Thursday 2
April 1981 - Amsterdam
– New York
We
woke quite early and completed our packing before going down to breakfast, which
was the same as yesterday and good. We checked out and arranged for our bags to
be brought down the dreaded sixty one steps and off we went - first stop Boon
Toys because the Russian car purchased there was defective. However it was not
to be because, although it was 09.30 when we got there, the shop was not open
and neither was the American Book Store, where Matt had spotted a Star Wars
book. (We were used to South African/Zimbabwean
opening times – most shops opened at 08.00, and closed at 17.00))
We wandered around for about an hour,
just looking at the sights - and there were quite a lot, even at that time of
the morning! (It was only years later
that we discovered that Matt had been practically traumatised by some of the
sights in the red light district which we wandered into inadvertently, despite
the fact we shot out as soon as we realised where we were!) and then went
back to Boon, where we exchanged the car for another, which had a different
defect. Since we had also picked up the Star Wars book, we went back to the
hotel to gather our bags and a cab. We had intended going by taxi to the KLM
terminus and then catch a bus out to Schipol, but it turned out that there was
not much difference in price between doing this and going straight out in the
taxi, which was much more convenient. The fare was about fl 50 (R10) which was,
I thought, reasonable.
The airport was very nice and clean
and the check in girl very pleasant. Unfortunately, the seats which we had
booked the day before had been given to someone else, but, as it turned out,
our seats were OK - there was a good deal more leg room than on SAA flights.
Rab had a great old time going throughout the duty free shops at the airport.
She got some perfume and I got some booze. Our flight was called at about 13.15
and we made our way to our gate - thank goodness for moving pavements. Matt
reckoned one was about 1 km long, and I think he may not have been far out.
We found, when all our fellow
passengers were gathered together in the departure lounge, that we had a large
contingent of Hassidic rabbis on our flight. Rab was a little apprehensive
about the long trans-oceanic flight but I suggested that with all these holy
people aboard, the chances of her using her flotation vest were minimised, What a sight they were - about 24 of them:
once we were in the air the younger ones seemed to spend their entire time
wandering up and down the aisles of the aircraft. Maybe they were praying.
Matt's Cover for my Journal |
After the enjoyable flight, the
ground control at JFK was a great disappointment. For a start, we had to walk
miles and although Immigration facilities were not too bad, the scene at
luggage reclaiming was like Dante's Inferno. The facilities were obviously
erected long before the days of Jumbo jets, because there just was not enough
room. To make matters worse, the luggage was coming on one of two mechanical
belts. I watched one and Rab watched the other, while Matt battled valiantly to
keep the hordes from stomping all over the hand baggage. Eventually we had all
our goods together and then had the problem of joining the Customs queue. Not
for the Americans the simplicity of a Green/Red Customs exit. Every passenger
had to go through one of six Customs posts and, in many cases, the baggage was
searched. All in all, a bit of a nightmare (and the last thing we needed
after the long flight across the Atlantic - it was quite a few years before the
Americans introduced Green exits).
Having fought our way through these
tremendous obstacles, we captured a friendly porter, who took us and our
baggage through to arrivals, where there was no sign of our friends the
Schafers who were to meet us! They pitched up after about ten minutes, and
although we pulled their legs about being late as usual and it was lovely to
see them. The trip back to Stamford was
interesting as we circled the outskirts of New York, through the Bronx etc. I was very
surprised to see how much wasteland there was, much of which reminded me of the
outskirts of Johannesburg
- long brown grass, burned out in parts - with industrial rubbish scattered
here and there. The picture I had in my mind of areas like the Bronx was every inch being used, but it just ain't so.
Stamford
and the area around here are lovely and it must be really beautiful in summer
because there are so many trees. All the roads are tree lined, which disguises
the fact that there are so many of them. It is only when you come to a major
interchange or a built up area that you realise how many there are and how many
vehicles there are around. We had a very nice meal of Steak Tartare and a lot
of chatting. Matt saw some TV, which impressed him, and we finally got to bed
at about 22.45 (local time), which meant that we had been up and on the
go for the best part of 24 hours.
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