Northern European Vacation 2012

2:30 pm Saturday May 19, 2012

Downtown TO

So we are underway as we sit patiently on the aircraft for the starting leg of our 3week adventure. The plane is filled with noisy teenagers with their technology and all of their band instruments. The air is filled with lots of noisy chatter about the size of the plane, the arrangements of their designated seats, seat mates and their fear/love of flying. They are in a joyous mood.  (Note the team was returning to Manitoba complete with a Gold in their pockets from a competition in Ottawa).

We are flying to TO (picture) to pick up Lucy who will be joining us for the trip. We will meet her in the International section of Pearson airport and then we will await our departure for Copenhagen at about 9 pm. In the interim we will likely have a light supper and discuss our overall plan for the next 3 weeks. That seems like a long time from this end but it will not be too long until we are looking at the other end of this incredible adventure. This new adventure will take us to Copenhagen for a period of 3 days before we board the Emerald Princess for an 11 day cruise of the Baltic sea. The inserted graphic shows our ports of call along our route. There are a few planned activities but then again they may not be that way once we get to that day/ city. That being said a lot of planning has been done but without any fore knowledge of the locations we will visit. I recall the apprehensive feeling we experienced when we I site Istanbul for the first time traveling solo. There is always an inquisitive and disturbing feeling about a new location without that fore knowledge. It usually works through very quickly but it is something we think about as we set off on this adventure.

This time we will be accompanied by a number of our friends who also like to travel and see new things that are older than we are. This group is made up of people from Lake Bernard and my sister from Mississauga. As we progress along the trip I expect you will hear a bit about each of the group members. Originally this was to be a trip from Freddi and me but Paul looked at the plan and the cruise and asked if he and Mary Ellen could join us. Then he thought that others of our friends might also be interested and so we are now a group of 11. We all arrive in Copenhagen during the next 24 hours after traveling a mind boggling set of different flight patterns. Some fly direct, some have one stop over and others have three stop overs along the way.

Itinerary for Princess Cruise

The cruise on Princess is the main attraction and the focus of this trip. However, we will spend another day in Copenhagen when the cruise is complete and then fly to London England for a 4 day stay in the Marriott Park Lane near Hyde Park and Oxford street. We have stayed the before so we are comfortable with the area and are looking forward to our return.

So here goes the wheels up on the first flight. We are on our way.

Meet an interesting and chatty man from Newfoundland in the Lounge. He is in the packaging business and had worked for Irvine in the maritimes and knew Arthur personally. lonely man going to Cuba by himself for a week of r& r. Gerald spent 90 minutes regaling us with good stories. In the background of this very busy Lounge there is a soccer game going in and some very iCal men are watching the game. It is not hard to recognize the excitement when something good happens. The food is good but minimal but I am enjoying the Beringer wine.

Time passed every quickly as we met up width Bob and Edna in the lounge shortly before Lucy arrived. We all chatted and enjoyed some food before we boarded. Cauliflower and cheese sops, pasta in two flavours with a couple of sauces, salads, crackers bread etc. Finally the time came to board the flight onto 767-300 which is a large plane. Naturally there were many Northern Europeans boarding on a return flight. Healthy looking folks with a rhythmic language that I do not understand in the slightest.

The 7.5 hour flight to Copenhagen went flawlessly with the exception that my sleep strategy failed me completely. Next time I fly east over the Atlantic I will try a couple of Gravol as a single one only made me more tired and restless. We ate our snack/dinner and the plane fell into silence as we all recognized it was 4 am at our destination. Time went by in a blur of TV short clips, a vain attempt to watch a movie and the early breakfast call on the flight. The moist vacuum packed muffin was a tease but not a breakfast. The arrival was quick and easy and the walk through the terminal was not too long as we easily went through Passport Control. Much to our surprise Paul H (my bro-in-law) had taken the trouble to ride the train to the airport to greet us. That was very nice as he made it simple to do the “get ready” things upon arrival. We purchased our “3 day cOPENhagen cards” that allows access to trains, subway, buses and entry to many city museums and activities. They run around $75 but save the hassle and expense of finding the right currency whenever one wants to do anything. The DKK is worth about .18 CDN so conversion is not simple and DKK prices look scary!



On the intial Cruise



We walked to the train and waited only a few minutes until we settled in for the trip to Central Station in downtown Copenhagen. We then walked the few blocks to our Hotel (Hotel Mayfair). On check-in our rooms were ready and available and it was only noon. That allowed us some time to unpack, shower and walk down the street to “Appropos” which is a small bar cafe that was well populated with folks enjoying the first nice day in a couple of weeks. We, the three of us, enjoyed hamburgers and chicken burgers with water and a cranberry cocktail. The food was enormous and very tasty. The almost 1500 DKK bill was a bit shocking but we had been warned that this part of N Europe is not cheap. Git was a geat meal in the middle of the day.

We then all convened in the hotel and met up with Alison and Bruce as they arrived with the same attention from Paul. However we lost Bob and Edna as their routing took them through Munich (recall that soccer game I mentioned) and they were put on stand-by in the busy airport due to a flight delay. It was time for a walk to keep our tired bodies active. We walked and bused and found our way to a canal cruise through the city. That was a nice introduction to the city in a restful manner. The city is beautiful with a good mix of the heritage buildings and sites along with the ultra modern (Playhouse and The Opera Building) and many different types of cruising vehicles filled the canal on such a beautiful day. Many locals were perched on the canal banks enjoying coffee, chats with friends, beer with buddies, and the warmth of the sunshine. It was an ideal Sunday afternoon.



We made our way back to the hotel to sit on the patio and chat even though the lack of sleep was evident amongst us. Paul and Mary Ellen had the advantage as they have been over here for a week now and were acclimatized more than we newbies.

We had dinner in the hotel and it was included in our lodging. The small offerings of appies and goulash with potatoes were plenty for us and we enjoyed some wine and chatter during the meal.

Just make sure we had plenty for the day we set off for a walk in Tivoli garden where there is a mix of wild entertainment (rides) and restaurants set amongst some very beautiful gardens. It was a nice stroll to end a busy day. It was 10:30 local time when we crashed in our quaint little hotel room. Sleep came around pretty easily.

Tivol Garden on Day 1