Sleeping in airports, Amsterdam edition

Since I didn't know when I would make it to Amsterdam and have a morning flight to LA I didn't contact any Hospitality Club members here, but just went straight to the airport to spend the night. Hitchhiking was great, so I have plenty of time here - 18 hours of time. Too bad that this airport really sucks. With the cold outside it's chilly and there are hardly any seats (and if, with armrests). Continental's checkin-kiosks don't work, so can't get a boarding pass and go through security til the morning either.

snowed-in observation terrace

At least there's 2x30 minuntes of free wifi, so in the end headed over to one of my all time favourite sites to see what others had done here - sleepinginairports. Got a couple of good tips - the cosiest place (to still sleep on the hard tile floor) seems to be on the third level in Terminal 2 - follow the signs to the conference center. Here you can also catch the signal for the KLM Lounge - password is KLMDDMMYY.

In the morning, we were woken up rudely by security guards. "It is not allowed to lay down in the airport after 5 o'clock." Yeah, this airport really sucks.

trying to get some sleep on the hard floor of chilly unfriendly Schiphol

However, when I was finally able to check in and go through security things got much better. Tons of nice comfortable seats and lounges - really, like a different airport all the sudden. No idea why Schiphol is such a two-faced airport. But now I had only a couple of hours left til boarding. There was even a tiny art gallery with paintings there...so got my first gallery on the trip in already at the airport :-)

Winter in Holland - on pictures and in reality.