So much for my earlier promise to update the blog every day! In my defense, the days have been busy, exciting, and a little tiring – so much so that I haven’t been inclined to write before turning out the light. I’ll try to make up for that now, as I’m perfectly content at the moment.
I’m sitting on the Lido Deck aft, watching the coastline with little villages and bigger cities – I wish someone would announce what city I’m looking at right now. Red topped roofs, gothic cathedrals, smokestacks and numerous ferries make me think it must be fairly significant. On the other side of the channel there is a much smaller village (sending and receiving the ferries) and I wonder if I’m in the middle of two different countries. I could look at the map I suppose, but as I said, I’m fairly content and have no intention of moving.
It’s about 5:30 on Tuesday, and the girls and I have just had a nap and a smackeral to revive ourselves after a day of walking in Copenhagen. The sky is threatening, but it’s warm enough to sit outside, so Jenn is keeping me company with her ever-present book. Marjie has elected to go back to the room for a while – she is pooped these days so I said ok.
But back to where I left off last time. We had just seen Grease, we were in London, and were hitting the hay on Saturday night. Sunday dawned sunny and cool, so we dressed in layers and went in search of breakfast that didn’t drip and ooze as had the fare the day before. We found a little Italian restaurant and they served up a delicious meal for us – Cheryl proclaimed the coffee almost as good as JC’s, Leo and I were happy with the tea, and Marjie drank a delicious smoothie. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to do the final packing, and we had an hour or so to sit in the beautiful hotel gardens – typical English gardens with sundials and hydrangeas and roses and grasses and lavender and two cats. One, Paula (according to her tag), stayed with us a while and rolled and stretched against the warm patio stones. The other, a stealth black cat, was uninterested in our company and set off to hunt.
We took a couple of cabs to get to Victoria Coach Station, and that’s where the drama for the day began. I think this is Carnival’s inaugural cruise from England, and so their logistics were not exactly sorted out. In other words, they had two (2!!!) young women who were there to organize the unruly, jet-lagged, multi-lingual crowd. There were no signs. There was no spot to put luggage. Luggage that was in the wrong spot soon annoyed coach drivers who threatened to drive over said luggage (and owner) if it wasn’t moved. People were given coloured tickets that put them on one of three coaches leaving at half hour intervals, and yet there was no rhyme or reason to the colours – it wasn’t first-come-first-served at all, and luggage was separated from owner more than once. There was an interesting woman who was assigned to the 12:30 coach with us. “No I’m not,” she declared, “I’m here now and I’m going on the 11:30 bus!” (Now add an angry southern accent and read that again.) She basically kept saying this until she was granted her wish. I’m going to try that sometime… “No, I want a 25% raise!”
We finally set off in the coach for a 2.5 hour ride to Dover. We had snacks for the ride, books, MP3 players, and some nice scenery, so it wasn’t unpleasant at all. Well, except for the beginning when a woman announced that she needed to get some hand luggage out from under the bus – the passengers let out a collective groan, and I thought they might throw the woman to the curb!
The port experience was pretty smooth. A few hiccups like telling me my Visa wasn’t valid (gasp!) and forgetting to print me a room key (two for the girls, none for me), but nothing major. Then finally to our room, which is bright and shiny and quite spacious. The sofa was already made into a bed, we had a welcome bottle of champagne and a plate of chocolate (courtesy of our travel agent), and we set about unpacking. We had the lifeboat drill, a breathtaking tour of the ship because the girls wanted to see EVERYTHING at once! And then we changed for dinner and headed into the welcome show.
Our cruise director, John Heald, is somewhat of a legend in the Carnival cruiseline. He was also the cruise director when Hazel and I cruised the Med last summer – we found him hilarious and genuine, and I have been reading his online blog ever since. He is a very funny man, and has been with the company a very long time. As cruise director, I suspect he is rather senior in the ranks, and so he has to deal with some interesting customer issues, many of which he shares on his blog. Anyway, he does a welcome show that had us rolling with laughter last year, and even though he repeated some jokes, it was just as funny this time.
We had dinner after, and the food was wonderful as usual. Our waiters, Henry and Aries are very good and always telling us stupid jokes and playing tricks with us. We aren’t all at one table, unfortunately – Cheryl and her family are one half of a table of 8, and the rest of us occupy another table. But we’re right next to each other, so it’s not too bad. I’m trying to remember some of the choices of the first night’s menu – I had Caesar salad, tilapia, and warm chocolate melting cake (you might want to get that bit of drool from the corner of your mouth), and the girls had pasta arrabiata and an Indian chick pea concoction that was very good. And ice cream of course. There’s lots of ice cream on this ship. Sigh…
Yesterday was our first full day on the ship, and it was at sea all day. We were (and are still, just a bit) travel-weary, so instructions were to do what we wanted if we wanted when we wanted. I was up early to the gym, then to breakfast (nice and quiet before 9), and then went back to see if the girls were up, which they were – just. Later Jenn and Cheryl and I sat on the sundeck for a few hours, and Marjie and Kayla and Alex ran all over the ship and did everything from air hockey to mini-putt to the arcade. Jenn joined them for a bit too, and I was just a big lump and did nothing. Until it rained, at which point I moved and did some more nothing.
