe was pretty poor as well, but none of that was nearly as important as Jane's jewelry. Jane continues to jump through hoops for the insurance company, but even if she satisfies their needs the pieces that were lost carried considerable sentimental value. Their loss casts a long shadow.
Good thing the perfect antidote had been planned for the very next day...
