Day 7

Day 7 was another massive travel day. We had decided to catch the train to the airport rather than ge a taxi now that we had mastered the subway. We got up early, packed up the rest of our stuff and headed down to check out of the hotel and have breakfast. After breakfast, we walked the streets of Beijing one last time on our way to the train station. We joined the hordes of people in the subway and somehow managed to squeeze on the train with our baggage.

We transferred to the airport train and cruised out to Beijing International Airport. Steve bumped into this French guy while we were waiting for the train who had a 9:30 am flight. This was around 8. He was understandably freaking out that he was going to miss his flight...

Arrived at the airport where we had to make our way upto the main terminal for check in. We had been hoping that the plane would be empty so that we could sprawl out on some of the middle aisles but, no, the flight was actually over booked and it took us forever to check in.

We went through security and had to catch a little train from the terminal to a second terminal where our flight would be boarding from. At first we'd thought, wow, that's a bit lazy. However, about 5 minutes and a few kilometres later, we could appreciate why the train was necessary. We wandered around the terminal for a while trying to spend the last of our Chinese money. We partially suceeded but sadly there wasn't that much stuff to spend it on at the departure terminal before we had to board.
Got onto the plane with the squillions of other people and made our way to our seats. To our horror, there was no individual in flight entertainment units for our ten hour flight!

Luckily we had our faithful laptop loaded up with some episodes to watch. It ended up working fairly well, a good balance of snoozing, watching some episodes and getting up for the occasional leg stretch. Far less painful than the ten hour flight to China had been although that could also be because our bodies were ready for it this time.
We landed in Frankfurt around 3:00 pm local time (our bodies were telling us it was 8:00 pm) and made our way off the plane to immigration. There was a massive queue due to all the people on the plane and only 4 immigration officers so it was moving incredibly slowly. A little man walked down and asked us if we had European passports to which Steve said no. I went ballistic at him, well, not really, but I made him get out his Dutch passport and we proceeded to the front of the line. Ah, European passports.
In Steve's defence, we hadn't actually been sure if the process had been immigration as they were so relaxed about the whole thing. We had just left Australia and China which both require an exit and entry form and so we were expecting a similar thing in Germany but apparently all we had to do was show our passports, I got a stamp, and then we cruised through.

We made our way through Frankfurt airport to the departure gate for our connecting flight to Amsterdam where we went through the slowest security check IN THE WORLD. I know Germans are supposed to be thorough, but this was rediculous.

Lappy had died in the last hour of the previous flight so we went hunting for somewhere to recharge him. Unfortunately, all the 'recharge stations' where just European plugs, and our adapter was in our suitcases.
When we got to our terminal, Sandra went to get some grub. While I was sitting there reading, a lady came up to me and asked if I could do a servey. Ok, I've got nothing better to do. After much time later, we finished. Just in time for the final stages of boarding. I don't think the lady expected us to have such a HUGE trip planned.

The trip to the Netherlands was awesome for no other reason than it was quick. 45 minutes quick. No one can ever complain about flying unless they've had to endure a long flight.

We were unsure what the plan was when we arrived in the Netherlands. Mum couldn't get her phone working, so calling her was out of the question, and I only got an answering machine of Mum's cousin that we are staying with. But they had heard my message and came to pick us up. Hooray!

Wow, so much Dutch. I haven't had to speak it this intensively since, well, ever. The last time I was here, I could only really understand it a bit, and everyone was aware of my lingual handicap. But since then I've trained up (go my old Dutch kids books!), and am now a Dutch speaking machine! Even if that machine is small and simple Casio keyboard. Sandra is picking it up pretty well as well.

We're staying with my mum's cousin in her block of units. They have 2 guest rooms that we've taken over. So the rest of today was basically just winding down, planning and relaxing.