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Paul got to my place at 06:43am this morning. We had a train to catch, the 07:06am train to be exact. It was still dark as we walked to the station. I’m sure we woke people up with our rolling Eastpak bags making the tadatadatada sound on the bricks. We arrived at the train station way before 7am and got our train tickets. Is it me or do these machines never work? Card not valid. WTF. I had more luck on attempt number two and it even printed a receipt. Even the elevator worked so we didn’t have to carry our bags up the stairs. I grabbed a free Metro newspaper so I could kill some time on the train ride to Schiphol airport. It takes 7 minutes to get to Eindhoven from Helmond-Brandevoort. When we arrived there the direct train for Schiphol was still there. Next to reading the paper we also got into the internet mode. Might as well since the contract covers the internet on the phone while still in the Netherlands.

Trains in the Netherlands are actually quite comfortable to travel with, if they run on time. We scheduled to be at the airport 2 hours before the flight departed and it arrived on time. A quick look at the Departing Flight schedule had us walk to Terminal 3, desk 21. We were directed to the yellow check-in booths to do the check-in ourselves. Where has the service gone? It took us a minimum of 15 minutes before we got our boarding passes. The system was horrible and crashed a couple of times. The old couple next to us beat us in time. Are they so smart, or are we so stupid?

On to the baggage drop-off next. I’m sure I’ll shoot myself in the foot during this trip as I decided to travel light: 12.9 kilos. Baggage regulations are changing rapidly and I try to avoid paying extra wherever possible. My US Airways Silver card that expired in 2003 will not be my best friend when I need to argue with the US Airways staff. I hate those Miles programs. In all those years I’ve traveled, and that includes at least 30 trips to the USA, I’ve only managed to get one free iPod and one “free flight” that cost me 295 Euros in taxes. Pretty ridiculous if you realize how much money was spent on all these tickets. But with the baggage rules getting tight, it helps to save miles as you sometimes get 5 kilos extra, or you can get an extra bag on board for free. I ain’t got no card to show (other than me expired silver status card) for any freebees so to play it safe I had one bag to check in, and it went through. Hopefully it will arrive on the other side of the ocean as I didn’t pack any toiletries or underwear in my camera bag that got on board with me.

Through the gate and off to the money exchanger. I had no US Dollars left at home and decided to bring some Swiss Francs that I still had from a judging job at the Freestyle.ch years ago and never used. BAM! $ 299,= US Dollars and 60 Eurocents of change in da pocket. It felt like I had just won the jackpot. After a quick toilet visit it was already time to get to gate G7 for a security check up. “Are you guys rappers?” the security guard asked. No, not really. “Do you guys do graffiti?” Well, did one in 1985 and learnt our lesson straight away. “What are you guys going to the USA for?” Well, a BMX race and a bicycle trade show. “Ahhhhh….” It was a confirmation for her that she was putting us in a similar category. If you’ve answered these security questions loads of times before and you’ve got nothing to be worried about, it takes a matter of seconds before they let you through. A full body scan (with the machine) followed plus two more boarding card checks and we made it to the plane.

Of course our seats are sucking. With no status you won’t be upgraded for free. For a moment I thought about getting wasted and then hopefully pass out but they helped me out of that dream pronto by announcing that a beer is $ 7.00 USD per can, even on the overseas flight. They’re charging $ 5.00 for a headphone to watch a movie but oh boy did I like the “beef dinner”. So instead of passing out, I’m typing up this first update of the USA trip while Paul pretends he’s asleep. 2 hours down, 6 hours and 15 minutes to go before we get to Philly. Then it’s off to San Diego. Traveling is always an adventure. I’ll keep you posted.

BdJ