The Long Fuzzy Blur of Arrival

I woke up to a quiet house. The chilly air was fresh. I could hear birds. For a moment, I didn't know where I was or what time it was, or even what day. Then I realized. I'm in Denmark.

The previous 48 hours were a blur of flights and fatigue, but finally we were settled. Here's a quick overview.

The flight from Orlando to JFK was uneventful, but the two-hour flight only had snack service, and all the entertainment was pay-only. With little sleep the night before, Cristina and I were content to just rest, but for the kids, it was enticing to have a TV screen on the seatback in front of them, but all the movies and shows listed were only available for a charge, which we were not willing to pay. We hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, so the peanuts and pretzels and cup of soda were not very filling.

When we first booked our flight in February, we had a 3 hour layover at JFK, but Delta changed the schedule a few times over the next few months, and now our layover was only an hour. We made it to our connecting gate easily, but no time to eat anything. Plus, we knew there would be a meal on the long flight to Amsterdam. On the way to our gate, Bella told me, "I'm tired of planes already." Considering we had 7 more flights in the next two months, that was slightly discouraging.

Thankfully, the flight to Amsterdam restored Bella's faith in air travel. It was helpful that she had the shorter flight first, because that created some context. The big plane to Amsterdam felt so roomy. It had three seats in the middle of the plane, and two seats on each side, so Bella got to sit in the middle between her parents (Sofia and Alex were just across the aisle). They delivered hot moist towels for washing our hands before serving a meal of chicken or pasta. All the movies and TV shows were complementary. The movie selection was impressive. Imagine combining Redbox with Netflix, and not just the instant Netflix, but the DVD Netflix as well. It was mind-blowing how many movies were available. I watched Inside Llewyn Davis, which was very good. After dinner, we all took a melatonin and tried to settle down to sleep.

Hard to tell by their faces who hadn't slept for 36 hours

Sleep was uneven for Cristina and me, but we dozed off and on before they served a light breakfast of yogurt, bread, and cheese. We landed in Amsterdam on time.

We had a couple of hours to kill in the Schiphol airport. Security went fine, although I had to abandon the yogurt I had saved from breakfast. It was 110 ml, and 100 ml was the limit. Silly. Sofia was the only one to get a pat down, for some reason. Cristina was bringing some carved salt stones to our friend Marion, who is a massage therapist, and I guess they looked strange on the x-ray, so her bag got hand-checked in Orlando and Amsterdam. We thought about getting something to eat (Bella was hungry, but Cristina wasn't, and I just felt weird from no sleep...empty stomach but not hungry). We munched on some granola bars Bella had packed in her carry-on instead of buying a pre-packaged sandwich for 5 Euros.

Our plane to Copenhagen was small and we boarded it on the tarmac. They served drinks and a snack (your choice of sweet or savory).

Copenhagen airport. Finally. Now reality set in. The world inside an airport is artificial. You're free of your luggage. You have choices for eating. It's climate controlled. It's not even like being in a country; it's more like a weird kind of limbo. But once you get your luggage and leave the airport, you rejoin real life.

Moment of Truth

Even though we did pretty well about packing light, my biggest concern so far, the nagging worry in the back of my brain throughout all the flights, had been how well will the luggage fit in the rental car? It was tight to fit it all in the Odyssey, and I had booked intermediate-size cars. Upgrading the cars really wasn't an option. We just don't have the budget for it. So in my mind, the worst-case scenario was luggage on the kids laps.

Picking up the key for the car was fast and easy. The lady mentioned that they gave me a small upgrade. I just heard the word small, and asked for clarification. It turned out they upgraded the quality of the car: a BMW 316. Okay. I'll take that. As long as the trunk isn't smaller!

What?! No Skoda?!

When we got to the car in the parking garage, the first thing I did was pop the trunk. Ahh! It looked big! Yes! In fact, we got all five of our bags in it, plus one of our carry-on backpacks. We connected Cristina's brother's European GPS (from his days driving for the Army in Germany). It couldn't find the satellites inside the parking garage, so we drove out of the garage (and dang, that BMW drove smoothly). We had some problems with the cable connecting the GPS, so we had to use it without the cable, and the battery quickly died. So we were on the road in Copenhagen with no GPS and no paper maps. The main highway had two choices. One way was Malmo, which I knew was Sweden, so we went the other way. Cristina used Google maps on her phone and we figured out that we were on the right road. The next step was to find some food, as we were all starving by this point. Other than the dinner on the overnight flight, we hadn't eaten a meal in 24 hours.

I learned that one of the differences in Danish highways and US highways is the lack of exits with restaurants (at least ones visible from the road). I really didn't want out first meal in Denmark to be McDonald's, and so far the only restaurants I'd seen from the highway were McDonald's and Burger King. We had essentially skirted Copenhagen by taking the highway south of the city, and the highway was kind of desolate. Indistrial park kind of things would appear now and then, but no restaurants. Finally, determined to take the whatever looked like food, I pulled off on what turned out to be a truck stop/service plaza. A quick peek inside, and I saw that they served food. So our first Danish meal was at Hos Morfar (With Grandpa). Fish and chips for Sofia and Bella, chicken and fries for Alex, a big hot dog for me, and "Plate 59" for Cristina, which was kind of a weak Smørrebrød (open-faced sandwich) kind of thing. We had no water, so we bought five bottles of water. Total cost: 397 DKK, or about $72. Our Danish friend Trine had warned us that everything in Denmark was expensive, and restaurants especially so. But it had to be done.

Big ole dog, teeny little half bun (which cost 73 cents extra)

First Danish meal! (Bella didn't like the fish)

We trekked over the bridge (Storebæltsbroen) that connects the islands of Zealand and Funen. I knew it was a pricy toll (235 DKK), so I was ready. I drove nice and slow to get our money's worth.

Our $43 Bridge

Everyone fell asleep in the car, and even I got super-drowsy, so we stopped for coffee.We finally got to the Svennum's in Arhus. The Svennum family lived in Gainesville for about six months, and we hosted their daughter, Ida, for a month after the rest of the family went back to Denmark. Ida also joined us last summer on part of our cross-country road trip. Our ultimate destination was a vacation cabin in Hals where our German friends Marion and Harry invited us to join them. But we had a gift for Ida's mom, Mette, which was fragile, so we wanted to drop it off instead of traveling all over Europe with it. We really needed to get the Marion's and get some sleep, so we said we'd only stay at the Svennums for 30 minutes. They welcomed us to Denmark, we gave our gifts, they served coffee and fresh strawberries and cream, and an hour and half later, we were on the road again.

Svennum Time

Strawberries in the garden

We finally got to the cabin in Hals after midnight. Harry met us down the road and guided us to the cabin, which was decorated with a handmade welcome sign and candles burning. So sweet!

A quick unload, a couple of showers, and the kids were in bed. Cristina and I finally got to bed about 2 am.

Needless to say, we slept well and woke at 12:30 pm the next day.