Copenhagen: Doherty Baltic Adventure

I’d been to Copenhagen on my last trip to Europe with Shannon, and we’d seen a lot of the major tourist attractions. Taken into account with the overwhelming city life in Shanghai (a city of 23 million or so), I wanted to make this portion of the trip a time to get some fresh air and ‘get out of the city.’ So I booked a room at a nice bed-and-breakfast cottage. When I got in the taxi and the driver asked me, “why did you book something so far away?,” I knew I had made the right decision. The cottage had its own chickens and the other properties nearby had horses. I was out in the country side, I reckon, about a twenty minute walk from the coast, and I enjoyed those two nights, and one day, of down-time. On my second morning there, I had an early breakfast, then followed the nice owner’s directions to take a bus to the train system, and then to the cruise terminal.

When I arrived, Shannon was already outside waiting for me! We chit-chatted and practiced what would become our ‘vacation prance’ dance moves, while we waited for boarding time to begin. Shannon is friends with one of the photographers, so we just goofed around and took some rather ridiculous photos for our entrance image, not expecting that he’d actually give us the images for free later that night, haha! Once on board, the waiting game began. We knew mom and dad’s flight should be on time, but we were worried they’d get lost in the airport. We made an attempt to take the train to the airport, thought better of it, and then returned to sit by a window and scout for their arrival. Nothing. We waited. Still nothing. Then the mandatory emergency drill began, which meant time to leave shore was very near, so we were pretty nervous. Turns out mom and dad were held up at the boarding gate because of this drill, because no one can come on board at that time. Then they were allowed on, but they must have come aboard before we had a chance to see them. So Shannon and I raced around the ship in a mad search.

I went to the front desk and the employee gave me the report, play-by-play as: “no, they haven’t arrived…oh wait, they just checked in outside…now they should be boarding, right now!” So I raced down to the gangway but missed them there, then raced up to their room and there they were! Shannon was inside, so she had already beaten me to the first hugs, and it was such a delightful family moment, reuniting in Europe on the cruise ship!

The second most important thing to happen that day (after finding the parents) was the distribution of goodies: we pried open the suitcases and dug through all the familiar stuff they’d brought from home and that our ever-caring aunties had sent. Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful goodies!