Packing and our first experience with Sleasyjet

Here's the dilemma. We came to Europe with five checked bags, because we were allowed that many for free by Delta. The fifth bag was a relatively small duffel bag that could be packed inside one of the other bags, to get us down to four bags. When we flew from Denmark to the UK, and again to Switzerland, we would be flying Easyjet. On discount airlines like Easyjet, you have to pay for your checked bags, so we planned on only checking four bags. The reason for this was not only to save money, but also to keep our bags as minimized as possible, since we'd be fitting all our stuff in intermediate-sized rental cars. All this means is that this morning, as we packed up, for the first time we had to get all our stuff into four bags, and they could not weigh more than 80 kg combined. Challenge accepted.

It was not easy.

In fact, when we were down to our last bag, and I looked at all the clothes yet to be packed, I felt quite hopeless. It felt like our stuff had doubled in size since we arrived, but we hadn't bought anything. On the contrary, we had left some things with Marion (the massage salt).

We finally got everything into four bags, but they weighed a combined 84 kilos. Some creative shuffling of heavier items into our carry-ons and we were down to 80.

We needed to leave by 1, and it was 1:15 when I loaded the car. Again, it felt like our stuff had grown, because I had a hard time fitting the four bags into the trunk. However I had done it at the airport no longer worked, because the bags were thicker now. On top of it all, it was sunny and hot, and while I sweated with rearranging the bags, I wished the cool windy weather we'd had the previous days had hung around.

We said goodbye to the lovely summer house.

One of the pin-up sketches in the summer house

On the road, the GPS said we'd arrive at the airport at 2:45. Enough time to top off the gas tank. Excellent.

No problems turning the car in. We now had about four hours to kill at the airport, but we'd brought a picnic lunch, so all was well. My only remaining concern was whether our carry-ons were too big. Easyjet doesn't give you any wiggle-room, according to David, but our bags were mostly squishable. Still, it wasn't until we got to the Easyjet check in and tried them in the carry-on tester that I could breathe a sigh of relief. They were all fine.

When we checked in our luggage, the man told us a French air traffic strike had caused a delay, and our flight would leave probably about 30 minutes late. I didn't care. I was just glad our carry-ons fit and our checked luggage was under 80 kilos. I hoped Alamo rental car in Gatwick would hold our car a little longer but I felt confident they would. He gave us 5 snack vouchers of 67 kroner each to spend at the airport, so that was nice. That's about $12 per person.

We had our picnic lunch at the table of a 7-11 before going through security. Yes, there is a 7-11 in the Copenhagen airport.

Bella is holding the Danish pancakes Trine packed for us

Once we got through security, we checked out some of the restaurants listed on the voucher. Ouch! Danish restaurants are pricy to begin with, but airport prices are just laughable. Most places had burgers for about 160 kroner ($30). So we could either buy two burgers for all five of us, or something small, like a side of fries. To Easyjet's credit, they were snack/beverage vouchers, not meal vouchers.

The shops at CPH look nice and fancy. You get the feeling that you're in a high-end shopping mall. Good for people-watching. But the true indication of a good airport comes down to--like most things in life-- access of power. In my opinion, at the gates, there should be ample places to plug in your laptop, or recharge your phone. Power outlets at CPH, however, are few and far between.

I hoped to use all this time at the airport to catch up on my blog, but my laptop was completely dead. I finally found an available outlet at the farthest gate possible. I got one post written, and then it was time to get our dinner snack.

We had found a place on the voucher list, Food Market, that had reasonably priced eats. A bit more IKEA-esque, or Marks & Spencer. Mostly prepackaged sandwiches and a few hot items. We planned carefully and got two pieces of cheese pizza, two large fries, a chicken wrap, a yogurt parfait, a chicken baguette sandwich, and a bottle of water for 335.50. When the lady added up our vouchers and saw that we only had to pay half a kroner, she was impressed. Score for team Eury.

I'm holding a half-krone coin...what we paid for this "meal"

We boarded our flight (only 20 minutes late instead of 30). The plane was an older one and a bit shabby. No snacks or drinks (not even water) unless you pay for them. But we expected that, so no big deal. The flight was an hour and a half. Cristina fell asleep.

I got the passports and my calendar down from the overhead bin to fill out the immigration papers. When we landed, I made sure not to leave them in the seat pocket, so I put them on the seat. We were so rushed to get our bags out of the overhead bin and get moving (you hate to hold up the line of grumpy passengers eager to get off) that I left my calendar in the seat. Didn't realize it until we were all the way at the car rental place, and by then Easyjet was closed for the night. The calendar was no big deal, but inside my calendar I had an envelope containing copies of our passports, driver's licenses, credit cards, and debit cards. Sensitive info to say the least.

The next glitch of the evening was the car. The paperwork part of it went fine. I even got a free upgrade again, although instead of a BMW, this was a Mercedes. We loaded the bags in. Not tons of room, bt we got them in, so that was great. Everyone was settled into the car, I was about to leave, and Cristina noticed that the cigarette lighter didn't work. We wiggled the cable for the GPS and looked for another outlet (sometimes new cars have more than one) but to no avail. We asked the attendant, a nice chap from Poland, who had a look but couldn't solve the problem. He said the only option was to go back in and get a new car.

So I lost my upgrade.

The Mercedes that got away

They gave us a Skoda Rapid, a similar style car with a less powerful engine and slightly less cargo space. We had to remove the trunk panel thing to get all our stuff in, and I had no visibility out the back window. But the cigarette lighter worked, so we had GPS, and it was still a diesel, so good gas mileage. Strangely, it was an automatic. Didn't expect to drive one of those here.

Driving on the left side of the road. Not as big of a deal as you might think, but the hardest part for me is fighting the temptation to drive too close to the curb. When you drive on the right in the States, with the driver's seat on the left, you get conditioned to orient yourself on the left side of the lane. You know, you're looking down roughly where the left tire track is on the street. But with everything switched, you have to break that conditioning. It is not hard, but you have to consciously do it. If I stopped paying attention and ran on auto pilot like it's so easy to do on the freeway, I would tend to drift to the left. I told Cristina to let me know if it seemed like I was getting too close to the curbside.

Glitch number three of our brief time in England was our inability to call our couchsurfing host to let her know we were running late but were on our way. The flight was already a late one, arriving 9:45 pm, but then it was delayed 20 minutes, and then we had the car issues, and then it was over an hour drive from Gatwick to Highgate, in northern London. We had to communicate with Sue through couchsurfing messages, which was slow and cumbersome. During the long drive to Highgate, I kept thinking how driving back down to Gatwick to get that bloody calendar would be such a pain and time consuming. We finally got to Sue's house around 1 or 1:30 am (it's all such a delirious blur now). She was lovely and welcoming despite the hour and her feeling under the weather. Her house was huge and beautiful and we got settled as quickly as possible and went to sleep, our full-planned day in London now in serious jeopardy. We needed to sleep in, so we'd have to improvise our plan. You know what Robert Burns said about the best laid plans of mice and men...