The beginning of our trip to Copenhagen and a transatlantic sailing to Fort Lauderdale…..
19 September 2005: Hell Flight Begins
On the way to the airport, all was well. Our ride picked us up early. We got to the airport in plenty of time. I even had
time for a Fuddrucker’s Burger in the waiting area before our flight was called. But then our flight was called about
15 minutes late. Once onboard all goes according to plan except just before we pull out of the gate. At that point not one
or two, but four flight attendants converge on the center section of the plane, two rows in front of us and one row to the
right. At this point I could tell that there was an animated discussion going on, but I didn't know the cause of it. Finally,
I hear a shrill, male voice with a German accent exclaim loudly: “ You vill immediately fasten your seat belt. This
is a security issue and there vill be no discussion.” Unfortunately, the shrill voiced flight attendant does discuss
it with the passenger who continues to refuse so we hear the same command and threat issued 3 times. .But, either the commands
from the flight attendant or the death threats from the fellow passengers works because we finally push back from the gate
and begin the journey.
………..by the way, did I mention that it was hot.
It was hot in the terminal. It was hot on the plane and there was no A/C on the plane and the cabin must have been over 85
degrees.
We
get to the edge of the taxiway and are ready to take off….just one other plane in front of us….when the captain
comes on the PA system and says that we will be returning to the gate to “offload a passenger who can not make the flight
with us”. So, we return to the gate where after much waiting a group of flight attendants and some ground support people
converge on the same general area as the passenger who wouldn’t fasten his seat belt….but it wasn’t for
that guy, it was for a guy in the row in front of him. But wait, this isn’t your usual unruly passenger problem….all
of the flight attendants are donning latex gloves and other biohazard equipment.
Now, I’m
pretty concerned….it turns out to be a guy who has become sick…..not just sick, but HEROICALLY, MAGNIFICENTLY
sick, This guy is so sick that after they have carted him off in a wheel chair with paramedics in attendance, they bring
in a ground support crew to clean his seat and the area around it and they bring the guy setting next to him a pair of airline
pajamas to change in to…..we assume because his own clothes have become unusable for the time being.
OK,
sick guy is offloaded, the seat has been cleaned, now we should be ready to go, right? Wrong. Now we are further delayed
because the pilot has decided that after pulling all that distance, 5 minutes to and from the terminal, it must be time to
top-off the tanks. So we must refuel. Now I know that German efficiency pretty good, but I think that if taxiing 10
minutes prior to a 9 hour flight is going to cause you to have to totally refuel, then you may have been a little tight on
your calculations to begin with.
But we are off…….life is good. For about 10 minutes
until the people in the seats in front of us jam their seat backs fully to the rear and into my knee…..where they stay
compressing my kneecaps for the next 9 hours.
Let’s say the flight was not my idea of a
relaxing journey. But we arrive in Frankfurt. The good news is that we have 90 minutes before our connecting flight on SAS
Airlines. The bad news is that we arrive 90 minutes late. So, now we’re doing the airport dash…..through customs,
through airport security (where they decide that I require ‘special security screening’….possibly because
I’m carrying a laptop…..possibly because I look menacing (you try sitting jammed into an economy seat with your
kneecaps compressed by a moron in front of you and see if you don’t look a little menacing). But finally I’m through
the security and make the dash to the gate where we do make the connecting flight (barely). We are the last people on board
and make it only because they are running behind schedule too. At this point, though I don’t know it at the time, my
spare underwear and extra gym shorts that I had in my carry-on bag (the one that required ‘special security screening’)
are littering the floor of the Frankfurt airport….but for now all I know is that we made the flight.
Just
a note here in SAS Airlines: SAS makes Southwest look like a luxury boutique airline. SAS charges extra for everything…..not
just beer or soda, but coffee and water too.
We arrive at Copenhagen. Life is good….we
beat the odds. Almost……….we made it, but our bags did not. It’s not just that the airline lost
a bag…..they lost all bags…all four bags. We have no clothes other than what we are wearing. But I’m not
worried, I have extra clothes in my carry-on. Well, I thought I had extra clothes…now that I look I find that there
are no clothes, because during the last security screening, while I’m unloading my bag for the 4th time that
day apparently I misplaced the packet with my extra clothes.
By now we are in Helsingor, Denmark staying at
the Hotel Marienlyst on the coast opposite Sweden. The hotel is nothing special, but they are located on the water and I am
not confined to an airline seat. Now if we just had our bags. After a wait of about 5 hours, during which time all I wanted
to do was go to bed (jet-lag, plus now it is about 5am on my time), the bags finally arrive. We have clothes….and toothpaste….and
deodorant. YES!!
Hell
flight is finally over.
Helsingor also has a very nice castle, Kronborg castle, which was
the inspiration for Hamlet. It is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. We even had a few minutes of sunshine on the way
there.
21 September 2005:
We discover another, newer (built in the
mid-1700’s) castle that is less than 5 minutes from the hotel. So, Helsingor isn’t a bad place to stay. But we
can’t stay.
We
transfer from Helsingor and the Hotel Marienlyst to Copenhagen and the Scandic Copenhagen Hotel. It’s a long story,
but we have to transfer because of problems with the tour company getting bumped out of its original Copenhagen hotels. It
turns out to be OK. We liked Helsingor and got to see some things that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise and we like Copenhagen,
so all is good.
We
walk from the hotel into the Copenhagen city center. We find our way to Nyhavn (historic port area, now mostly restaurants)
for a leisurely lunch. Well, we didn’t intend it to be a leisurely lunch. We intended it to be a quick lunch before
heading off for more sightseeing, but the waiter had other ideas. But two and a half hours later we are well fed and on our
way.
22 September 2005:
We’re out of the hotel and off to the
dock to board the Star Princess. Our cabin is very nice and larger any we’ve had in the past…..which is good
because this will be the longest that we’ve ever been on a ship. Once again, life is good. As I sit here and finish
these comments on the first days of the trip I am drinking good liquor, eating chocolate covered strawberries and watching
the lights of Denmark move past our window as we head out into the North Sea on our way to England, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland,
Greenland, Newfoundland, New York and Fort Lauderdale. If this isn’t perfect, it’s a close second.
23 September 2005:
We are sailing out of the Baltic Sea and
into the North Sea today on our way to the port at Dover tomorrow and a day trip into London. Hopefully today I will make
it down to the atrium, get an internet connection and send this message. But, we have a busy schedule…..we’ve
just finished a late breakfast….we have a “Cruise Critic” social hour coming up at 11am (for people who
hang out on the Cruise Critic internet bulletin board)….there is a wine tasting at 3pm……we have to dress
formally for dinner and be in the dining room at 6pm (tonight is the first of 3 formal nights….so I hope my rented
Tux arrives in the next few hours) and sometime this afternoon I need to head to the laundry and do some washing……its
not all glamour.
