Susan's NGTAW Blog

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Hotel Estherea - "Zany, Plush and Warmly Welcoming"

The navy blue awning of the Hotel Estherea on the Singel Canal

Saturday, April 16, 2022

We arrived at about noon to check in at the Hotel Estheria, an eclectic hotel in a beautiful 17th Century building on the Nieuwe Zijde (New Side) in downtown Amsterdam, situated on its oldest canal - the Singel.

Decor is something to be experienced. While one review calls it "zany, plush and warmly welcoming," another says it "treads the fine line between plush extravagance and gaudiness with aplomb." It's busy, but pleasing and we love the location.

Reception lobby area

Beautiful bevel glass front door entrance

Tea and refreshment area

Bar and breakfast service tables

Our room is number 410, appointed with soft pink, cream and cranberry colors. It has a fantastic bathroom with a soaking tub and shower, and L'Occitaine products. Our window looks out into an enclosed courtyard, so it's quiet and cool.

Sad we only get to stay here one night because of the travel difficulties.

Comfortable bed and sitting area with a light filled courtyard window

Window to the courtyard

Great, comfy bathroom with soaking tub and shower

Street view of front of Hotel Estherea

We spent the end of the evening out here at the canal side, watching the sky turn to dusk

A happy traveler

We See Tulips! - Do You?

The tulip fields are blooming - can you see them?

Saturday, April 16, 2022

As we drew closer to Amsterdam, and dropped down on our flight approach, we could see the colored patches of tulip fields, even from our lofty position.

I could pick out yellow, orange, red, purple, peach, white, cream - and probably a few more colors. It's definitely springtime here.

We could see the individual rows of purple tulips, and where the red ones have been harvested.

As soon as we were in Schiphol Airport, we saw beautiful tulips and bulbs for sale. I'll have to investigate what is permissible to take back into the United States, as it is a regulated agricultural product.

We walked another 4000 steps to retrieve our luggage, catch a taxi and head into downtown Amsterdam to our hotel. We're staying in the Nieuwe Zijde (New Side) section of downtown Amsterdam. Ready to check into our hotel and enjoy a nice room and a bath!

Arriving at Schiphol, you are pleasantly accosted with colorful places to buy tulips and bulbs

Totally typical Amsterdam Canal scene - bicycles, houseboats and 5 story tall, narrow buildings

And Hello - my first windmill on this trip.

Heading to Amsterdam on Lufthansa - Take Two

The morning sunlight floods the cabin as we fly over Germany at dawn

Friday, April 15 & Saturday, April 16, 2022

We started afresh at ORD, now rebooked on Lufthansa for our flight to Amsterdam with a connection in Frankfurt. We hadn't flown with Lufthansa before, and were interested to see how we liked it. It's an amazing plane - the (relatively) new Boeing 747- 800, built to compete with the European Airbus 330. This plane has 2 decks, with about 12 First Class seats and 28 Business Class seats on the main deck, and an upper deck of 32 Business Class seats. It holds more than 300 passengers, and is the longest flying commercial airplane.

Looking up from ground level, it's crazy to see how big this plane is!

The full view of our 747-800 jet at the gate in Frankfurt. Wow.

We departed on Good Friday at 4 PM. We were able to get seats together in Business Class, despite the number of rebookings United had to due on Thursday, so we felt fortunate. It's a seven and a half hour flight to Frankfurt, and then we transfer at FRA for a 50 minute flight to AMS.

We were offered champagne before takeoff - a nice celebration to start this upcoming vacation. We settled in to have dinner, read a bit and sleep. I like to watch the flight monitor on the TV screen, and I noticed that this flight passed right over Sterling Heights, my family home town.

A champagne toast to finally start the vacation!

I'm hugging my pillow, so glad to be on board. The seats fold flat for sleeping after dinner.

A little reading on the iPhone - a Mitchner novel for Michael.

Lufthansa has an excellent selection of wines, and we enjoyed sampling them.

My favorite was this 2016 Chateau Gravat, Cru Bourgeois Medoc

Dinner included seared scallops appetizers, and this mushroom agnolotti with basil cream sauce

We had about 4 hours after dinner to try to catch some sleep before awakening at dawn for breakfast and getting ready for our landing in Frankfurt. I'm not much for plane sleeping, but the seats were comfortable in the fully extended position. We landed on time, and walked our 4000 steps through FRA to get through passport control and catch our connecting flight at 9 AM to Amsterdam. We arrived, as planned, at Schiphol Airport at 10:30 AM on Saturday.

All in all, the flight cancellation and delay weren't too tough, except we had planned for a full extra day in Amsterdam to be able to see the museums that I wanted to visit. Having to adjust, but maybe we can still squeeze them in.

The Main River - and its namesake, the outskirts of Frankfurt am Main.

Friday, April 15, 2022

And We're Using Up Our Airline Vouchers...

The Gaslight Club - appropriately named for travelers stranded by the airlines?

No problems too big that a good martini can't fix!

Friday, April 15, 2022

We had a lovely evening enjoying the sights of the Chicago Airport. Stopped first at a few airport shops to find some items for our unexpected overnight. Went to Luftansa to check in to be sure we had seats for our next day flight. Checked in at the Hilton.

HAHAHA..... The United Airlines hotel voucher entitles you to a conference room, with a twin bed - that is a Murphy bed fold out!! Do we want to upgrade to a regular room for an additional charge? You bet!

We went to find a place to spend our $120 in meal vouchers. The Gaslight Lounge seemed perfectly named for our evening dinner. It's a funny, interesting place - decor is perfect for a bunch of stranded airline travelers. Playing lots of 60s music - Gary Pucket and the Union Gap, Roy Orbison, you get the idea.

We had a nice dinner - drinks, fish, salad - and laughed about how nice it was to have planned for a few extra days in Amsterdam so this delay doesn't mess anything up in any significant way (so far..)

Ready for my martini, thank you.

Vouchers - $20 per meal for six meals - yeah right! But nice that they provided them.

Lovely view from our hotel room

Good morning - Mike's happy because he has good coffee.

Using up those vouchers - good old American Hilton breakfast :-)

Well, and then this happened....

Not a good sign to have a fist full of meal vouchers from your airline...

Friday, April 15, 2022

Off we went to our airline gate, after lounging around in the Polaris Lounge. And guess what - our flight was cancelled! "Mechanical difficulties" - although the 50 MPH winds, gusting to over 70 may not have helped matters.

So back to the lounge for assistance rebooking. We had planned to arrive in Amsterdam two days early to allow for some extra sight seeing. Looks like instead, we get to see a little more of O'Hare Airport.

We are rebooked on Lufthansa for this afternoon, arriving in Amsterdam on Saturday morning.

Hello to my old friend, the ORD Hilton - many an airport meeting held here for my AMA work.

Airlines has our luggage - so I needed a sleep shirt. Slim pickings in the airport shops

A Chicago souvenir for my Holland trip!

Tulip Tour in Holland - Ready for Adventure!

Thursday, April 14, 2022

We're heading to Amsterdam for a visit during tulip season. So fun to be traveling again. We both received our 4th COVID booster two weeks ago. This trip was postponed from 2020 - a bike and barge tour of the Netherlands.