A Rough Start to a Fun Trip...

On July 1, we got to see for ourselves why Schiphol had earned the new nickname of Shithole. We got there crazy early for our morning flight and then had to wait 1.5 hours for the baggage drop-off to open. Before we could scan our boarding passes, we got into a line which made us exit the airport and walk pretty far down the street. 

Eventually we were able to scan our boarding passes, but were then forced to the back of the waiting area so people behind us ended up ahead of us while we had to wait until small groups were allowed to climb the stairs to get in line at security. 

When we finally got to the top of the stairs, a sign showed the expected waiting time for security was 45 minutes and our flight was departing in 45 minutes from the opposite end of the terminal. Jimmy had a chat with a guard at the priority line and she said we could switch to that line once our flight was 30 minutes out. He told her we’d just wait to the side for the 15 minutes and a few minutes later she cleared us to join the shorter line. It turned out to be a good thing that several passengers then let us skip ahead of them because our flight was already boarding when we got to the far side of the terminal. 

It had been nine years since we were last in Tallinn and that time we arrived by ferry. The views from the plane were impressive.

We ran into a few hashers in the airport and we took the tram and then walked together to the host hotel: Tallink Spa and Conference Hotel. Rather than the usual hostel accommodations, it was nice to have another hotel room with a jacuzzi tub.