Airports that rock!

  I started my new journey in Salt Lake City.  I then flew to Minneapolis/St. Paul to change flights.  The Minneapolis airport is awesome.  The one problem with this airport is that flights from SLC arrive at one concourse, and the international flights are way on the other side.

  My flight from SLC was an hour late in starting.  This gave me only an hour in the MSP airport to do postcards for my students.  When I got off the plane, there was an electric cart, and he sped me to my next gate, which would have taking me 20 minutes to walk to.  We sped through the mall section of the airport, with stores and restaurants.  I could smell the food, and I was hungry!  Minnesota has great malls. Eleven miles away is the Mall of America with over 500 stores.  I got to my gate and found the postcards I needed, and got them mailed off.  I hope to explore this cool airport when I return.  I've been several times, but never got to really explore.

  Next stop is Schipol Airport in Amsterdam.  Another way cool airport, and my favorite outside the U.S.  People can get married here!  The shopping is amazing.  I was really hungry by this time and went looking for breakfast (6 am here).  Then I had to go through security again, and I went looking for my gate for my flight to    Norway.

  While waiting for my flight, I could hear the various PA announcements " John Doe on flight 123 to Madrid, you are holding up the flight.  Please check into gate C33 or we will proceed to remove your baggage from the aircraft."  There was a lot of this going on, and I don't doubt that the Dutch actually do it.  They are very efficient.

   Flying into Norway was like flying into Oz.  All green cultivated fields and quaint houses and churches all around.  I did not have to go through passport control.  Having been to the Middle East this year, I can no longer check in online, but must present myself to an airport person for check in.  At Schipol, once they saw the stamps in my passport, they started asking all kinds of questions, like what was I doing in Israel.  I played it cool.  When I said I was visiting friends in Noway, they asked their names.  I gave the name of Neilson. Didn't want any trouble for my hosts.  Their real last name is not Norwegian.

  I am now in Stavanger, Norway, staying with my friends Jamal and Chanthavone.  They will get a whole entry on my blog as they are quite unique.

 Norway is beautiful.