June 25, 2013: Amsterdam >> Vienna >> Sofia

Today, we woke to our last morning in Amsterdam. (For a while anyway ;) ) We had a lovely breakfast in the lounge (yes, I am mourning my last chocolate muffin), packed up, and raced out to catch our bus for the airport. (The public transportation is great here). We arrived at the airport. Ready to board our flight to Munich, Germany, and from there to Sofia, Bulgaria, but there was an issue with our tickets and it turned out we were not going on the 11am flight to Munich. We were on the 10am flight to Vienna, Austria. And they were boarding. W had to rush through security. There wasn't much of a line, and what line there was moved fast. However, we did have to take out all our electronics (chargers, iPads, cameras, laptops, ect.), no idea why, bit we did. That slowed us down a bit. We ran to our gate in bits and pieces; a shoe off here, a free floating iPad there, a couple loose sweatshirts, and of course the ever cumbersome, yet necessary violins dangling off dad's shoulder... It's amazing we didn't loose anything. We got there just in the knick of time to board our rather old fashioned plane, with the most intensely hued array of upholstery have seen in quite some time. (By the way, I took me about 10min. to figure out how to spell "upholstery"). Upon arriving in Vienna, we took a breather in the flight lounge (we have really been to a lot of lounges so far. I think we're at 3...). A handy tip: sometimes bathrooms aren't really occupied. The door is just a "push" door. Even though it looks a lot like a "pull" door. Hmph. What else happened... Ummm... Oh ya. As we boarded our flight I set off an alarm. You had to scan your ticket, and then the gate would open and let you through. Well I scanned mine, and a light turned green, so I pushed on the gate, which set off an alarm. Okay, so that happened. The flight passed smoothly, and being given chocolate wafers instead of peanuts helped. We landed in Sofia, Bulgaria, in a tiny little airport. We took a cab to a Hilton (yes, we took advantage of another executive lounge), and went out to explore the city. 

They had a corn stand on the street, and I really couldn't resist. 

As we were about leave and walk back to the hotel, we ran into a protest.

 It was really cool to see all these people, children, grandparents, and young people alike, standing up for what they believe in in a nonviolent manner. Very cool. 

 

Long Story Short:

⚫ Amsterdam

⚫ In the Clouds

⚫ Vienna

⚫ In the Clouds

⚫ Sofia

⚫ Hilton

⚫ The Streets