Traveling Back to the Netherlands

Oregon

Flying Back Home Again!

Our son drove us to Portland International Airport for our red-eye flight to Chicago International Airport, traveling back to the Netherlands. After dropping us off with two large suitcases and Hemmes, we quickly hugged and said, “See you soon!”

We landed in Chicago at 5:30 in the morning! Chicago at night is mesmerizing.

At 8 am, we sat in the United Airlines lounge, where we stayed the day waiting for our flight to Amsterdam in the late afternoon. Although many other travelers experienced long delays or cancellations throughout the country due to the winter storms, we, thankfully, had no delay with our flight.

We arrived at 9:30 am at Schiphol in Amsterdam. Our luggage arrived immediately, we had a flawless connection with the train and bus, and within 2.5 hours, we were back home.

Our Traveling Cat

With this final 2022 blog post about our travels in the United States, I want to honor our companion, our 13-year-old cat, Hemmes, who has shown himself to be an experienced traveler. We, in fact, follow Hemmes where he goes since only some Airbnb or hotels accept pets! Is he a happy camper because he controls our travel itinerary? We believe he is because he always observes a new situation with his tail fully raised (meaning confidence in a cat’s body language) and falls asleep under his special blanket while purring.

Flying with Hemmes was no different. He behaved perfectly during this long flight. At some point, we noticed he wasn’t happy in his carrier. After I changed the wet towel, he stopped being restless and started purring again.

However, like us, he was glad to be home, and like us, his first action was to get some needed sleep after two long travel days.