Arrived In Copenhagen

Now that was a looong day! The "air leg" of our journey went very well. All planes arrived early and we had no travel issues, which is always a very good thing. The SAS flight was very nice. The seats were a bit cramped (understandable for economy class) and it was hard to sleep due to the time of day, but the food was great - a nice hot meal at the start and a breakfast before we landed. Customs was a non-issue (they looked at my passport and stamped Mary's), our baggage was there when we got to the conveyer belt, and we caught a cab to our hotel right away. The cab driver understood some English which helped.

As expected the hotel was full when we arrived at 8:00 am (local time) and check in is at 2:00 p.m. so we put luggage into storage and walked around the town. We decided to take a canal

tour which was very nice, but by the end of it, we both were feeling the effects of being up for 26 hours. We did some souvenir shopping, grabbed a small lunch and decided to head back to the hotel to wait for our room. Thankfully, one was available so we were able to check in and immediately crashed for a 3 hour nap.

So now we are waking up, getting unpacked and settling in.

Unfortunately, my camera decided to "die" today. I discovered this as we were about to leave the house when I tried to take a picture of our luggage. It turns on and displays settings and prior pictures just fine, but when you go to take a picture, all you see is "black". After considerable testing and some online internet research over the phone with Katie while waiting at the airport, I've concluded the the "image capture" chip has failed. Thankfully Mary's camera works so we shared it today. So I'll be doing some camera shopping while on the trip. Hopefully I can find a good deal here in Copenhagen!

All Packed and Ready

The suitcases are all packed and closed (and well under 50 lb each!) so now we need to have lunch and wait for any to pick us up.

Getting excited to be on our way!

The Baltic Sea Calls

In less than 2 weeks, Mary and I will be in Northern Europe, cruising the Baltic Sea, visiting all of the Scandinavian nations - Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway along with Russia, Estonia, and Poland.

I plan to post most days - and hopefully upload a picture or two. So stay tuned. More to come!

February Cruise Pictures

I finally completed my picture site from our February Cruise. Check it out and let me know what you think.

I used iWeb to create it and, unfortunately, iWeb and Firefox 3 do not get along well. So you need to use Internet Explorer, Firefox 2, or Safari to view it.

Enjoy!

Added 3/22/09: Andy's pictures and Katie's Pictures.

Our Next Cruise

Thanks to a timely one time payment from DTE and a tax refund we have our next cruise lined up! This time we're headed to a part of the world neither of have been to before - Northern Europe! It's Baltic Sea cruise on the Emerald Princess, departing Copenhagen with stops at Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Estonia, Poland and Oslo.

It is actually quite surprising to me that we can afford another cruise this soon after our February anniversary celebration cruise with the kids. This one is actually a true Anniversary cruise since the ship sails on our actual 35th wedding anniversary!

After this one, it will take quite a while to replenish our vacation fund, but the deal was waaaay too good to pass up and it is a cruise we've both wanted to take at some point and by doing it now we are saving several thousand dollars.

Now to watch the airfares and hope to catch a good sale to Europe in the coming weeks. Northwest has one going on now, but you have to fly by May 31st. So I'll keep checking....

That's the update for now. More to come as well as a February cruise picture page once I get a few pictures from Mary.

Cruise Pictures - NOT!

I assembled a nice set of cruise pictures and use iWeb to publish to my Travel Mobile!Me Apple web site, only to find that the site does not work with Firefox 3!

It's also a bit incomplete as I neglected to take pictures at some stops, but once Mary gets her pictures uploaded I may borrow a few of them.

Anyhow, a site is coming, but you won't be able to view it using Firefox 3.

Back in the States

The cruise is over. 8-( We had a great time and it was very nice to have our kids along. They enjoyed the cruise as well and have now experienced how great cruising can be.
We just pulled into Fort Lauderdale and are docking so any future updates will be from land.
We had an enjoyable prime rib dinner last night, then sat around and reflected on the cruise over desserts and beverages. After that we retired to our cabins and did our final packing so we could put our suitcases out for pickup. Seeing as how it is rather nippy here this morning I wish I had packed my shorts and worn long pants, but that's the gamble you take.
Today we have a rental car so we'll be touring Fort Lauderdale until we fly back to Detroit this evening. A rental car is nice because it gives you a reasonably secure place for your luggage and costs less that two transfers to the airport. Hopefully it will be warm - and sunny - enough to spend some time on a nice beach. If not there are other things to do in town.
That's it for now! Pictures will be on my picassa page in a few days.