Baltic Cruise Day 1

Well, that was rather a stressful day! If we thought everything went wrong yesterday, today was even worse!!

The changeover over in Amsterdam was always going to be TIGHT, but even tightness went out the window when we had to sit for 20 minutes in the plane in Edinburgh because Schiphol was ‘too busy for us to land’!! Then they kept changing the arrival gate, so once we landed, it was another 20 minutes before we got off. The staff got us off first, but it was doomed…

I had assistance, and the unfortunate young woman tasked with getting us to the faraway gate was never going to make it. She rang ahead to say we were coming, but they shut the gates and took off without us. She then took us to Transfers, where they booked us to Brussels, and thence to Copenhagen! All very well, but we had a boat to catch!!!

Of course, once in Copenhagen we waited in hope for luggage, which did not appear. Meanwhile the ship people were ringing asking where we were (I’d informed them we’d missed the flight). We eventually found each other. But it was a very very SLOW drive across the city to the harbour. We made it with minutes to spare. I was OVERJOYED to see that the ship’s ropes were still attached to the pier. The crew people were waving at us to hurry to the correct gate. We were SOOO stressed. But at least we missed the embarkation queues.

I’m afraid we rather over-indulged on the bubbly, then NZ wine with a fabulous dinner - grilled giant prawns followed by fish of the day and chips. They supplied us with nighties, knickers, & toiletries.

One more thing… I got my walking stick stuck in the gap of the lift. The rubber endy bit fell off, down into the bowels of the ship. I could see it at the very bottom of the lift shaft. The kind chap in the shop bandaged my stick up, so that I could still use it on most surfaces.

What a day!!