ACD Forum's 4/20 Gathering 2022

[Tokeing tom]

Enjoying reading this ..I laughed when you said hotel Neutraal ,I also missed a flight a few weeks back and ended up booking a room here it was a kip and €175 for the night it was cheapest I could find (Saturday) topped with €300 extra flight ...schipol is a nightmare at the moment

[Ghost]

Cheers @Lemming great write up, really enjoyed reading your extra days spent in town

[Lemming]

Day 8 - Monday 25th April 2022 - Last Day (?)

Over breakfast Igraine suggests a shopping trip to the Albert Cuyp Market so we stroll back over to the Pijp.

We browse the length of the market and then continue along Albert Cuypstraat to De Graal, but are disappointed to find it closed.


De Graal

A wander back through the park and we find ourselves near Nice Place so we decide to look in here.


Nice Place





For our second attempt at a last night smoke up, we've arranged to meet up with locals Gapie and Nuggz at the Flying Dutchman. Having somehow missed dinner, Igraine and I fancy a snack so our hosts suggest we divert to Big Shots first.

The menu offers veggie tapas, which sounds perfect. What turns up is less exciting. It's more like a poor version of Thai-style deep fried veg. On closer inspection we also discover that some of the battered rings are actually calamari. When we enquire about this we're informed that some vegetarians eat squid. It seems they assume that this is always the case unless otherwise specified. A warning to any other vegetarians planning to eat at Big Shots.

From there we move back to the Flying Dutchman where we have a lovely session in the great company of Nuggz and Gapie.



Day 9 - Tuesday 26th April 2022 - Homewards (?)

After our experience at Schiphol on Friday, I'm nervous that something else will go wrong. Over the weekend we've heard lots of stories of chaos at the airport. It seems that the problems have spread beyond just EasyJet to include KLM and the airport itself. Pictures online have shown queues extending out of the building.

Much as Amsterdam is a cool place to be stranded, King's Day is approaching and, whilst I'd love to experience the party, I don't much fancy sleeping on the street. This niggling doubt has slightly spoiled our bonus days in town.

Not wanting to take any risks, we head to the airport very early. The EasyJet desk looks very different to last time we were here. No crowds. In fact, no passengers at all. We present our boarding passes and are told that our flight hasn't even opened yet. The lady opens it and processes us. We then head for security where we find an enormous queue. At the back of it we're met by someone handing out bottles of water. It looks like we're in for a long wait but at least we have plenty of time.

Eventually we get through, hang around until our flight departs and finally land back in the UK.

It's great to be safely back home. With this weight lifted we are able to reflect on what a brilliant trip it has been and what a wonderful bunch of people we've met.

Cast

AzLaker
Bedge
Choppermike
Mr. CopenhagenCouple
Ed the Head
Gapie
Ghost + Mike
Igraine
Lemming
Nuggz
Rob_OG
Worsall

Thanks to all for being amazing company and special thanks to Ghost for the goodie bags and to everyone who wrote brilliant travelogues after the trip.

Looking forward to the next one already ...

[HitTheNorth]

Awesome write up Lemming. I was always a little jealous of cancelled flights and extra days but it sounds like it comes with its own stresses too. Glad it all worked out in the end