We ate, sat, read, chatted, played cards, ate some more (there is a 24 hour pizza grille… double sigh…), got our nails done, and generally had a lovely time. Dinner was terrific (French onion soup, jerk pork loin, chicken, strawberry cheesecake, etc etc etc), and the show afterwards was entertaining, if a bit cheesy. Most of the gang went on from there to go to the karaoke lounge and the club, and I announced my intention to go to bed – told you, I will just about always be the first one in bed. Jenn & Marjie decided they were tired too, so we all hit the hay.
This morning we awoke with some difficulty, as we lost an hour overnight. We have to change our clocks forward three times in the next few days, so I expect body clocks to be right out of whack on the entire journey! We all met for breakfast at 8:15, and then headed out at 9. I had located a local walking tour for only 150 kroner (about $30 for an adult and two kids), and everyone was keen to do that. The thing is we had to get there from the port, and everyone was keen to walk in rather than get a cab. My map said about 1.5 miles in to the centre of town, but I’m pretty sure that was wrong. Another possibility is that I didn’t take us on the most direct route, but surely that can’t be right. Anyway, we found our meeting spot, and Joyce looked at me and said, “what now?” “A walking tour,” I replied. “A what? After what we just did? Are you kidding me?” I wasn’t kidding, so I smiled my best smile, and everything was ok.
Our tour guide was a New Yorker who has lived in Copenhagen for the past 18 years, and he was wonderful. He spoke in character as Hans Christian Andersen (with a Brooklyn accent), and took us on a terrific tour of the centre of town. A few interesting tidbits for you:
1) The two words he wanted us to remember were welfare and trade – Denmark has a system not unlike Canada’s with respect to health care and economic assistance, but perhaps even a bit more socialist with respect to the amount and type of assistance. In addition, it has quite heavy trade in industry and machinery – a change from its old focus on agriculture.
2) The people of Denmark make fairly good wages, but pay 52% income tax, and 25% sales tax. (something has to pay for the welfare state) Lunch for me, Jenn, and Marjie consisted of three sandwiches, a cup of tea, and two smoothies. The bill was 340 kroner, which is around $60.
3) People bike everywhere. You can actually get free bikes at dozens of spots in the city. Pop in a 20 kroner coin, take the bike, return it to any location, and get your money back. One of the reasons for this is that cars have 180% tax on them. Can you imagine???
After the tour we walked back to our starting point. Well, some of us did – others went back to the ship or went shopping. We went with Cheryl, Hazel, Kayla, and Alex to a little café to have the aforementioned million dollar lunch. But food wasn’t really an option at this point – I had the mother of all headaches, Marjie was barely awake, and everyone needed an energy boost. The food did the trick, and we headed off to do our last bit of sightseeing – a visit to the Absolut Ice Bar (Absolut is a brand of vodka, for those not in the know). Jenn and Marjie and I collapsed in the really funky chairs and sofas outside the bar in the sun and waited while the others went in. For 120 kroner they got to don really pretty parkas and go in for a drink (vodka or cranberry juice) in a room made entirely of ice – chairs, bar, stools, glasses – everything. The pictures look really fun, and perhaps I should have gone in so the ice could fix my head.
We did a little more walking, and then when we absolutely couldn’t take it anymore, we headed back to the ship in a couple of taxis. A great day really – Copenhagen is just lovely, and the Danes are a good looking race, so lots to look at, really.
And here I am. Jenn has abandoned me now as it’s getting colder. The sun popped out a while ago, but now the sky is mottled grey and the water is black and forbidding. It’s kind of peaceful out here on the aft deck though, only a few hardy souls actually bothered swimming, and another few are in the hot tub. One Scottish gentleman stopped to ask what I was writing, and then admonished me to write more and become published. Maybe he’s a publishing magnate in Scotland and will ask to read my blog and I’ll be famous and rich and own a yacht and go sailing in the Aegean sea and…
Or maybe I’ll just enjoy where I am and what I’m doing now. J
Tomorrow is Germany. We dock in the port of Warnemunde on the north coast, and many people will take the train into Berlin for the day. We are not doing that, as it’s a 3.5 hour ride each way and we figured that would be too tiring to be fun. Instead, we are doing a day tour of some castles in the German countryside. Should be fun, and our cruise director just announced it’s supposed to be a beautiful day tomorrow. Yay!
And so auf wiedersehen…
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