Schiphol is the official name of the Amsterdam Airport and the town where it is located. And at the departure hall of the airport you can find this entrance to the Grand Cafe "Het Paleis" (The Palace). Schiphol started in 1916 as a small military airport of only 40 acres. On May 17th 1920 it had it's first regular passenger flight to London. In the early days the below sea level airport was often not dry enough so in often airplanes had to be dragged out of the mud. Only after the airport was bought by the city of Amsterdam in 1926 the airport was improved significantly. Today Schiphol is the 4th largest European airport with more than 40 million passengers per year.