Exploring Schiphol Airport and the British Airways Lounge – Train vs Plane!
In this … comparison. Yes. Let’s call it a comparison.
- Train vs Plane? What the blazes is this?
- Off to St Pancras on the Early Train (Virgin Trains Birmingham to London Euston), St Pancras Departures Lounge
- Eurostar train 9114 London St Pancras to Amsterdam Centraal
- A walk around Amsterdam
- Setting the timer off: Off to Amsterdam Schiphol
- A light bit of spotting at Amsterdam Schiphol
- British Airways Terraces Amsterdam Schiphol
- BA441 Amsterdam Schiphol to London Heathrow
- Into London, stopping the stopwatch and Chilterns home
- Who wins?
With me out of the spotting area, and back in the public area, it was time to set the stopwatch off again, as I hunted for the right check-in area.
Not this check-in area…
Ah. Elite lines.
Somewhere around here…
With no luggage to check in, I grabbed my boarding pass for London Heathrow, and cleared security without too many issues.
To security…
5-10 minute wait. More than acceptable.
Once out of the security area, I cleared the Schengen border, and was back into International territory.
From above.
My prioirty was heading to the lounge to relax for a bit and sort out a few things before flight.Alas, Miffy wanted hard cash.
Glowing Miffy accepts your cash donations… buy one of these darling stuffed versions of her.
Chocolate Miffy (Nijntje) is pondering why you haven’t brought into her chocolate goodness.
I played follow the signs, and eventually ended up in Lounge 40 – The British Airways lounge
Nearing my target.
British Airways Lounge Schiphol Airport
I was welcomed to the lounge and blipped in. With that, I was blipped into the lounge. The lounge itself is a reasonable sized space… with lots of light thanks to the floor to celing glass windows.
Central seating
Seating
Looking out.
There’s also a reasonable food selection – and for a short-haul operations centre
Drinks and Mini-Stroopwaffles.
Soup is still a thing at Amsterdam Airport lounges.
Cold cuts.
BiFi. Not WiFi.
Breads and salad items.
Crisps.
Alochol
I got some drinks and settled down for a while, keeping an eye on the world
Air Europa Airbus A330… with a WiFi dome on it.
The lounge Wi-Fi was quite reasonable for a free solution.
I spent time time in the lounge catching up on the day, checking marriages and football scores (mainly as I wanted a quiet train ride home), and snapping the odd picture. All too soon, an annocement was made in the lounge that boarding for BA441 would being shortly. The lounge empited out, and I followed the crowd to the D Gates.
For those of you considering hanging around the lounge, it’s a good 10 minute walk to the gate – so allow time to get to the gate.
Back into the public area.
Guess the beer brand.
Miffy is enquiring why you are even considering buying Hello Kitty based items when you need to buy Miffy based items to decorate your homes.
Famous Dutch export.
I turned to the D Gates and followed the path to the gate.
Down the pier.
TAROM Boeing 737-300
As I got to the gate, boarding was in full swing, with Club Europe boarding.
The waiting plane (with a LOT Embarer E-Jet in the backgound
The luggage sizer of doom.
When Silver boarding was announced I headed aboard the waiting plane, ready to get the next part of Train vs Plane under way.
Next: BA441 Amsterdam Schiphol to London Heathrow Terminal 5
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