Getting up at 3:30 in the morning is not “my thing”. Especially when having gone to sleep at 2:30, due to packing and trip preparations. But I have no other choice – the taxi will leave at 4:30, and the plane will leave at 6:00 from Leeds Bradford Airport.
It helps a bit that a group of drunken students coming home to the Kirkstall Brewery Residences from a nightly outing sings loudly down on the street.
KLM flight to Amsterdam. Leaves 30 minutes late. The sky already gets bright, and as the plane takes off, I get a good look at the surroundings of Leeds. I see the Pennine High Peak area, where I just have been this Saturday – snowcapped. I see even some higher mountains more south – they look not just snow-dusted, but intensly white. And the North York Moors also have a white snow dust on them – I might go there next weekend, after my return from this trip.
A thick cloud layer hangs over the channel, and the coast of England is also a bit snowy. As we descend into the Netherlands, the pattern of frozen channels contrasts nicely with the whitish-gray surroundings.
Arrival in Schiphol Airport just 10 minutes late. Now I have 4 hours till the next flight.
The walking distances at this airport can be quite long – it takes ten minutes of rigid walking till I reach the gate, where the flight to Milan is supposed to take off. On the announcement screen it says "delayed". So the Alitalia flight will be 1:15 hours later than originally scheduled – I will probably miss my third flight in Genoa. Well, I have no other choice than to wait. Probably take then a later flight from Milan.
I decide to use the time to upload this text – I do not know if I will have online access in Genoa.
