We checked out of our hostel at about 10:00 a.m. and headed out on our long journey home. It started out pretty good and the weather in Amsterdam was absolutely phenomenal. Fortunately, we’ve had pretty good weather our whole trip. It never really got hot and I’m very thankful for that because in Amsterdam we didn’t have the luxury of air conditioning in our hostel.
Our first train ride was from the central Amsterdam train station to the Amsterdam airport. We took advice from some people we met the previous night and tried to ride the one stop to the airport without buying a ticket. After all, throughout the entire trip, we have never been checked on the intercity trains so we thought that was a great idea. Unfortunately, our luck ran out on the way to the airport. Fortunately, the “train police” were kind to us and only made us pay a fraction of the actual fine. It was definitely something we laughed about later.
Once we got to the airport it was relatively smooth sailing. Our flight out of Amsterdam left on time. We were once again in business class, which was absolutely amazing for a long flight. We had a three hour layover in Detroit, which went off without a hitch and left on time, but then we were stuck in the air for about an hour and forty five minutes longer than the flight should have taken because of bad weather in Minneapolis. We got in about 10:00 and I was on the Light Rail with my backpack by 10:45 or so. I didn’t sleep at all on the plane because I wanted to get properly acclimated to the Minneapolis time zone again. So by the time I went to bed I had been about for a little over 24 hours straight. To my surprise, I was actually feeling pretty good for staying up that long. It didn’t really hit me until about 2:00 P.M. the next day. I’m struggling to finish writing this right now.
And now for the big wrap up. All in all, the trip was amazing. We accomplished what we needed to at the business conference and we successfully transitioned from business mode to vacation mode for the last few days. My traveling partner from work was a true pleasure to travel with. We share the same innate curiosity that drives us to better understand the people and culture of the places we visit. It helped us stay on the same page throughout the trip.
As usual, traveling changed my perspective on the world once again. It gave me something that I feel I’ve been missing for a long while…. A certain sense of fulfillment. It showed me that the world can still surprise me.
