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Here’s a brilliant idea:

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport has partnered with the Dutch Public Libraries to open the world’s first airport library.  The library is just past passport control, on Holland Boulevard, and offers passengers waiting for a flight a place to read books in 29 different languages, listen to music, watch films and download material free of charge.

This from an airport that already offers travelers a great collection of art, a casino, a seafood bar, a chocolate bar, a fun forest for kids, a branch of the Rijksmuseum and lots more.

Her Royal Highness Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands was on hand for the opening of the Schiphol Airport Library on Holland Boulevard

Now… when we will have library branches in US airports? 

Categories: Airport guides, Airport shops, Alcohol, Exhibits, Layover
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Admit it: you thought about getting one of JetBlue’s All You Can Jet travel passes and taking the month of September off to just zip around the country.

I did.

But while we were daydreaming the passes sold out.

Well, you’ve got another chance.

Boston Logan International Airport is having a twitter-based contest to give away a pair of All You can Jet 7 passes – the kind that let you travel any day of the week from September 7th through October 6, 2010.

If you want to enter you’ll have to act fast.

The contest kicked off Tuesday morning at 10 am east coast time and end at 9:59 a.m. on Friday morning.

To enter, you’ll need to come up with something catchy and creative. Here’s what the folks at Boston Logan are looking for:

“Simply send us a “tweet” at www.twitter.com/bostonlogan with a haiku, limerick, verse of your choice, or image(s) explaining why you would like to visit destinations served by JetBlue and include the contest hashtag #AYCJBOS. Creativity counts. Limit one (1) entry per unique Twitter handle.”

Sounds easy, right?

Here’s a link to the All You Can Jet Boston contest rules and some additional information.

Good luck! And please make those entries entertaining: I’m one of the judges for the All You Can Jet Boston contest and I’ll be looking through every entry on Friday afternoon.

Categories: Air Travel, Contests
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There’s a fresh piece of art at Spokane International Airport in eastern Washington.

But you’ll have to look up to see it.

Fresh art at Spokane International Airport

Louise Kodis’ new textile sculpture “Conversations Between Clouds” in now installed in the rotunda of the airport. The sculpture is a flock of three dimensional floating shapes suspended under the ceiling and is made out of bamboo rod, curved acrylic rod, colored and textured silks and synthetic fabrics.

(Photos of Conversations Between Clouds courtesy Gay Waldman)

There’s another great piece of art at Spokane International Airport that you’ll need to look up to see:

Ken Yuhasz’s Aer-O-Toaster

Ken Yuhasz’s Aer•O•Toaster was installed in 2009.

Yuhasz says his toaster is based on the classic Sunbeam toaster from the 1930s and the ‘Flying Toaster’ used as a screen saver on countless computer screens during the 1980’s and is a re-creation at one-half scale of a Gee Bee racing plane from the early 30′s.

Categories: Air Travel, Art, aviation, Exhibits, Layover
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There are close to 700 aviation/space-related museums in the country.

Each Monday on StuckatTheAirport.com we profile one of them.

Eventually we’ll hit them all.

Today: The Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita, Kansas

The museum is near the McConnell Air Force Base and is housed in the art deco-style building that served as Wichita’s municipal airport during the 1930s and 40s. Among the museum’s collection of about 40 airplanes is this Beech Starship,

and a B-52 bomber, a refueling tanker, and this 1927 Laird Swallow, which crashed in 1929, was put into storage for decades and then restored by museum volunteers.

Another charmer?  The Pretty Praire Special III, designed and built by Marion Unruh. According the museum website, this is the third in a series of airplanes named after Unruh’s hometown of Pretty Prairie, Kansas. Unruh designed the plane in 1951 but it wasn’t completed until 1957.

“It rolled, looped and could snap with the best acrobatic planes of the day.”

In addition to the airplane collection, the Kansas Aviation Museum has a wide variety of airplane engines on display and offers opportunities for volunteers to help with airplane restoration projects.

Do you have a favorite aviation-related museum you’d like others to know about? Tell us why you like it and it may be featured on a future edition of Museum Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com.

Categories: Air Travel, Airplanes, Airports, Aviation history, Baggage, Exhibits, History, Museum Monday, Museums
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Each Sunday we take a look at some offbeat, inexpensive souvenirs you can find when you’re stuck at the airport.

This week, the airport souvenir is an experience:

A ride on Singapore’s Tallest Slide and the World’s Tallest Slide in an Airport.

The Slide @T3 is actually two slides: one is a free-to-ride“preview” slide one and half stories long;

The other is four stories high and is free to ride if you’ve spent at least $30 at one of airport shops.

Here’s a video of the “making of” the slide:

Looks like fun!

Have you been through Singapore’s Changi Airport lately? Did you ride on the slide?

And..next time you’re stuck at the airport, look around. If you find an inexpensive souvenir that’s “of” the city or region and, ideally, a bit offbeat, please take a photo and send it along. It may end up featured on a future edition of Souvenir Sunday. And if it is, we’ll send you a Stuck at the Airport souvenir.

Categories: Air Travel, Airport shops, Entertainment, free Wi-Fi, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs
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