Another 72 Hours

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Estonia to England: 5th - 9th August 2009

Our trip to date has been a mix of days of peaceful relaxation punctuated by days of non-stop movement. I must admit, the trip from Croatia to Vilnius was a great way to produce stomach acid. However, after our visit to the Baltic states, we were now facing a hop, schlep, and a jump to get to the UK for Rami and Jen's 40th Anniversary party.

Our first leg was to get from Tallinn to Stockholm on a car ferry. All the car ferries I'd ever seen were the kind where you board and then 5 minutes later you drive off. This one was different. When we arrived at the port on Wednesday evening, we parked, moved upstairs, and then discovered ourselves on a real cruise-ship, complete with a casino, disco, cinemas, restaurants, etc. Rayma and I met a few people and had a few drinks top-deck in the warm, late afternoon Baltic summer sun. Then, we were off to the fine dining restaurant enjoying a digestive menu complete with matching wines for each course. Very nice.

We woke up in Stockholm the next morning and drove the 6 hours down to Copenhagen where we checked into an apartment for two nights. In reality, we only had Friday to enjoy the city. Copenhagen is another one of those wonderful and expensive European cities that you're never sorry you visited. It's super bike friendly, with bike traffic lights, bike lanes, and an uber-fit population who ride twice as fast as we do. They even get bike rage when you ride in the passing bike lane, but they're Danes so that translates to at most a raised eyebrow. We enjoyed the city and its sights while the perfect weather kept on rolling. But, Saturday, we were back in the car for the drive from Copenhagen to Amsterdam for our ferry across the Channel to the UK.

First, I would like to dispel a rumor that Germany is full of gingerbread houses, bread crumbs, and autobahns where everyone drives Porches and Mercedes at 120 mph. This is what was in my own mind when I looked at the map to determine “ok, 500 miles...at 60 mph (easy)...we'll get there in 8 hours.” But I failed to consider holiday traffic the entire way compounded by road construction resulting in an average speed of 40 mph most of the way. As we were stuck in an hour long traffic jam in Hamburg, we began to recalculate our expected travel time, and most critically, the last check-in time for the ferry -- 9:15pm.

Long story short, we came rolling up at 9:13pm. We were the last car on...but we made it. This ferry started later and arrived earlier. We went upstairs, ate some very average fare and then called it a night. We both slept solidly and the next morning, we drove up from Harwich to Nottingham to make Jen and Rami's anniversary party, which was lovely and blessed by more perfect weather. It was also great to meet so many of Rami and Jen's friends. Birds of a feather do indeed flock together, and that meant lots of great conversation, tall tales, ribbings, jibes, and a few off-color jokes thrown in for good measure. Later, Billy and Anjuli (Rami and Jen's grandchildren) obliged me by asking to make paper airplanes.

I thought they'd never ask.

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Photos

Rami & Jen's 40th Wedding Anniversary
Nottingham, England

Neu Haven
Copenhagen, Denmark