Belgium, Part Dieux

Alrighty, I am back from another trip to Belgium.

This time I had a load of US cash, which I didn't need. I was planning on flying into Brussels, renting a car and driving to Hasselt. Which I did.

But first I had to visit The Worst Airport In America, JFK.

Yeah, it used to be ORD or LAX that received those honors, but now that I've been to JFK again I realize just how crappy of an airport it is. I don't suppose I have any memories of traveling through there with my mother and brother back in the early eighties, when we used to walk out of planes and onto the tarmac in 95F then enter the un-air-conditioned airport and stand in the wrong line for an hour. That totally sucked. Fast forward to 2011, and it it's the same shitty airport but they now have jet-bridges and air conditioning. The airport is still a dumpy old grimy mess with very poor signage and for all those coming to visit New York for the very first time it may in fact be appropriately setting expectations.

But it was really the signage which irked me. When I disembarked from my MSP flight I knew which terminal (three) and gate (B24) I needed to go to. The problem was that there were no signs for how to get to Terminal 3, like there signs to get to Terminal 2. There signs to get to gates 1-35, but none for the gates that start with 'B'. I found a "terminal map" which did in fact show all three terminals - but they weren't labeled so I couldn't tell which terminal was which. Since I had six hours I just walked around, and laughed at the "business office" which consisted of four telephones in partitioned standing booths. Eventually I found the place to transfer to another terminal and that's how I knew where to go. Then I had to find my gate ... aha, a sign for the "B" gates! As I went to them I passed signs for gate 24 in the other direction. Huh? Yes Dorothy, there's a '24' and a 'B24'. And when you're at '24' there is no indication that there is a 'B24' in an entirely different terminal, to which there is very little guidance to locate. In the end ... I found it.

Ok, thinking about this, I think what happened is that the old part of the airport had "normal" gate numbers like 1-35. When they added a new terminal they started a new range .. B1-B35. Being an old terminal they didn't bother to update the signage or make the old gates A1-A35. Nor does it makes sense that Terminal 3 has the 'B' range, or why bother to actually label the terminals on the map. They should have looked to MSP as a good example ... the 'A' terminal has the A1-Axx gates, the 'B' terminal has the B1-Bxx gates, etc. and there are signs EVERYWHERE showing which direction the terminals are. My hats off to the MSP Airport Commission: They did a great job planning and building and easy-to-navigate airport!

My remaining flights to Amsterdam and Brussels went without a problem. The transportation strikes in Amsterdam did not impact me.

Then the next challenge ... driving.