Amsterdam to Munich

7 April, 2025

Our driver picked us up as scheduled for our transfer to the airport and delivered us in plenty of time for our flights. We had a bit of a struggle with the KLM self-check  in and automatic bag check system. First, there is a lack of signage to direct you from the kiosks to the luggage check area, and you're likely to elicit an admonishment from the KLM gatekeeper. The bag check system is inflexible and intolerant of any variation from what it expects to encounter (much like a human KLM agent might be when you don't follow the signs that aren't posted.) When checking bags it is imperative that you maintain the correlation between boarding pass and bag, as it segregates passengers and their bags despite being on the same reservation. We were directed to a human luggage check agent who was most pleasant and had things sorted in no time flat.

We then reported to the traveler assistance desk, checked in with them, and waited to be collected and taken to our gate.

View from the van.

A young gentleman came for us after a short wait and introduced himself. As we say in the south, he was "a fine young man" – he was polite, respectful, and a proficient conversationalist. He directed us through security without even a hint of difficulty and delivered us to the gate and made sure we were squared away. I made sure that his management was informed of the level of service he delivered and certainly hope he is recognized accordingly.

As the gate agents began preparing for boarding we were contemplating the process for getting from gate
to airplane in the absence of a jet bridge, not uncommon for European airports. Given the level of service provided to this point we couldn't imagine being left to fend for ourselves, and within moments a gentleman and his co-worker introduced themselves and escorted us down an elevator and to a van to take us to the aircraft for early boarding.

The KLM cabin crew matched the level of service delivered by the Schipol staff. The seat pitch in our Airbus Economy seats exceeded the pitch for British Air Club Europe, and the beverage and snack service (a sandwich with chips) was above any domestic economy experience with a U.S. carrier. If KLM were to expand service to the states they would own the market in a matter of months, if not weeks. Our flight to Munich was entirely uneventful.

We were met on the jetway by a gentleman from passenger assistance who continued the theme of excellent service we experienced throughout the day. After collecting our luggage he delivered us all the way to our room in the airport Hilton. He said he would have someone meet us at 7:00 the next morning for our 9:10 departure.

After dropping our luggage we made our way to the S-Bahn to meet our friend at Marienplatz. When we arrived on the platform a train was about to depart. I purchased tickets from a kiosk, careful to select "2 adults" on the first screen and accepting the defaults to get to the payment screen. Ticket and receipt in-hand we  jumped through the closing doors.

Then, for the first time ever, our tickets were checked. I was informed that I only had a ticket for one person, despite selecting "2 adults" on the initial screen. The gentleman standing next to us  had the same issue. We were advised to get off at the next stop and purchase an additional ticket, so we did – adding a few more minutes to our journey (but avoiding a €100 fine.) The wait for the next train was rather chilly, but we were rewarded with a less crowded train than the one we were originally on.

I was in touch with our friend during the journey, coordinating our exact meeting place.

We emerged from the S-Bahn station on Marienplatz immediately in front of the Neues Rathaus and started scanning for Bjoern. We've known him for almost twenty years, when he was in North Carolina. We've had the good fortune to visit him three times over the past dozen or so years and it's always as if we just saw each other a couple of months ago. 

After circling around each other among the crowd for a few minutes we finally located each other and made our way to Wolle Rödel München Rosental for a bit of yarn shopping. Lourie discovered this shop on our last visit to Munich, when we came with our son during spring break from his graduate studies in London. Bjoern and I stood near the front door chatting while Lourie shopped. She overheard the ladies running the shop wondering what we were doing, and informed them that we were with her. This led to a conversation about her previous visit, which astonished the shopkeepers. They all bonded over their repeat American customer.

Then we headed to Augustiner!

My favorite Bavarian beer, good food, and a lively atmosphere. (We went to Augustiner Stammhaus on Neuhauser Strasse, a frequent destination for us in Munich.) We ate entirely too much, but I did moderate my beer consumption since we had a long day of travel in front of us with an early wake-up.

Apparently the largest agricultural trade show in Europe was in town, so there we weren't the only non-Germans having dinner. We did have the advantage of our very own "Germanator" to make sure things ran smoothly. Dinner was exactly what we wanted and the beer was perfection. We talked as much as we ate and caught up on the details that hadn't been shared previously via text and social media.

There's nothing quite like catching up with good friends, especially when they live on another continent.

After dinner we headed back to the S-Bahn, and this time I paid CLOSE attention to the process and discovered that it didn't matter what you entered on the first screen, because on the third (payment) screen it defaulted back to a single ticket! I corrected the payment screen from "1" to "2" and we were good to go. The train was nearly deserted for the return trip and we made it back to our room for a reasonably early turn-in.