Review of KLM flight from Madrid to Amsterdam in Economy

Introduction

Hola amigos!

Welcome to this pre Pandemic FR on a KLM flight between Madrid and Amsterdam.

This was a work trip, and the office did't give me much option as to the airline or the time, but I was cool with KL. I was happy as this was my first work trip since moving to Spain, but on the other hand, intra-European flights and 737-800s are not the most interesting thing out there… but let's see how KL lived up to expectations, shall we? 

Reaching Barajas and check in

I met with a workmate at my office and we then grabbed a cab to Barajas. Piece of cake, we got there in no time (I love how close it is to the city, or at least to where I live and work).

 Check in was straight forward, we checked our bags and in no time we were good to go. 

PUerta del sol VIP lounge

Once checked in we went straight to security (there's basically nothing to do before security) and on to the E gates at Terminal 3, where our flight would depart.
  
I made use of my credit card access to the Aena lounges (another thing I love about MAD) to get us in to Puerta del Sol Lounge.

The lounge was well appointed, and had a broad selection of breads, cheeses and cold cuts for breakfast. This is a great advantage if your flight won't offer any catering, as it is the general rule in Europe.
 

boarding KLMS 737 800

Once we saw that boarding was underway (basically just below us) we went to the gate.

The flight was packed, and they forced me to check in my carry on… 

Since the flight was full I could not take any pictures without disturbing my fellow passengers' privacy…but this particular plane was fitted with the regular and boring KL 737 interior.

Pith was appropriate. 

taxi and takeoff

Once our full flight was boarded and bags were put in the 737s belly, we were good to go. 
We departed from RWY 36R, wich meant a fairly long taxi from T3.

There was a traffic jam undeway…

Something happened to this A346…and this was the cause of the jam.

We then passed through Terminal 4S with the longhaulers going mainly to America (and the US)

A350s were a novelty back then…

I don't know how and when this EY773 caught up with us…as it was stuck on the traffic jam, we did take off before it anyways..

Enroute to Amsterdam

I didn't know what to expect to this flight other than no-catering or IFE. 
KL provided the old-trusty Holland Herald (which is one of the best airline magazines around, even before the great magazine massacre of the 2020s) 

Other than that, the entretaiment was nil. 

But this was the early summer, and we had almost perfect views of the ground below most of the time…which was just awesome.

So we wandered through dry Castille… some snow remained over the Sierra de Guadarrama

over to the lush green Euskadi

It's capitol, Vitoria was clearly visible…..

Then Bilbao was visible (I was quite excited as I had recently took a roadtrip through the region in April)

And after the oos and aaas of our lovely views of Euskadi, we were over the Cantabric Sea.

Then…surprisingly and out of the blue we received some chow.
 
It was a vegetarian pad thai and it was quite good. 

We re entered the mainland over Bordeaux 

I was between being awake and asleep as we crossed France

Hmm..isnt that white shore across the sea the Dover cliffs?

We flew on top of Lille and the we were on to Belgium

We zig zagged of sorts, and entered the Netherlands

and then flew over The Hague, where I was headed… I had so much fun with this airshow.

Then back to the sea and back into the country…seeing all that green is such a nice contrast to dry and yellow Castille.

The zigzagging disoriented me….but seeing the ATC and terminals soo far in the distance made led me to conclude we were going to land in the infamously far Polderbaan

and so we did…

We then followed a bigger bird back home…

At AMSTERDAM schiphol

We made it to Pier C….and then into the main terminal

We waited some 15 minutes for our bags, and then we rushed to catch one of the trains going to The Hague.

Fortunately for me, my workmates had been to the Netherlands before and knew how the train ticketing system worked…it is not very intuitive at first. 

And so…I was in the Netherlands for my first time  :)