Round The World and other travels

Contrary to all my planning, I found myself at EDI Gate 2, boarding my first KLM flight in 23 years, which would take me to Schiphol - and, indeed the Netherlands - also for the first time in all those years!   It would be my first flight on an E190, or for that matter on any of the larger Embraers. According to the KLM magazine, this was one of only two E190s in the fleet, although apparently a total of ten had been ordered to replace the oldest of the Fokker 100s. Cabin presentation was excellent, which is perhaps not so remarkable in a brand new aircraft. I certainly liked the very civilised 2+2 layout and the nice, new leather seats. I was relieved to find that Row 14 was not at the very back - in fact, I was just two rows aft of the over-wing Emergency Exits. My Frequent Flyer pride wasn't completely in tatters!

We finally pushed back from the stand 15 minutes down, at 1420. We taxied to the holding point for the north-easterly runway, where we had a short wait to allow an incoming BA Airbus to land - possibly the one that should have been well on its way back to Gatwick by then, with me in 1F!   We finally took to the skies at 1430 and as we climbed out, I had superb views of Edinburgh in the clear and sunny conditions.

Cabin service behind the curtain consisted of a BA-style "something sweet or something savoury". I had the latter, which turned out to be a little packet of 8 TUC crackers, which I washed down with an odd-sized 250ml can of Heineken. I passed the time reading.

The descent started at 1610 (Amsterdam time) and the First Officer reported the temperature at Schiphol as -1C ... brrrr! We touched down at 1637 and pulled onto our remote stand just three minutes later.

And the verdict? Not bad at all, probably due in no small measure to the excellent E190 cabin layout and the fact that the aircraft was brand new.