Journal

It’s Friday the 13th and I’m here in Copenhagen, Denmark. A taxi picked me up at my apartment in Washington DC at 12:45 PM yesterday (Thursday) and brought me to Washington National Airport where I picked up a United Flight to Newark, New Jersey.

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For the record this is me just before that cab picked me up, saying goodbye to what has been a beautiful spring in Washington DC. Many of the trees are already in full bloom. But I’m off to a grander adventure in Greenland where the current high temperatures are in the low 30’sor upper 20’s and the lows have been down in the teens.

DC has been the only bump in the road so far. We boarded the flight late, and then sat on the tarmac for an hour waiting to take off. It was a close call meeting my connecting flight at Newark Liberty International Airport for Amsterdam. I think I was the last person to board the flight (not by choice this time ☺ ) and they closed the door right behind me, but I made it! I departed the East Coast (Newark) as sunset approached, crossed six time zones (~3700 miles) in nearly seven hours and landed in Amsterdam just as the sun was rising. A short day … made me think a bit about what an astronaut on the Space Station must experience every 90 minutes as the Station orbits the Earth.

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My flight path from Newark-New Jersey to Amsterdam. And yes, I did wave at Greenland as we passed by less than ½ way through the flight. Access to Greenland is very limited, especially prior to the summer months. There are two ways to get into Kangerlussuaq – Greenland this time of year, either military transport or flying through Copenhagen, and the military transport was full. So I got to fly 4 hours past Greenland today so that I could fly another 4 hours back to it tomorrow.

My body knows it’s done a bit of “time traveling” but breakfast and coffee in Amsterdam started the new day around 8:00 AM. I tried to sleep on the flight, but that wasn’t happening so I watched a movie, started reading a new book about an asteroid hitting the Moon and pushing it closer to Earth, and listened to music by The Head and the Heart. I’ve found it’s best to force your body to acclimate quickly to new time zones, so I’m trying to go without sleep as long as possible.

And speaking of breakfast, I think it’s safe to say if every airport had the quality of food available at Amsterdam International Airport, a lot fewer people would complain about delays and layovers. Whatever they do to make the breads and the meats taste so good here we should be able to do in the U.S. because it’s awesome. And the coffee … what can I say these folks take their food and drinks seriously. I purchased a large sandwich thinking I’d take half of it with me to snack on during my flight to Copenhagen, but before I knew I had eaten it all. Good thing the layover in Amsterdam was only 3 hours.

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Good eats at the Amsterdam International Airport. I've flown through a lot of US airports and you don't see fresh food like this.

I’m going to head out in a bit and explore Copenhagen then I’m sure it will be an early night. I’m back in the air 9:00 AM tomorrow morning to Greenland, which means an early check in for another international flight.

Details
Author
Tim Spuck
Date
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Expedition
Airborne Survey of Polar Ice
Weather Summary
Partly cloudy and cool

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