Travel Day

Travel Day is Always a Loooonnnngggg Day!!

Ed passed his Covid test with a negative result - I did not have to take one as I had a note from the doctor stating that I had recovered from Covid (and could still test positive). We flew SAS Airlines - check in was smooth at Newark Airport and we found out we qualified to enjoy the SAS lounge before the flight - always a more relaxing way to wait for the plane.

After a little bit of angst a couple of weeks prior to our flight, when we were moved to an earlier one and assigned seats not next to each other and in the middle row of 4 - we were happily surprised to see our boarding passes had us sitting together in a a row of 2. 

Flight was good and we arrived in Copenhagen five minutes ahead of schedule - good news as we only had 55 minutes to catch our connecting flight. No problem. Well, if the line for getting through passport control wasn't so, so long, it would have been much easier. And we weren't alone with people trying to catch connecting flights. Could they have a line just for people in a hurry?  No. So we asked people ahead of us if they were connecting and most of them were not so we worked our way closer the front of the line. Once getting through, and having no idea how big the Copenhagen airport was, we were quickly on our way to find gate A12. Of course we had come in at gate C.  I walked ahead of Ed, figuring if I got there first they would hold the plane.  It was a long, long way. I ran a couple of times. I was a bit out of breath and when I finally arrived they were boarding the plane. Ed arrived a couple of minutes after me. I certainly don't want to do that again. That was stressful.

That flight was a quick one into Bergen. We were met by the Viking representatives at baggage claim and very quickly were on the bus heading to the port. 

Norway has some amazing tunnels!  We went through one on our way from the airport that must have been 5 miles long. And inside the tunnel there was another road then went off to a different destination We've come to find out that Norwegians love to dig down and build things such as tunnels. I will have to investigate that further.

The arrival at the ship could not have gone smoother. Through security and then the health check, with a temp taken and some questions answered, and, of course, our paperwork shared showing Ed's negative test and my doctor's note. And then were told that that was it! No more daily testing, no more spitting in a test tube each morning. I have to confess, I did a little happy dance.

Next we registered the obligatory credit card, had our picture taken (we look lovely after a night of no sleep) and given our room key. We were on the ship by 11am and our room would be ready by 1pm. 

You are greeted with a glass of champagne and sent to your muster station (ours was the theatre) for a brief safety talk - they showed us how the life jackets work. We then headed to the World Cafe on Deck 7 for lunch. We had friended a couple from Maine who were on their first cruise ever, so we went to the World Cafe together and enjoyed getting to know them while having a bite to eat. And at 1pm we headed to our stateroom - the suitcases were already there - we met our room steward and then collapsed for a 2 hour nap. We needed that! 

After unpacking and heading out for dinner at 6pm, we were back in our stateroom before the room steward could turn down the beds. We told him no issue with that - we were just too tired. In bed and probably asleep by 8:30 pm. Let's just say we were much more with it on Sunday and ready to see the city of Bergen.

Stay tuned...