Brugge - Amsterdam - Dublin

15th August
Brugge - Amsterdam - Dublin
We re-thought our return plans for today, as we only had 4 minutes to get off the train from Brugge and find the fast train to Amsterdam Airport (Schiphol). From the experience we had going to Brugge when we had 12 minutes we decided that 4 was just too tight a time frame. Sooooo we got a wake up call at 5.30 - brekky of orange juice and croissants at 6 and in the taxi to the Brugge train station at 6.30. We then had half an hour to catch our first train to Antwerp Central Station. When we saw the size of Antwerp station we were very glad we had made this change. It would have been a physically impossible task to get from the station we arrived to the other side of the station and 2 floors down. Even Superman would have had his work cut out!!!! We had to wait an hour but our blood pressure and heart rate was normal so that is worth a lot at our stage of life. At 8am local time we remembered the 18yo and the 21yo who said 'I do" 42 years ago. We clinked coffee cups to toast our anniversary (the first of many on this busy day).
Our train arrived at Schiphol station and we just walked along to our right and we were in the airport - all under the same roof. From there it got a bit chaotic. Queues that said one thing but meant another but after 1 1/2 hours we had managed to get through customs etc. and sat and had some lunch. We then had till 2.30 to wait to board our plane.......coffee time....... and write this part of todays thrilling instalment of life on the road,bus, train, plane and taxi.........to be continued...
Well our plane arrived and we finally got into the air. Somewhere over the Netherlands it was 4pm again - so we wished each other happy aniiversary again. The announcement came over the p.a. to turn our watches back one hour, so next time it was 4pm we were in Dublin airport on our way to customs. It is a very big airport, and we were surprised to see nearly every notice in the Irish language as well as English.
We made our way to the city/airport bus and were soon at The Arlington Hotel Temple Bar. It is a very old pub. There is a dinner and show of Irish music and dancing by ex- River dancers. So that sounded good. After crossing three countries during today - tonight we didn't even have to cross the street; We got to our room and oh boy is it small. Our cabin on the cruise was bigger. Den came back from the bathroom and said - well apart from the toilet not being attached to the floor, the flush continuing to flush, the shower head about to drop off and the door not being able to close and you have to be careful when you walk in that you don't end up in the loo - it's good!!!! The safe has been left locked by the previous occupiers and we had terrible trouble working out how to turn the shower on......oh well at least it is clean and only for one night.... with all that we were a bit concerned as to how the dinner and dance we had booked into would go.....we need not have worried we had a great time. Our table was right next to the side of the stage so we had a perfect view and as you will see from the photo Guiness was on tap on our table????? We sang along with favorite folk songs and clapped along to the jigs. The dancers were great also. They were going up on to their toes like ballet dancers in the middle of all the stamping and leg kicking. It was a great night. There were people there from all parts of the world - Russia, Mexico, Chile, Canada, Texas, Italy etc. and Den and me the only two Aussies. They introduced one song and said how it used to be punishment to be sent to Australia but now people would be queueing up to be sentenced to transportation these days.