Yes I did notice the flaps were retracted from CONF 3 to CONF 2 when the gear had gone up presumably to increase the climb and speed.
This would seem a very strange way of operating the A320 and I'm struggling to believe it.
We've already discovered that you were mistaken about which runway was in use and you were also mistaken about where the other aircraft was. Could you have been mistaken about which config the aircraft was in and when they retracted the flaps?
I fly the thing and I also sit at the hold point behind many A320's on a daily basis and I'd struggle to tell you what config they are in just by looking.
What I do know is that simply changing the flap setting will not change the V1 and VR speeds that you have programmed into the MCDU and will therefore not get you airborne any faster. One explanation would be that they'd planned a Config 3 take off but incorrectly set Config 1+F. They realised this late and then reset config 3 whilst going through the checklist. The problem is that I can't imagine any operator using anything other than config 1+F on a 3500m runway unless it was contaminated. Perhaps they did it as a training exercise?
As for retracting the flaps when the gear went up, once again this would be strange. Schiphol is very noise sensitive and aircraft adopt noise abatement procedures which will normally involve maintaining V2+10 and the take off flap setting up to 3000ft. Retracting flap at gear up is not a procedure that I'm familiar with and it's not an Airbus procedure. I wouldn't know if it's a procedure that Air Lingus use.
SW