In Transit

This was part of A day in Brussels 🇧🇪. We started off from the Grand Place and our guide told us about the history of Brussels and Belgium. We saw the Everard ‘T Serclaes and then walked to the famous Manneken Pis. × < > From there we headed towards Place de la Bourse through some of the surrounding neighbourhoods as we learnt more about Brussels. After the Brussels Stock Exchange and walked to Galerie De La Reine where saw Neuhaus, famous for Belgian chocolate. ...

My flight from Washington-Dulles landed on time around 7:15 AM. There were two paths to clear immigration, one for transit passengers with onward connections and the other for people going to Belgium, I stood in line at the latter. When I reached the immigration desk, the officer asked me where I was going and I replied Frankfurt. He told me that I was in the wrong line and I should have cleared immigration at the other section for transit passengers. I told him that I had a long layover in Brussels and wanted to go into the city to look around before by next flight. He stamped me in and I exited the airport and found the local bus stop. I bought the STIB-MIVB 1 day ticket for € 7.50 from the GO machine and boarded the bus from Brussels Airport to Schuman and then took the metro from Schuman to Gare Centrale. ...

This was part of A day in Amsterdam 🇳🇱. Because of the constant rain, I wasn’t even sure if anyone else would turn up and if the tour would operate, but there were a few others like me who showed up and we were off. We walked through the Red Light District of Amsterdam and learnt about its history and the legal prostitution. As we heard about the ground realities there, it all was a little disconcerting. ...

Ever since I transited Schiphol airport when I traveled to the USA for the first time in 2003, I’ve always wanted to visit Amsterdam and the Netherlands. During this trip, I managed to get connecting flights back from Zurich to Amsterdam on Swiss and then Munich to Mumbai on Lufthansa with a 23 hours 45 minutes layover in Amsterdam, which was technically still a connection and not a break journey. My flight from Zurich arrived around 9:10 AM, and I exited the airport and took the shuttle bus to Hampton by Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. ...

Ever since I found out about touristanbul I was eagerly waiting for the opportunity fly Turkish Airlines and visit Istanbul in transit. My red-eye from London to Istanbul on Saturday night landed early morning and I had a 15-hour layover before my flight to Mumbai. There were kiosks at the airport where people could apply for a visa.The Republic of Turkey issues e-Visas for Indian passport holders who have a valid visa for the USA, the UK, or the Schengen countries. I had applied for the e-Visa in advance to avoid any last-minute complications. I headed to immigration, where the officer checked my e-Visa and also my visa for the USA, and stamped my passport. My bag was checked through to Mumbai so I walked past baggage claim and customs and proceeded to the Hotel Desk in the International Arrival Hall (next to Starbucks). I submitted my boarding pass to them, and they asked me to wait around until they called for the tour. There was still lots of time so I found an empty bench and took a nap since I hadn’t really slept well on the overnight flight. ...