Since my sister Cyndi moved to Brussels, I’ve been planning to spend Thanksgiving at her house. I saved my global upgrades and closely monitored flights to Europe. I thought I’d scored a real deal when I saw flights to Luxembourg were only $600 so I jumped on it! I used my global upgrade certificates and wound up in a business class cabin from Chicago to Amsterdam to Luxembourg on KLM. Of course a couple of days later flights to Brussels dropped to $400, but that didn’t dim my enthusiasm. Besides I’ve never been to Luxembourg!

I got to the airport a little early, visited the KLM Air France lounge and had some champagne and a stroopwafel while they loaded my plane.

I was sitting in seat 1A, which I believe is the best seat on that plane! The rest of the seats are side by side, which either involves climbing over the person sleeping in the pod next to you or no window. We enjoyed another glass of champagne before take off and then once we did leave I put my feet up and turned on Guardians of the Galaxy 2 while I waited for dinner.

Preflight beverage!

On their first pass through the cabin, the flight attendants brought out a bowl of mixed nuts and a cocktail called the Flying Dutchman. Dinner came next and included a warm roll, a salad, and some vegetables.

By the time my lemon mousse arrived for dessert, my Tylenol PM had kicked in and I was ready to sleep. That’s the first time we hit the turbulence.

This was a full cup of tea BEFORE we hit the turbulence.

I tried to imagine the plane was just trying to rock me to sleep and so I flattened my chair, put on my sleep mask and totally crashed. I slept about an hour before we hit the next patch of turbulence. I was clinging to the side of the bed and focusing on not thinking of the wings snapping off and after about ten minutes it finally stopped. I dozed off until it started once again. This time I just rolled over and went back to sleep. When I finally woke up they were already serving breakfast. I chose the frittata and a bowl of fresh fruit.

We landed in Amsterdam without any trouble. I flew through passport control and got to my next gate early so I dropped 2 Euro in a massage chair and relaxed. Boarding the next flight was a little confusing because we passed through the gate and then walked down the jetbridge to a set of stairs and got hustled onto a bus. The bus took off and we drove around the airport and ended up in a parking lot full of planes. I climbed up the stairs and found my seat. KLM must not do upgrades or else they don’t have a lot of frequent fliers traveling to LUX, there were only four of us in the front of the plane so we each got our own row.

It was zero degrees. And the wind blew hard.

After takeoff they brought us a small bag of lunch with a bottle of juice, a bag of cookies, and a tiny sandwich. I was still stuffed from the first flight so I just had tea and then shut my eyes and took the short way.

Flying into Luxembourg

When I woke up we had landed. I collected my bags and went outside to find the train station. Unfortunately, the train station was not anywhere close to the airport. When I asked around they said there was a free bus if I wanted to wait on the curb. I tried, but it was 0 degrees (celcius) and I could tell from the train schedules that if I didn’t catch the 11:00 train to Brussels, I would have to transfer to another train along the way. I finally gave up and caught a taxi.

My taxi driver was a kid from Mexico who had moved to Luxembourg with his parents when he was fifteen. He and I had a great time talking about taco shops and history and we got to the station just in time. I got to the train station just in time to buy my ticket and board my train. Next stop, Brussels!