Took her home
As crazy as I am for accompanying her to Amsterdam on monday mornings, I took her to her new home today. Although it'a just over an hour by train, adding the bus ride, the slowness of trains at this time of day and especially so the changeover time from bus to train, it takes me over four hours to do so.
We left ar 2242 with a direct train from Alkmaar to Utrecht where we had a bus within a few minutes. Half an hour later I started my return journey. The bus was, as expected, rather early, so I was glad I went to the bus stop early. In just five minutes, the bus arrived at the train station and the thirty minute wait began. Luckily, queuing up at a certain fast food restaurant, which is often found at Dutch train stations, much of the thirty minutes had gone. I boarded my train and ate my burger.
Some bloke sat down opposite, and although he seemed rather weird, he at least wasn't as drunk as the guy on the platform. The train departed a few minutes late, and I started to worry about my 4-minute connection at Amsterdam Central Station. When we had to wait for another few minutes before Amsterdam Bijlmer, I paid the train crew a visit. They made a call and my train would wait for me. At the station it became clear why we had to wait before the station. The train in the opposite direction had departed from the same track, where a stadium full of Toppers-fans was waiting. As they had probably done with the other train, they delayed ours as well, as boarding took ages.
At Amsterdam I was the first to reach the stairs and the connecting train. Just as I boarded the train at the front, where I had a carriage to myself, another group of people entered the platform. A minute later we departed. All passengers have had 4 minutes to get from the one platform to the other. And just after the doors closed, two more people entered the platform.
Sadly for them, they missed our train, which was the last of the day on the line (nothing wrong with a 1:50 am last departure!) and either have to wait for the first train tomorrow, or pay for a taxi, which will be expensive depending on their destination
I'm glad I made it, and my delay will be a matter of minutes, and I can' wait to get home. Around 3am.