Travel is just designed to piss people off nowadays. They charge you for food. They charge you for baggage. They charge you for extra legroom. And now they are stooping to a new low: they charge you extra to not be in a middle seat!! To me, this is truly obnoxious. (I am not sure how many airlines are doing this, but KLM is, and I'm sure others will soon catch on.)
If you travel internationally, you will notice that almost half of the total ticket price is a "carrier-imposed international surcharge." I used to travel frequently to London for only $300-400 round trip in the off season. The last time I went to London, in February, the price was about $900!
I just booked a trip to Amsterdam and the prices made me grumpy. But I ended up opting to pay even more-- I coughed up $123 for the best economy seat with extra legroom and incline, and so Sweetie and I could sit in a pair of seats by ourselves rather than having to share a 3-seat row with someone else. It is an overnight flight and I always have a terrible time sleeping on planes. On top of that, I've had some excruciating back problems recently, so it seemed worth it to add 10% to the price of the ticket in exchange for a little more comfort.
I am really looking forward to the trip, now that I am past the annoyance of booking those pricy tickets! We'll be staying with friends, so that part will be cheap, and I am excited to add a new country to my world explorations, especially one with such a rich history of art and culture, not to mention the birth of global trade. But no World Cup final to add to their glory this year...
1 comment:
I got to go there recently. My favorite thing was a bike tour, of all things. I don't even ride a bike much but the tour guide was way more interesting than the boat guide or anyone else.
On a related note--be careful not to walk on the part of the "sidewalk" that's for bike riders. And if you hear a cute bike bell sounding, it might be because you're on the wrong part of the sidewalk.
Of course you will check out the canals (go at night sometime as well), but I also highly recommend checking out the library. I know--a library? It's awesome.
There's a houseboat tour that's pretty interesting, but I learned a lot more about houseboats on the bike tour.
And a warning: A credit card with no chip will not work anywhere!
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