Bucharest, Romania June 2008: Arriving in Amsterdam Schipol (AMS) from Bucharest, Romania (OTP)

15JUN08 Amsterdam Schipol International, Amsterdam Netherlands (AMS)

I am not sure which runway we landed on, but the end of it was close to Concourse G. it was a smooth landing, but we braked hard and headed for Concourse D. It was great to see a bunch of planes as we headed there.

The purser welcomed us to Amsterdam and advised that if you are a Romanian good luck on Tuesday as you are going to need it. He was referring to the football game between Romania and the Netherlands on Tuesday in the Euro 2008 football competition. The whole plane erupted in laughter and clapping.

We deplaned and headed for Concourse G so that we can pay the departure tax and collect our boarding passes. We did see some troops at one gate leaving from one gate. They were boarding an Air Berlin A330. I think this is one of the planes that they will sue for Transatlantic service soon.

I was also able to get a picture of our plane next to it.

Once that was done, we headed to the KLM Crown Lounge that was closest. We showed our credentials and settled in. It was great to relax for a bit before the long 10 hour or so flight across the Atlantic.

We left the KLM Crown Lounge at ten minutes after the hour of nine o’clock and headed for gate G7. It was quite a walk so we hustled. My colleague wanted to get a sandwich, but the lines were too long and since we were a bit late.

When we got to the gate, we went through security checks and then waited for a seat. The inbound aircraft was late, so boarding started late.

As the flight was full I got a middle seat and my colleague got the last window seat. Soon, boarding started.