Euro Trip 2011 - A First Class Trip

Thursday morning I set out for another travel adventure. This time I was going to Europe. The best part is, I was going to spend part of it with my dad Joe and brother John, and the later half with Danielle. I’ve been wanting to go to the Netherlands and see were my dad grew up and meet family. The time has finally come. The trip started off great. I took a 6am flight from Reno to Salt Lake city. I had a short layover then on to Newark. When I boarded the flight to my surprise I was bumped to first class, thanks Delta Medallion. I was happy that at least part of this long day of flying would be in comfort. I had a nice big seat and we were served lunch, snacks and drinks. I also had a great passenger Sandra that has spent a lot of time in Europe and gave me a lot of good tips. After having a great flight I landed in Newark with about a 1:15 layover. I ran to the sky club to get a few snacks, then back to the gate for my next flight to Amsterdam. I was booked in Coach and Silver Medallion members aren’t eligible to be upgraded on international flights. But today It must have been my lucky day, the flight was oversold so they need to bump a few Medallion members up to first class. When they called me to the front desk I couldn’t have been happier. I wanted to jump for joy, but I played it cool. We boarded the flight a minute later. I had a huge lazy boy type seat, there must have been 6ft of room in between each seat. Once we seat down we had slippers, Bose noise canceling headphones, down blankets, pillows, champagne and a lot of other nice goodies. I had the biggest grin on my face. I couldn’t believe I was sitting in first class for the price of coach. Thanks to my friends James and Janet for giving me a few tips on being loyal to an airline. And it has sure paid off. The flight was purely 1st class. The food and service was amazing. I was actually able to get a little sleep. Once I arrived in Amsterdam I had about 1.5hrs until John and Dad got in. With me flying 1st class I was able to get in the KLM club. I had just ate a great breakfast on the plane, so I wasn’t hungry. They had showers, so I decided to freshen up before they arrived. It felt great to wash the filth from sitting on a plane all day. After the shower I was able to use Apple Face Time and video chat with Danielle. It’s an amazing app and it’s free to talk to each other. I love technology. I saw dad and John’s flight land so I went to the gate to meet them. Once they got off they looked beat. They could see I was looking chipper and when I told them I was in first class they didn’t want to talk to me. I felt bad, but great at the same time. Getting through customs was a cinch. Once there bags arrived we exited the airport and our family was waiting for us. My dad’s cousins Evert and Ton were gracious enough top pick us up. When we got out of the airport my dad kissed to ground. We all laughed at him since it was a parking lot. We loaded into Ton’s van then off to Evert’s house in Purmerend. We arrived at Evert and Bea’s, they live in a nice neighborhood with a canal a 100 yards away. They have a cozy house with three floors. They set us up on the top floor. We dropped our bags and relaxed in the living room catching up. They also noticed I was looking chipper and we told them I was in first class. From that time on it’s been a running joke. Through out they day when dad and John looked sleepy and I was wide awake. They would say look at Jason he’s first class. Grandma Irena also informed them that I don’t eat beef. So they said they got 1st class chicken / kip just for me. It’s been a running joke for the last 3 days, I love it. We spent most of the day trying to adjust to the time change and we relaxed at the house. Ton came back over with his wife “Tiny” in Dutch it’s sound like Tien. The day was a lot of eating, drinking and great story telling. A perfect way to get the feel of things. We did manage to take a few walks around the neighborhood to get some fresh air and snap a few pics. In the evening Evert and Bea’s daughter Karin came by She is the same age as me and we really hit it off. She speaks great English and help translate for John and I. She really wants to come to America and we would love to have here. We managed to stay up until 9pm and John and I sleep through the night. Dad was up at 2am and manage to get another hour of sleep. But his body was still a little off. The next morning Bea made a great breakfast and I had some of my favorite treats from when I was a kid. We were picking up our rental car today and Ton and Evert drove us to Hertz back in Amsterdam. I got a great deal through my American Express discount and we rented a Renault Scenic. It is a nice little car, we were lucky it had a built in Tom Tom GPS but the maps only had Netherlands , Belgium and Luxemburg, We would have to go with the map for Germany and France. After we picked up the car we headed out on our own. The first stop was Westzann this is the town were my dad lived and were my Grandparents got married. We stopped at both the houses my dad lived in. One was completely remodeled but the other remained the same. We also went to the futball/soccer club that my grand father played for V.V.V. Westzann. It was great to see the fields it has been redone with artificial turf. The club house even has a bar in it. Next we went to the City Hall where my grandparents were married. It was really cool to see all the places I’ve seen in pictures since I was young. Dad then brought us to a preserved tourist town named Zanzaase Schans. It was really cool. They have a wooden shoe factory that was cool to check out. We even saw a demonstration on making wooden shoes. There is four working windmills on the river. We walked through one that had huge stone rollers to crush flour, salt and other things. It was pretty cool to see all the moving parts. It was a very picturesque stop. We then went to an area of Purmerend were my dad spent a summer with his aunt when he was a teenager. We had a snack at the Snack Shop where he always went to as a kid. It wasn’t the same, the shop was now run by a Vietnam’s family. We still had some fries there. We then went back to Evert and Bea’s house. They were having a BBQ for us and some other family was coming over. You wouldn’t believe the spread. They had a ton of great food and of course the 1st class chicken for me. Oh was in tasty. All the same people were there form yesterday. Bea and Tiny were getting everything ready and Tom manned the grill. It was a nice day, so we enjoyed our dinner outside. We again had a great time talking and drinking into the night. Thanks again to Karin for keeping john and I in the loop. Another cousin of my dad’s came over after dinner. Peter and his wife Monique. It had been about 18 years since my dad had seen Peter and it was the first time we meet. We stayed up late into the night. Bea finally had to kick out her daughter so we would all go to bed. It was a great day. The next day was Sunday, we were heading out on our road trip. Bea again had a great breakfast ready for us and even had us make sandwiches for the road. After we ate we hit the road. We were heading to the Rhineland area or Germany. Getting out of the Netherlands was easy. We had the GPS to guide us to the border. Once we got into Germany it was a different story. We got turned around in the first mile, then ended up at a dead end road. We wasted about 10 minutes driving in circles then we were back on track and heading in the right direction. After a few hours on the Autobahn we got to our destination in St. Goar on the Rhine river. It is a cute little medieval town on the river. We hit up the castle as we came into town. Rheinfels Castle is now only a shell and not functional anymore, But you can imagine it in it’s prime. The castle was built in 1245. It was amazing how old the castle is. It was built over 500 before America became a country. We spent about an hour walking down dark hall ways and steep spiral staircases trying not to fall in a hole. I wish I had my flash light it was pitch black in a lot of the castle. It was amazing to see all the rooms and tunnels. We then went into the town of St. Goar to find a room. We are here during the slow season so a lot of the places were closed. We ended up finding a great place called Hotel an der Fahre. They gave us a huge room overlooking the Rhine for 70 euros with breakfast. We checked into the room and took a short rest before heading out for dinner. We walked the main street and check out all the options. We ended up finding a great place the Siberian Rose. We all ordered traditional German food. Dad and John order some type of schnitzel and I forgot the name of mine but it was a minced pork wrapped in Cabbage with potato’s. It had such a great flavor. We had a tasty waffle with fruit for dessert. Defiantly a meal we will remember. So far the trip has been amazing. I can’t wait to see what else is to come. Check back in a few for more on our Euro Trip 2011.