March 24, 2025

Schiphol (Amsterdam) Airport, Schiphol, Netherlands

To

Torino, Italia

Travel Day! Again? The day of rest at Schiphol yesterday was actually very nice. It allowed us to get ourselves together and start planning for the next part of the adventure. However, it is time to move along and today we head to Torino where we can do laundry, repack and organize for Morocco.

We got up just after it had gone 05:30. Got showered, shaved and dressed. We were at the breakfast room just after it had gone 06:00. Unlike last time this morning they were ready to serve breakfast. Everything was out, which is nice.

Mary ordered me a cappuccino while I went and got my breakfast. When I returned she took her turn to go and get her breakfast. It is a very nice breakfast buffet. They don’t know how to make a cappuccino, but the coffee isn’t bad.

Unfortunately, as we have experienced, a lot of places that include breakfast like this use automated machines to make hot drinks, including espresso and cappuccino. Some machines actually have containers for milk, others use powdered milk. Maybe I am spoiled, but I really like foam in my cappuccino. It isn’t just hot milk and coffee. Regent had really nice machines onboard the ship, but Rommel still made my cappuccino. It was so much better than the machine.

Here at the Sheraton breakfast room they actually make the coffee somewhere, and it doesn’t appear they use  machine. There are carafes of coffee around the room. The coffee is more than half good. They still use cold milk, but nothing is perfect. Even at the Namiri Camp they heated the milk for Mary’s coffee.

We had heard so many horror stories about security and immigration at Schiphol that we allowed three hours for the process. We did this on the way to Kilimanjaro and breezed right through, however we were in business class, so maybe that had something to do with it. We are Sky Priority with KLM, even when not in business class. We are flying economy today. It is a short one hour and thirty minute flight to Torino.

Interestingly they have an automated luggage drop off. There is a machine about two meters wide and a meter and a half high. You put your bag on the scale just outside a small rolling door on the machine. The machine weighs and measures the bag. If it isn’t within the parameters for your flight, it won’t process it.

Personally, I like this. It will require people to actually pack appropriately and prevent those oversize and overweight bags. Now there is a draw back. It doesn’t like the soft sided bags we have taken to Africa for the safari. It is difficult to get them to standup straight and the handles flop over outside the range of the laser measuring device. Fortunately, the person monitoring the bag drop notice our issue and directed us to an actual place with a person to check our bags.

The whole bag check process took all of fifteen minutes. From there we followed the signs to immigration and security. There were no lines at immigration. They basically looked at us and passed us through. There were no lines for security. We walked right up the to belt for the scanner. Put our things in the bins and feed them through the scanner.

The whole process took maybe thirty minutes. Now, we have nearly two hours before boarding. We have eaten breakfast, what to do. We stopped at a book shop. There were books in English. I purchased a copy of David Baldacci’s latest book, “To Die For”. Mary got a couple of trashy magazines. The we walked to a toy store where Mary chose something for Luisa.

Now with one hour and forty-five minutes before boarding we simply headed towards the gate. The Schiphol Airport is big. The “B Gates” are probably as far from the entrance of the terminal as you can get. The “B Gates” are in an older part of the terminal and uses the “old fashion” method of boarding. That is, they put you on buses and drive you out to the bus. The whole concept of group 1, 2 or 3 is lost in this process. Yes, group 1 loads on to the bus first, but then groups 2 and 3 follow on to the same bus.

If you think about the first group on the bus, is in all likely hood the last group of the bus, which means they are the last group to board the plane. So, in this one instance you want to be in group 3 so you board the bus last. Groups 4, 5 and 6 take a second bus. The truth is is really doesn’t matter unless you have too much carryon luggage. We did observe the KLM staff stop one woman who had to pieces of luggage, a purse and shopping bag trying to board. They made her check the two pieces of luggage she was quite upset. Well, too bad honey you were over the limit by a lot.

The flight was short. The seats in economy aren’t as bad as those on American carriers. There is actually room for your legs. They may able be a centimeter wider. They served us a cheese sandwich and mini–Coke Zero. Not bad for economy.

We landed in Torino. Deplaned. On the way to the terminal we were stopped by immigration and asked to show our passports. They asked us why we were coming to Italy. We told them to visit our daughter. They let us pass.

We picked up our bags off the carousel and headed out to the taxi stand. The taxi to central Torino is fixed priced at €40. Sure enough that is what the meter said when we reached Serra’s. We arrived at Serra’s just before it had gone noon. Serra was fixing lunch, and we entertained Luisa and Amadea.

After a while I decided to walk and find our AirB&B. According to maps it is 350 meters from Serra’s. Down Via Giulia de Barolo turn left at the Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Two blocks down I found number 19. It is still too early to check-in. I texted the property manager and said we were early and asked if it was possible to check-in early. While waiting for a response I walked down Via Po and ended up at Acqua & Sapone.  

Although I hadn’t check our supplies box at Serra’s yet, I went into Acqua & Sapone and bought a box of 19 Dash pods for washing our clothing. I figured it would get used eventually. I received a text while walking back that the apartment was ready and we could go anytime. It was 14:20.

I went back to Serra’s and told Mary we could move into the apartment whenever she was ready. We picked our things up, grabbed Two of the “extra” suitecases. Threw some of the supplies from the supplies box into one of them and walked to the apartment. This apartment uses to virtual key. We did manage to get it to work and got into the apartment just fine.

The apartment is about 3 meters wide and maybe 20 meters long. Long and narrow. There is one window at the end facing the piazza. It is well lit and comfy, but maybe a little claustrophobic. I tried to turn on the fan to get a little air circulation but I couldn’t find the controllers. I wrote the landlord and asked. He said if we wanted air circulation we just need to open the window. There is also a ceiling fan, but that too had been disabled.

It will be ok for three nights. Staying here for a month wouldn’t do it. As the evening progressed, we came to the realization that there was no dishwasher, oven or microwave. We’re not here that long to really care too much. But the microwave would have been nice. There are just a few supplies here. No dish towels, fortunately our supply box has two, no napkins, again our supply box, and no facial tissues, again the supply box.

Some places have just the basics, usually a small bit of coffee, sugar, salt and pepper. Usually, the have either paper towels or dish towels. Obviously we have had issues with these not being available, thus we pack our own. Of course the supply box also contains a moka pot, milk frother, tovaglioli and veline. Nothing like being well prepared.

Mary wasn’t feeling to well, so I took the clothing out to the laundromat and washed everything. It took two hours, but all the clothing was cleaned and dried. I also managed to read a considerable portion of my book! I took the clothes back to the apartment and then went to the supermarket near Serra’s and picked out some things for dinner. I got soup for Mary. I got back and heated up the soup, chicken cutlets and some risotto Milanese. We sat and ate dinner, after which Mary promptly got sick. Thankfully it probably wasn’t my cooking.

We cleaned up a bit and returned to bed. It has been a long day.

Buonanotte e Ciao, Enrico e Maria.