We travelled on KLM airlines totaling 22 hours each
way. We left Houston around 3 pm Houston
time (11 pm Kenya time) on Monday the 15th and returned around 1 pm
Houston time (9 pm Kenya time) on the 14th. I will just say that I loved traveling on KLM
Airlines! I have never been on a plane
that long and wasn’t sure what to expect.
KLM had friendly staff and lots of options on the plane that I you don’t
get on shorter flights. Every time I have
been out of the country it has been a short flight, so I was worried about the
22 hours of traveling. I had googled KLM
to see what they were like and what sort of food to expect, but there wasn’t
much out there so I thought I would write about my experience.
My sister and my nephew Cole dropped me off at the airport
around 12 pm after we had lunch at Pappasito’s.
I knew I wouldn’t get Mexican food again for a few weeks so we went
there for my last pre Kenya meal. They
dropped me off and I was a bundle of nerves about the plane ride, the trip, my
safety, and tons of other things. I met
Tarin and her husband Bill when I got there and we checked in together. We got there in plenty of time to relax
before our flight, so there was no need to rush.
The First and Second Legs
On our flight they gave each of us a blanket and pillow when
we first sat down, along with a set of headphones that went with the free
in-flight entertainment system. The kids
each got some sort of kids game set, but I didn’t see what was in it because I
didn’t have any kids on my row (thank goodness!). I did have a few screaming kids on all four
legs of the trip though, that was pleasant.
I thought the meals on the plane tasted ok, but some people
don’t like them. There was several items
that seemed weird to me, but in other countries it was probably normal
food. Each flight we had two meals, a
snack, and beverage service several times.
It always seemed like they were giving us something. Plus, we got a hot towel several times
throughout the flight. <--Which I thought was weird, but apparently it is
normal! Overall, the food wasn’t bad,
just some parts but that is what you should expect for being miles in the
air.
The first meal was dinner and it was chicken nuggets, salad,
roll, crackers, cheese, and a cake. The
only thing I remember about this meal was the nuggets tasted weird and the
salad had some odd ingredients (odd but tasty).
The cheese and cake were great! I
think I had wine for this meal, but I didn’t drink a lot of it since I only
like sweet wines and this was chardonnay I believe.
The second meal was breakfast, but I was still sort of full
from the last meal. I do remember that
this meal was gross so I didn’t eat much of it.
It was a sandwich, fresh fruit, blueberry muffin, and strawberry yogurt. The sandwich was terrible, I only ate the
bread and the yogurt tasted like diet yogurt with a weird aftertaste. I saved the fresh fruit for another time, but
never ate it. Maybe the yogurt tastes
normal to other people?
We stopped over in Amsterdam for a 4 hour layover. I updated FB saying that we had made it to
Amsterdam for my families’ sake since I couldn’t call, but after that I didn’t
do much except watch tv with the Boston Marathon news coverage. We landed and all the tv’s were covering a
news story about Boston, but we hadn’t heard anything while in the air of
course, so it was quite a shock when we landed to hear that one of the most
famous marathons in the world had been a target of crazy people. I was half way around the world and I couldn’t
contact anyone.
We got back on the plane for another long flight. This flight left around 11 am from Amsterdam
and was flying in to Nairobi, Kenya. This
flight gave us the same service as the last one, just with different types of
food, including ice cream!
The first meal was lunch and it had rice, chicken with
terrikai like sauce, crackers, cheese, salad, roll, and a creamy pastry
dessert. I loved this meal! The salad had pineapples and some other odd
ingredients, but it was still tasty. The
pastry cream dessert was my favorite thing I had on the entire trip! Seriously, so good. I asked for ginger ale on this trip, but they
said it is only offered on flights to and from America. :/ Boo!
Oh well, give me ice cream!
The second meal was a pizza wrap/rollup thing, salad with
pasta, fresh fruit, and cookies. The
pizza wrap was a bit tough to cut/chew, but it was tasty. I have never had a salad with pasta in it,
but it wasn’t bad, I liked it. The cookie
that they give you is a famous Amsterdam cookie that I actually bought a box of
when I came back through.
We landed in Nairobi with no problems and found our driver
to take us back. I will say that the Amsterdam airport is very nice and
organized, but the Nairobi was needed some remodeling.
The Return Trip
Coming back from Kenya seemed to take forever.
I didn’t get much sleep on the entire way
home, maybe a hour or two, even taking sleeping pills!
It seemed longer because I was ready to get
home, back to my routine, my family, and my
Jabba the Hutt. <-- I missed
that bratty boy.
We got to customs and checked our bags. In the US, once you get through security you
don’t have to go through another one or get your passport checked, but in Kenya
and Amsterdam we had to show our passport constantly. It got annoying. I bought a few postcards for the boys with
animals on them to mail before I left.
They just got the ones from Kenya this week, but didn’t quite understand
the purpose of postcards. Oh well.
I didn’t take pictures of the food on the way back because
it was the same as when I came over, minus a few exceptions. I do remember that the chicken on the first
meal was much better than the chicken on the way over, other than that I don’t
remember what the differences were.
The layover in Amsterdam was about 4.5 hours this time so we
walked around for a bit. I had some
extra Kenyan Shillings that I needed to get rid of so I converted it in the
terminal. Tip: Do not do that! I lost about $20 total converting it over at
the airport. I didn’t have a choice so
it didn’t matter, but in the future either spend it before you leave or convert
it before you get to an airport.
At the Amsterdam airport I shopped for a few things for the
boys, bought some chocolates for my work, went to the art museum, and almost
got a fish pedicure. The art museum was
free inside the airport, which was cool, but I didn’t see any ‘famous’ artists in
it. I am not an art lover so I couldn’t
tell you if they were famous, but the artists I have heard of were not there. We also saw a royal motorcade leaving the
airport. A local guy said that the
royals have their own license plates and they had passed by the windows in a
huge group. That was cool, especially
since the queen was passing the crown on to her son that day. We also almost got a fish pedicure where you
stick your feet in a big fish tank and the fish eat the dead skin off your
feet. Gross but cool. It was really expensive (like $50) so I didn’t
try it, but I wish I would have. Maybe when
I go to LA I will.
We got back into Houston around 1:30 pm and I collected my
bags. I said goodbye to Tarin, Bill, and
Jane with promises to stay in touch. :)
Laura and Cole picked me up and took me back to their house for me to
take a nap. I slept basically from 3 pm
to 6 am the next morning, with a few hours wakeup in between. So tired!
