Day 1 - Delayed Start, But We're Off On Our Latest Adventure

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It’s hard to believe that another year has passed. I reached the milestone of 70 years old, and somehow Jody just keeps looking younger every year. After last year’s post-Covid hectic pace of 2 Caribbean cruises, a week in Sanibel Island, a trip to Spain and Portugal, and a River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, we decided to slow things down a little. Though we did take a Caribbean cruise in March, and plan to take another in September, our only major trip this year is this current trip, using Insight Vacations for the third time, to Spectacular Scandinavia and Its Fjords. The trip begins in Copenhagen, Denmark, passes through Stockholm, Sweden and ends up in the Fjords of Norway ending 15 days later in Oslo, Norway.

The weather here is cooler than last year’s trip to Spain and certainly much cooler than Orlando with the highs reaching the upper 70’s or maybe even the low 80’s during the heat of the day with the nights dropping back down into the 50’s. We brought some shorts, but expect to be wearing long pants most of the time. The heat of the Scandinavian summer is more like a typical Fall or Winter day in Orlando

The flight from Orlando to Copenhagen was booked on Air Canada and we expected to leave Orlando at 11:00AM, arrive in Montreal at about 2:00PM, enjoy about a 4 hour layover to clear Customs, get some lunch and wander over to the gate about 5:30 for a 6:00PM departure, arriving in Copenhagen at about 7:00AM. Anyway, that’s what we thought when we went to sleep last night. When Jody awoke at about 5:30, she noticed a text from Air Canada that due to pilot sleep requirements, our Orlando to Montreal flight had been delayed until 1:15PM for departure. This gets us into Montreal at about 4:30 for a connecting flight departure at 6:00PM. Naturally, Jody had to wake me early, to let me know that the flight had been delayed and that I could sleep in later if I’d like.

The flight to Montreal left on time, but it was raining in Montreal when we arrived, and to make matters worse, the walkway at the gate was broken, so we had to deplane in the rain using stairs into a waiting bus. It was a long walk, from international arrival, through Customs and over to our gate, but we managed to get to the gate just as they were beginning boarding, so it was a relief to reach our seats and finally relax. We were actually grateful that our departure was at 6:00 as others that we met on the plane were trying to make a 5:30 connection. Hopefully they made it!

The flight from Montreal to Copenhagen was uneventful. Neither of us can sleep well on a plane, but we both managed to get an hour or two of sleep along the way. I watched season 2 of the HBO Perry Mason remake, at least the first 5 episodes. Hopefully I can watch the rest on the flight back, or when I get home. The show is called Perry Mason, and even though it’s pretty good, it is very dark, and other than the character names and occupations, it bears little resemblance to either the books or the famous Raymond Burr show of the 50’s-60’s.

Our arrival in Copenhagen was easy, and we breezed through customs, picked up our baggage and headed for our airport transfer. After a little confusion, we found the Caffeine Coffee Shop and hung about waiting for a friendly face with an Insight Vacations bag to greet us and get us from the airport to the hotel. It was only about 8:00AM and the transfer was scheduled for 9:00AM. There was a gauntlet of people waving various signs for transport, tour groups, etc. but nothing for Insight Vacations. Luckily, our tour guide Maja had sent us a picture of herself, and so when we saw her at about 8:30, we recognized her immediately.

It turns out that for popular destinations like Spain and Italy, there are lots of tours beginning every day, and Insight with hire people as greeters just to meet the people at the airport and facilitate the transfer to the hotel. Since Scandinavia is not quite as popular as some destinations, the Tour Guide herself meets us and takes us to the hotel. There were 5 of us ready for the 9:00AM transfer, Rob and Dot from Australia, Anita, a single traveler also from Australia and us. Everyone was nice, and Maja was great! Lucky for us, our rooms were ready at 9:30AM when we arrived, and we were finally able to relax and try to recover from our jet-lag.

By 11:00, we decided that an airplane croissant and a little yogurt was just not going to suffice until dinner, so we decided to head into town foraging for food. There is a beautiful little park across from the hotel on the way to a downtown area. So we headed out and followed the hiking trails through the park, across a foot bridge, where we encountered lots of locals doing what I guess Danes do on a Sunday morning. Like most of Europe, they ride a lot of bicycles. Many are built to carry groceries or small children. As we wandered into town, many of the shops were closed since it was Sunday, but we found a few little pastry and sandwich shops. It was still early, so most of the locals were having coffee and pastry, but we were searching for sandwiches. The sausages are supposed to be especially good in Denmark, but we didn’t find a sausage sandwich shop around.

After trying at one shop and being unable to read the QR code to take a number to place an order since we don’t have international cell service so we don’t have internet in public, we found a shop where you could take a number from an ordinary machine. Most of the shops were set up where you walk in and take a number and they call you rather than standing in line. We had number 183, but unfortunately sine we don’t speak Danish, we didn’t know they were calling our number when some kind lady asked us if we were 183 and let us know they were calling our number. We had delicious prosciutto and cheese on focaccia bread that was out of this world. The bread was so delicious and the cheese was actual cheese, not the stuff we get in the states. I wish we could get food like this back home!

After lunch, the jet-lag began to kick in seriously. So we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. After a couple of hour nap and a quick shower, we were ready to tackle anything! Instead, we settled for an introductory dinner where we met the other 31 travel guests who would be sharing our time with for the next 15 days. For once it looks like as Americans, we may be the minority in this group. We have a bunch of Canadians, several Australians, a couple of New Zealanders, a group from Singapore, and a handful of Americans. Our tour guide, Maja is actually originally from Slovenia, and used to do Russian tours but now does Scandinavian tours, as Russian tourism seems to have dropped off for some reason.

Dinner was just a buffet, but the food was good and we mostly chatted with Jane from Vancouver and Ray and Sheron from New Zealand. It’s taken a few trips, but I’m finally getting better at understanding the New Zealand/ Australian accent. After dinner was a short trip down the street to the famous Tivoli Gardens. Founded in 1843, it is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.

Tivoli Gardens is like any traditional style amusement park with both old style kiddie rides up to a modern loop roller coaster. It includes pavilions, a stage, along with traditional arcades, there are several restaurants and souvenir shops. It reminded me of Canobie Lake Park where I grew up except it was right in the middle of downtown Copenhagen. Maja said that a lot of local families have season tickets and bring there families there for fun. We viewed all of the park and took a bunch of pictures, but neither of us was really up for riding the rides. But the young couple from Canada that we haven’t met yet decided to stay and ride the rides and walk back to the hotel, while the rest of us were ready to get back and catch up on our sleep.

The one unexpected pleasure, at least for me was a chance to try licorice ice cream. It’s evidently a specialty of the shops in Tivoli Gardens and consists of a black licorice soft serve ice cream with a black licorice syrup squirted on top. Now, most people don’t really like black licorice, but it has always been one of my favorites. It was absolutely delicious! Jody tried a bite and wasn’t impressed, but to someone like me who can eat an entire bag of black Twizzlers, or Licorice Nibs, it was heaven!

As we finished our wanderings around Tivoli Gardens, we were both beginning to crash and decided we were ready to get to sleep. Tomorrow is a busy day, with a city tour of Copenhagen by a local guide, a visit to the North Zealand Castle, and a visit and dinner somewhere only described as Copenhagen, off the beaten path. We’re both looking forward to what tomorrow brings, I’m sure it will be a blast!

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