Helen…are you up?

Europe » Denmark
July 24th 2019

Published: July 24th 2019

What an amazing night’s sleep. This bed. Circulating air. Foam, not feather, pillows and blackout curtains. My sleep was perfect…UNTIL….the phone rang at an ungodly hour. SO….the phone is across the room. I got up to answer and thankfully didn’t stumble or stub a toe. Hello, with a voice clearly recently awakened from a VERY DEEP sleep. “Helen, are you up” – huh? Are you ready? You have the wrong room. CLICK (she hung up on me). Go back to bed. Try to go back to sleep. Knock, knock, knock….is someone at our door? You have GOT to be kidding me. Who is knocking at our door at this hour? I go to the door, step behind it, crack the door open. Yes? Is Helen in? YOU HAVE THE WRONG ROOM! Oh she says. OH. NO - oh, I’m so very sorry to awaken you. NO, I’m so sorry to disturb you. NO, I apologize for disturbing you. Just. Plain. OH! And she walks away. We think Helen gave her the wrong room number to get rid of her. Helen is probably not the other woman’s real name. It’s probably Gladys and she’s hiding from this horrid woman with no manners.

Well…no point in going back to sleep at this point. I got myself up and took a shower. It’s kinda early…for us anyway (well, when on holiday) – not when we were both working (which we aren’t any longer). We both wanted, no NEEDED our sleep after the horrible nights we had in Oslo (that room was so darned hot). That was shot to hell! Whomever this “Helen” (or Gladys) is – watch your back! That’s all I have to say. And…to the “lovely” woman who disrupted our slumber….I remember (vaguely) what you look like….just sayin’. An “I’m so sorry” would have been nice.

So, if today is Wednesday – Mueller must be testifying. NOT WATCHING…well maybe later.

Today, we are in Skagen, Denmark.

Skagen reminds me quite a lot of Carmel, California. Only flat…and yellow. I mean YELLOW! If you have a building and it isn’t painted yellow in this town…clearly you are NOT in the know, are a foreigner, or colorblind.

Skagen is a charming little port town; the northernmost point of Denmark and a resort town. One can see the meeting point of the North Sea and the Baltic sea (we chose not to take the 4 mile walk – and we saw it on our way out of port at sail away). There are charming shops, gorgeous flowers and a LOT of tourists – from the ship and staying in town. There were more hotels per block than I can recall seeing in most other European towns. Evidently, this is quite the resort for the well heeled. We saw Rolls Royce, Mercedes G, Audi Q8 (never even HEARD of this one), Maserati (multiple), Porsche (multiple) – then we learned that a basic home here in town starts at $2million!! Well…OK…not sure why but OK. I wouldn’t pluck down that kind of money for this place. PASS. Don’t get me wrong – it is quite charming, but really? No.

We walked to town and took the shuttlebus back to the ship. We were back on the ship by 11:30. Remember – we got an early start! I hate Helen now – or Gladys, whatever her name is.

Back in the room, change – hit the pool deck and open our books – ah a perfect day. If one forgets the whole Helen thing.

We each got ourselves a salad when it came time to eat. Something light to get us through the afternoon. Back poolside and prepare ourselves for our pampering treatments. Christopher and I each have appointments at Canyon Ranch Spa: Massage for him, facial for me. We each took a steam to prep ourselves, filled out our paperwork and waited for our respective appointments.

We were BOTH very satisfied with the results. Savo, according to Christopher, has healing hands – poor guy hasn’t had a massage in years…even fell asleep on the table. He needed that. Particularly after Martha (I decided the woman who destroyed our sleep is named Martha) so rudely woke us up.

While Christopher was still getting his muscles pummeled and pulled, I went to the Spa Deck (SO NICE), sat on a chaise and read for a while. Decided I had had enough relaxation for a while and went back to the room, where I found Christopher. He was like mush. So relaxed (he really, REALLY needed this). The last year has been a little stressful (to say the least).

Tonight was the Captain’s cocktail hour in all the bars, so…why not? Christopher had a Martini and I had a Negroni AND a Martini (hey, I’m not driving). We met a very nice couple from Melbourne, Australia and chatted for a while before they had their reservation at Red Ginger (so excited – our reservation for Red Ginger is tomorrow…I can taste the duck and watermelon salad now)!

We chose to dine at the Grand Dining room. I was on the lookout for Martha…she betta watch her back! Christopher started with a potato/caviar puff and I had the fois gras, we each had duck a l’orange. For dessert I had the St Honore cake and Christopher had an Espresso mousse in a chocolate cup (which of course he devoured…as I devoured mine)! We finished the Sangiovese from last night and dinner was done. Again – so good!!

A walk up to Horizons lounge (we had the place to ourselves) then back to the room. If I hear from Helen/Gladys or Martha, you will be the first to know. If, by chance, you read of a woman gone overboard in Norway. I have NO IDEA what happened

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved