Time for another one of Dave's useless spotting trip reports, this time returning to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport with my girlgriend
for a "romantic" get away
When I planned this trip, I envisioned nothing but fantastic summer weather for the entire trip. As
per usual, this turned out not to be the cae, instead we suffered Thunderstorms and rain the whole time.
We flew Belfast International to Amsterdam with Easyjet on the Wednesday afternoon, and for once we had pleasent transit through
BFS, with little to no queues through security and they didn't even check my camera bag this time around. Upon arriving into
Schiphol after a short sunny flight we spent an hour up on the Spotting terrace on the roof of the airport which covers 60% of the
gates.
The terrace is free to get up to and there are several cafes and restaurants if food is needed. Due to poor weather, we
didn't stay up there too long although did manage to catch a nice little Windrose Embraer 190 which is rare in Schiphol.
The following day, I was suffering from the flu so we opted to just hang about the Polderbaan carpark in our rental car, in the
warmth and out of the rain. For those that aren't familar with Schiphol, the Polderbaan runway was built 10 years ago and is
located about 4-5km away from the airport itself. Around the Polderbaan are unrestricted views due to the relaxed and friendly
nature of the Airport Authorities.
The following day was pretty much similar, a few hours at the Polderbaan, and the rest of the day in our seemingly Titanic themed
hotel. This time aircraft were departing from the Polderbaan.
The sun did pop out for a few aircraft though
Just before heading home on the Sunday, we headed back to the terrace in search for a TV for the F1 race at Spa, unfortunately the
bar didn't have BBC1, just eurosport which for some reason didn't cover the F1, thus we headed out to do yet more spotting before
flying home. Of course, it was raining at the time.
A bonus on the trip was seeing this old British Caledonian 747-200, which had been converted into a freighter. Until recently,
this aircraft had been grounded and stored somewhere in China but has since returned to the skies.
Any how, sorry to bore you all with so many pics, as usual, they were just a "small" collection from all the pictures I took
during the trip. All in all, a great trip despite the weather. The rental car which was a Toyota Aygo, was economic fuel wise and
comfortable and most importantly cheap, likewise the hotel was great, a real bargin at £40 a night per couple... a big saving on
the usual price of £150 a night
With KLM retiring their MD-11's soon, I'd recommend a trip to Amsterdam Schiphol for a day or two, just to see the last few
remaining passenger MD-11's, definately worth the trip.
Dave
