I wrote this on Saturday when we returned, but am just now getting around to posting on Tuesday…
Our debarkation time was 6:30am, so Daddy and I had breakfast at 5:30 in the Horizon Court before heading to our meeting place in the casino.
After leaving the ship we boarded a motor coach and headed through Copenhagen to the airport. We had a lot of problems getting our boarding passes in Copenhagen. When Daddy and I got to the counter they said that there was a problem with our tickets, and this ended up being true for most of our group.
Our flight was scheduled to depart at 10:00am, and we didn’t end up getting our boarding passes until 9:30am even though we were at the airport by 7:30am. They gave us a special pass to get through security quickly and we were barely able to make our flight. Unfortunately 23 members of our group did not make the flight to Amsterdam. This included Ben and Patsy.
They actually got tickets, and made it through security, but the plane was gone when they arrived at the gate. Looks like all 23 will be flying to the U.S. tomorrow on various flights. Apparently this was all related to the mess in Atlanta at the start of our trip when our original flight was cancelled (and they lost our luggage). Delta is not high on my list of airlines at the moment.
After the rest of us landed in Amsterdam, and getting through immigration, we made it to the gate for our 12:55pm connection to Detroit with 15 minutes to spare. Thankfully the plane had chargers at each seat since my iPhone was almost completely depleted with all the use in Copenhagen and Amsterdam.
I passed the time on the 8-hour flight by listening to music, napping, eating nasty airplane food, and finally watching the end of Iron Man 3 that I started on the way over. We arrived in Detroit around 3:15pm, and it was hard to believe it would have been 9:15pm in Amsterdam where we left from. I’ve already had three meals today, and we’ve got a long way to go before Nashville. I guess that’s what happens when you have a 31-hour day.
Just as we landed I got a text from Patsy that they made it to Amsterdam and would be flying out to Atlanta tomorrow morning. Unfortunately they didn’t get any chance to enjoy their extra time in either Copenhagen or Amsterdam.
Getting through immigration and customs in Detroit was the smoothest I’ve ever experienced. I passed time during our 4.5-hour layover by walking laps back and forth on the A concourse to get in some light cardio. Daddy and I had dinner at P.F. Chang’s and I got to talk to the girls for a bit on the phone.
Our flight from Detroit was delayed by 20 minutes due to “catering” issues (not sure what this means). Anyway we still arrived in Nashville close to our scheduled time of 8:30pm. Olivia and the girls were waiting for us at security exit with a big sign that ready “Welcome Home Daddy and Papa!” It was SOOOOOO good to see them.
A lot of people have asked me about my favorite ports of the trip, and here is my answer given three ways:
- Favorite place to tour: Saint-Petersburg, Russia
- Most beautify city: Stockholm, Sweeden (Oslo, Norway would be a close second)
- Most livable city: Copenhagen, Denmark
Saint-Petersburg was awesome to tour for two days, but overall it is pretty dirty and much of it looks like it is about to fall in on itself. Stockholm, Sweden is absolutely lovely, but is frozen for much of the year. Copenhagen is the warmest of the Scandinavian cities, and is clean, beautiful, and almost everyone speaks English.
Anyway, it was a fabulous, but exhausting trip. I loved all the cities / countries that we were able to see. I loved spending so much time with my dad and sister. I loved learning so much (it was like drinking history from a fire-hose).