Let the Nightmare Begin.

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Geo: 59.9144, 10.7405

Up at 6:30 this morning, last minute preparations are made to leave the Zuiderdam today and begin our next phase of our journey, traveling on our own for the 10 days that separate our two cruises. In the past the train has always served as our means of transportation but this time it just wasn't practical. The train doesn't go to the places we want to see so, against my better judgment, I arranged for a car for 8 days followed by just two days on the train. Since we don't have any plans this morning, we chose a late exit from the ship. An announcement notifies us that it's our turn to leave comes about 9am and, with relative ease, we walk off the ship, scanning our ID cards for the last time and pick up our luggage sitting in the terminal. Now for a taxi. Oh, there's the line. Whoa! It weaves trough the terminal like a coiled serpent, back and forth, over 200' long. They have every available taxi in Copenhagen here but it still takes 45 minutes to finally leave the terminal. Without a word this time, our driver takes us to the rental car agency in the city.

Mom waits outside with the luggage while I handle the paperwork. I add Mom as a driver for $50. My plan is, since I don't like to drive and really want to take pictures and movies, this will be great. He tells me the car has GPS but I tell him I don't need it. At $15/day I brought my own, loaded with Europe maps. He tells me all cars have it built in and there's no charge. OK. He brings the car around. It's brand new, a Renault Kadjar, with 8 miles on it. He hands me the keys. Actually, no key. A plastic box. You push a button to start. I'm not liking this. It's a six speed manual and Karen doesn't like that. Automatics are rare in Europe. We load our stuff and now the people behind us want out. I can't move the car because the brake is on. Where's the brake? I'm looking on the left under the dash. The salesman comes out and he can't find it right off, searching around. No, silly. It's a button too. OK. We just leave this place and park down the street to figure out what's happening. The manual is in Danish. There are buttons and gadgets all over this thing. I long for the Isuzu.

Our GPS can't find a signal, their GPS is in Danish and we need to be in Oslo in five hours. I have a map but it's of Norway, not a blowup of the city of Copenhagen. We drive first in the right direction, then wrong, miss the roundabout all while listening to "Searching for satellite signal". This goes on for some time until finally we get on E47 North, heading to the Malmö bridge for Sweden. It seems we are going backwards but the GPS says we're on the best route. Finally, a sign says "Two miles to Helsingborg ferry". Huh? Not my original plan but it looks like we're going on a ferry. We drive up to the ticket machine, all in Danish, and my card doesn't work. A worker comes over and helps us on our way. "Lane 10," he directs. Now it's a passport and drivers license checkpoint. The guard speaks English and tells us it's because of immigrants. We're approved and we drive on the ferry. It leaves immediately, allowing no time for photo op. No instructions what to do or where to go. We just sit in the car for 20 minutes, the door opens and we follow everyone else out. All that for only $60. It's a little shorter but not that much. Our GPS picks us up and we're off, now in Sweden.

We have little trouble on the,main highway and, approaching Oslo, I decide to stop at McDonald's for fries and a coke, Swedish style. With that, I attempt to purchase some gas. I don't need it yet but if there's a problem, let's find out now before I really need gas. There's a problem.

I try my AmEx card again but they don't accept it. My Visa is already out of commission from the Oakland airport incident so I grab my preferred card and my only other card, Capital One MC. Declined. I try again declined. Now Karen's tapping on the window. She says she just received an email from Capital One saying a charge for $91.40 was just made. Was that us? No. I haven't been able to buy anything!

I go in to talk to the clerk. He says it happens often. It's a place holder to make sure you have enough credit to pay for the gas. Meanwhile, Mom denies the payment and now our card is shut down. The attendant is nice and helps us with gas, including how to open the gas tank door. I pay cash for our gas and off we go, down to an AmEx card that's not always accepted.

Getting into Oslo is the same nightmare as getting out of Copenhagen since our two GPSs are giving conflicting info or going out of service. My IPhone comes to the rescue and we find the place with difficulty, including asking directions at a nearby pizza place. There a big street party outside and it's not easy to get to the hotel. While Karen sits in the car, I park outside, sign in, bring in the luggage and then, while Mom heads to the room, I take the car two blocks down the street to a garage. I use the only card I have, AmEx and it works. I'm parked but I have no ticket as it never was dispensed. Now I walk 7 blocks back to the hotel. I can't explain why I drove two blocks and walked back seven but again the IPhone got me back to the hotel.

My plan was to take Karen to the Oslo Ice Bar tonight but instead, I sit in the hotel lobby on the phone for a half hour fixing my Capital One credit card which I finally get working again. Our room is nice. We settle for a walk around the Gay Pride Street Party, stop at a deli to share a calzone and salad, calling it a night. My head is pounding and we have to be leaving early. Our room is quiet, the shower is nice and I'm out. We came to Oslo and this is all we did. Pitiful. We must improve our operation moving forward.

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Comments

[Alan & Min]

Mom took you down on the credit card. I could of shown him how to use his iPhone GPS with Google maps for free without any data usage but no one asks me.