24 hours in Amsterdam
What did I eat last night?
Not every trip is all sunshine and roses. Sometimes you need to access medical services while traveling. This is where the airport urgent care comes in.
I woke up on my 35th birthday in Barcelona with a sense of doom. My GI tract decided that now that I was hitting my mid – 30s, that it would be a great opportunity to fight food poisoning. After a miserable few hours alternating getting ready & being sick, we finally made our way to the Barcelona airport.
I somehow managed to board the plane, & then holy hell broke out within my body. Shortly after takeoff, I found out that those air sickness bags you find in the seat pockets DO in fact hold fluid quite well. I also found out how much my boyfriend (now husband), Jeremy loved me as he held said bag. It was at this moment that I was going to marry this man (and 4 months later he proposed to me on an 20 hour layover in Paris!). BTW, flight attendants do not like when you are in the bathroom while they are trying to land the plane, no matter how much you try to tell them you are experiencing tummy distress.
Finally on the ground
We landed at Shiphol airport without further incident, & we made our way to our next gate. At that point, I was physically and mentally exhausted after 12 hours of food poisoning ravaging my body.
We went to the gate and explained the situation to the gate agents. They called over their supervisor, who I could only assume had a very weak stomach, and she immediately instructed them to place us on the flight for the next day free of charge (thank you KLM!). The lovely gate agents then instructed us to go to Airport Urgent care near Lounge 2.
Shiphol Medical Clinic
We arrived to Airport urgent care at Shiphol and asked to check in. They explained to us that the visit is completely self-pay, which we immediately agreed to, given my weak and dehydrated state. The front desk offered that they have a walk up pharmacy that we could visit instead, but we insisted that I would prefer to be seen. I then filled out my paperwork, and after a brief wait, I was taken back.
We were directed to an exam room resembling a small emergency “resus” room. The room had state of the art medical equipment and was set up for all kinds of medical emergencies that may find their way into medical services at Schiphol Airport.
I was then examined by the nurse, who we bonded with over our nursing experiences. She had background in one of Amsterdam’s inpatient ICU units. Like the front desk did, my nurse explained to us that “the Dutch don’t really give IV fluids out, that’s an American medicine thing”. After seeing how dry I was and running some labs, she went and spoke with the doctor. The nurse came back with a half liter bag of Lactated Ringers, an IV dose of Reglan (an anti-nausea medication), and some zofran pills for the journey home the following day.
Happy Birthday to me
It was about 3pm in Amsterdam, which means it was about 9am back home. It was time to call my coworkers and let them know that I was stuck in an Amsterdam airport urgent care & that I would be flying home the next day instead of clocking in. They remembered it was my birthday & sang to me over the phone.
After a few hours, I was feeling much better, although still very weak. My nurse did an oral challange and made me some warm tea, which I was able to tolerate. I was finally ready to be discharged!
Here comes the bill
We made our way up to the front desk, and the clerk sheepishly told us the balance. It was going to cost us 72 Euros. With the current exchange rate at the time, that totaled to be around $78 USD. Our minds were blown. The clerk was preparing for us to be upset, and yet we were so happy, given what our visit would have cost in the US (thousands). A mini urgent care visit with IV fluids, medications, and a prescription worked out to be under $80 USD. We immediately put the balance on one of our many travel cards so that we could earn future travel points on our visit.
We had intended to contact Capital One to make a travel claim, but we lost track of time and missed 20 day window to file a claim. That was our mistake and now we are aware of the benefits in case it happens again.
One night in Amsterdam
We then made our way through customs and then to the train to a nearby hotel. We stayed at very hygge hotel, Hotel van Vijsel. I told Jeremy to go enjoy the sights, and I proceeded to sleep for the next 14 hours.
Jeremy went for a stroll around Amsterdam, taking in the views of the Christmas lights around the city, enjoying views of the canals, watching the cyclists navigate the winter weather without any apparent discomfort from the winter chill.
He got the opportunity to see them haul in the giant Christmas tree that was due to be set up. Even though it was after closing time, he strolled past the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum. He had dinner at a local bar & tried jenever, the precursor to gin. As much as he loves gin, he did not enjoy the taste of the jenever. After dinner, he made his way to the market to pick me up some bananas and chicken broth, then joined me at the hotel.
Heading home
14 hours after we checked into Hotel van Vijsel, we checked out and hopped on the train back to Schiphol. Back through customs we went. Schipol’s security screening machines had Star Trek vibes, in which we seemed to have lost part of Jeremy’s CPAP gear. We grabbed a quick bite at the airport, checked out the wall of “KLM” houses by the KLM lounge, & then boarded our flight home.
We’ll be back
We cannot wait to make our way back to Amsterdam for a real visit, but we had a truly unforgettable experience as we celebrated my 35th birthday on a very unexpected trip to Amsterdam.
