Holiday to Here, There and Everywhere: Day 2 – Amsterdam AMS to London Heathrow LHR

This very short trip forming Phase 1 of my holiday to here, there and everywhere was due to conclude today.

My sleep was poor to say the least. The air con was very cold and the duvet was very warm. I must have woken 4 or 5 times before getting up at around 4am.

On the positive side, that gave me time to plan my day.

I checked out and wandered down to the airport. It was nice and fresh and still very dark. Nice and quiet though.

Security was open 24hrs apparently, so there was no issue with me heading through airside at 5am.

Passport control was via automated kiosk immediately after security, so they get back out of the way immediately.

Then everyone (including EU nationals) were mixed and could make use of all of the facilities.

I was lucky enough to find a Starbucks that was open, so that got my day off to a good start. That was a Starbucks Reserve and was located close to the OpenWorld lounge 40.

The lounge opened at 5:30am so I had a short wait, but I was soon in, taking in the facilities of this newish lounge.

They made a big fuss about this lounge when it opened, but to be honest, it was a fairly unexciting lounge. The food was half decent, the loos were clean and there was plenty of seating. You don’t need too much more than that!

My flight back to Heathrow was due to leave from Gate D16, so I headed down there in good time.

The gate area was pretty quiet. With 40 mins to go, boarding commenced and I was swiftly onboard into seat 01F.

There were five rows of business class on the way home and every seat was taken.

We pushed back a few mins early and taxiing was very short – just five mins and we were on the runway.

Considering the flight was only scheduled to last 40-45 mins, the crew were slow to start the meal service.

Breakfast comprised a tray of an apple pastry, a yoghurt and a bowl of fresh fruit which was plenty.

I dozed most of the flight and as we approached London, the captain advised that there was low lying cloud and there would be no views of the capital on this occasion.

It was damp on landing and we arrived into Gate A9.

The air bridge was attached fairly promptly for Heathrow and I was heading to Arrivals.

The automated passport kiosks were not too busy and as normal nowadays, I was through without a hitch.

The south customs was closed, so I had to walk a touch further than normal in getting landside.