Up at 4:20, the taxi is waiting for us at 5:25 but I have time to grab a quick shot of espresso. Very calm ride to the airport, but I feel sick, which is very unusual for me. The orange sun is coming up at the place where the river disappears. We met the cab driver at dinner last night, a friend of our waitress he is half the price, and said he would come get us. The driver is playing U2, he catches my eyes in the rearview and we have a brief moment of shared understanding before we are dropped at departures.
We give him a great tip (basically I am dumping the remainder of my cash).
We walk right in, find our gate on the board, head right through security and to boarding.
It is so nice traveling carry-on; these airport mornings are easy.
We roll down the runway and soon the Czech Republic disappears under the clouds.
The flight crew serves us breakfast, and I feel better. Coming into Amsterdam it is clear and you can really see the windmills spinning slowly over the dikes and canals. Our hour and half layover is just enough time to walk from the A gates all the way across the airport to the F gates, go through security, stop for a bathroom break and board.
Europe drops from view in a minute, and the next break we have in the clouds reveals the black lava desolation of Iceland's valleys and peaks. Somewhere over the Atlantic we eat lunch, chicken curry (good) some kind of lemon dessert (yuck) Perrier and wine. Another cloud ocean, then a dramatic opening as Greenland is revealed, massive glaciers to the ocean, thousands of icebergs, then snowy peaks, bare rock, a lake. The clouds close again and I fall asleep, waking just in time to see us cross the US-Canada border in Washington.
An hour and a half to SFO.
Another meal, yea! Pizza, pasta salad, fruit, cookies, all good. Good old KLM (and other foreign carriers). They feed you.
At exactly 10:30 our time we fly directly over our home. I see Lassen Park out the window, and can pick out everything now between there and San Francisco. I will have to remember to show my kids at school; 37,000 feet up, going 550 mph from Amsterdam.
Landing early, for once we whiz right through passport control, customs and as we step out Jeff and Missy show up to take us home.