Most travellers passing through the Netherlands will have been in Schiphol at some point; in fact, Schiphol Airport may be all they ever see of the country. When I was very little, Schiphol seemed quite huge, with all its many terminals and its aviation museum and some windy pier of some sorts which had a concrete white seat and is probably closed now. When I was a student, not only did Schiphol appear much smaller, but my experience of it was contracted into the small area of the station where I had to change trains; as the railway track runs through a tunnel, the journey always made my ears pop. Above this hidden railway is a hall that opens out into the kind of shopping centre that caters to weary tourists wanting to spend their last bit of foreign currency before they leave: Burger King, shops selling perfume and souvenirs and Toblerone chocolate, newspapers in all languages plus some nudie magazines, maybe a tie shop or two. The whole shopping area breathes an air of quiet and repose.
When my studies drew to a close, my experience of Schiphol was contracted into an even smaller area: the lane that bus 197 passed through on its way from Hoofddorp to Amsterdam. The four pictures below show the ugliest side of Schiphol: steel and concrete and cars parked everywhere in an area so small you wouldn't believe there is space for planes to land here.
