Missed Connections.

It's that time of year again and even though we thought last year would possibly be our last trip to France our friends have not yet sold their house and so we have another chance to enjoy the valleys of the Ariege before they move back to Scotland and deny us the annual trek down to visit them! The journey was not going to go as planned, though.
Check-in and security were no problem but we noticed that there was a flight delay when we settled in the lounge to wait. Landing in Aberdeen was slow due to the fog and there was a bit of a queue of planes waiting to get in. The projected 30 minute delay would make our connection at Schiphol tight but was still possible. Once on board there was further delay as the queue of planes that had been waiting to land were now all waiting to take off adding another 30 minutes to travel time. Now the  connection was beginning to look doubtful. Nevertheless, the pilot assured us he would be pressing the pedal to the metal and we would have the shortest flying time possible. He wasn't kidding! It was full speed ahead all the way and we hardly had time for our on-board snacks courtesy of KLM.
Most of the passengers were catching connecting flights so there was a long list of connection information for the cabin crew to read out. First there was a list of flights which couldn't be met and the passengers were given their new flight details. then came the announcement, 'passengers for Toulouse, please contact ground crew'. We looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. 'They are going to meet us at the gate with one of those buggies and whisk us across the airport to the connection gate!'
I have no idea if this was the original plan but it certainly wasn't what eventually transpired! Schiphol is huge - 5 runways, I think - and the Aberdeen flight invariably lands on one of the furthest from the gates. I actually suspect the furthest runway is in Belgium. So after the record breaking flight time and no nonsense landing we spent the next 15-20 minutes hurtling along the runways to get to the gate! No hope of catching the connection even if we put in Usain Bolt speeds across the airport (or Hamiltonesque formula One speeds in the expected concourse buggy) Alas, the buggy was simply a dream. There weren't even any ground crew to meet us with further information so we plodded (at a leisurely pace) to the transfer desk where we were re-booked on the next Toulouse flight...6 hours later. As the flight was extremely busy we were given the last two seats which were 10 rows apart!
Thankfully, Schiphol is one of the better airports to be stuck in for six hours. After a bite to eat and a little shopping we settled in a lounge for the duration. We sent a message to our hosts not to wait up for us and informed the hire care company of our delay and waited patiently. There really is nothing else that can be done in these circumstances and, for me, the journey is as much a part of travelling as arriving at the destination. But I am still a little disappointed that we didn't get the buggy ride...