We had the usual early start to a departure day: up at 4 a.m., at the Salem airport in time to park the car for its 2-week stay, and on the HUT shuttle to Portland airport at 5 a.m.

We took advantage of our tickets that read "First Class" and headed for the very short check-in line at United's First Class desk. Then, it was up to United's "Red Carpet" Lounge for a chance to relax in peace and quiet until our flight for Chicago's O'Hare Field was called about 8:30.

By 9 a.m. we were airborne, and sitting in seats 1A & B, on a Boeing 757; close enough to the open cockpit door that Glenn could kibbitz as the pilot and co-pilot checked that daunting array of switches in front of, below and above their seats. When it was time to settle down for take-off, one of the attendants dropped a heavy, metal plate in place so that it covered the lower half of the door to the cockpit. A post-9-11 measure, no doubt.

A light breakfast was served, eggs or a fruit plate, and we followed along with the chatter between the pilots and the area air traffic controllers all the way to Chicago. Pretty cloudy for the first part of the flight, but it turned into a sunny day with just puffy white clouds by the time we saw Lake Michigan sparkling and blue down below us. Our view of Chicago's skyscrapers was only a distant one.

With about half an hour before check-in for the next flight, we scooted to the Red Carpet Lounge which was conveniently located right around the corner from our gate. Another very attractive lounge, and we enjoyed a complimentary beer and nibbles while watching our plane being loaded--with our luggage, we hoped!

The Boeing 777 we boarded was a BIG plane--in fact, we never really saw the entire plane. Us Business-Class minor nobility boarded at the very front of the plane and were quickly escorted to our comfy seats just behind the First Class section--where the true nobles were being seated in their even bigger seats, which I think even converted to a flat bed. Wow!

But, we had the seats indicated by the "Seat Guru" website as the best in business class--they were at the rear of the business class area, and we certainly did not feel squeezed in! It was so far to the seat back pocket in front of us, that we had to unbuckle our seat belts to retrieve anything from the pocket. Individual LED screens at our seats had a variety of movies, cartoons, etc. for our enjoyment. The pilot apparently opted not to let us listen in on the traffic controller chatter, but there was a very nice map showing different views of our progress, speed, outside temperature (minus 60. Brrr!) as we flew high, high (36,000 feet) over Hudson’s Bay, Greenland, close to Iceland, northern Ireland and finally to Heathrow airport in London.

We had to take the video map's word for this route, because all we could see below us were clouds and more clouds. And, before long, we were asked to please lower our window shades so we could all pretend that it was now nighttime, even if it was only 2:30 pm by Pacific Daylight Time. Of course, we were flying high above the clouds, and when we did peek out the window, we were blinded by the sun, always shining.

As soon as we were seated on the plane, here was the attendant asking would we like orange juice or champagne to start the flight? Silly question--of course we took the champagne! Glenn chose filet mignon and a Merlot wine for dinner, I opted for the chicken, with ice cream for dessert, followed by Bailey's Irish Cream as a nightcap.

Another appreciated touch was the warm mixed nuts served earlier with a before-dinner drink. One incongruous touch was that after the linen cloth was spread on our trays, and the elegant china holding the gourmet entrees appeared--the "silverware" turned out to be a plain old black plastic knife, fork and spoon. Even the fork tines were so dull that they assuredly could not be considered a weapon for subduing the plane crew! Luckily, the filet mignon and chicken were tender and our plastic knife was up to the task of slicing off pieces of meat.

In spite of the darkened cabin and our full tummies, sleep was not to be had for Glenn, and I only got a few short naps. But, there were the movies and that ever-changing flight path to keep us entertained.

About an hour before reaching Heathrow, we were served a nice, light breakfast: juice, fruit and a croissant. All very good, but back in Salem, it was ten o'clock at night--changing time zones abruptly must be very puzzling to brains and stomachs!

The pilot explained that we had made good time (probably pushed along by the jet stream) and would be ready to land at Heathrow a little before six--but he couldn't. Heathrow apparently has a curfew on flights before 6 a.m. to keep it quieter for the folks living near the airport. I don't know if the pilot just throttled down, or went around in circles, but it was just shortly after 6 when we touched down in England.

As we landed, we could see that it was a very rainy morning in London Town. The last leg of our flight was to be on a Scandinavian Air Lines flight an hour and a half later. We were a little concerned when that flight number on the departure monitor always said "no information available." We made our way to yet another Red Carpet Lounge and were cheerfully welcomed by the attendants. We had time to try out their juice and cookies and make use of the free Internet access. This has to be one of the best benefits of the airport lounges and I made good use of it.

The SAS flight finally appeared on the monitor--and it said it would be departing RIGHT AWAY! so we scooted over to that departure lounge and found a big line already forming. We had reserved seats, but just in plain ol' Economy Class for this short hop. A very full plane, so we had to share that middle seat with another occupant. We boarded at 9:30 a.m., and immediately set our watches forward an hour, since Copenhagen would be 9 hours ahead of PST. We were served a nice lunch before arriving about 12:10 Denmark time.

It was very smooth getting through customs and to our great relief, there were our bags waiting for us. We had been told "no van service" to our hotel, so we hailed a taxi, learned that he would indeed be happy to take our credit card, and off we went through "wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen" (as the song said) seeing lots of dramatic architecture in the newer outskirts of the city. A very light drizzle was starting just as we arrived at the hotel.

I had selected a hotel in the old waterfront area along a canal. This is rapidly changing to an upscale area, and only three years ago our hotel had been a warehouse--now it had a very pleasant lobby and breakfast area. Our room was not yet ready, so we waited in the lounge, trying to read and stay awake. By the time we got our room keys we had been up a good bit more than 24 hours and what sounded best was a shower and a nap.

Our room was typical of the city hotels Karen and I stayed in last year--very small rooms, but very nice bathrooms and adequate for our needs. Our view? A side alley between this former warehouse and the next former warehouse! The very deep window sill gave away the fact that this building is very old, and must have been constructed with very thick walls.

By 5 p.m. we were much cleaner and a bit rested, although Glenn never really got to sleep. We decided it was time to go look for some place to eat. When we exited the front door of the hotel, you could hardly open the front door! An absolute gale was blowing and the rain was pouring down. We started out anyway, clutching the city map we got from the desk clerk. There was a canal tour dock shown just a few blocks away, and a little farther on, there was a red "M" on the map, which apparently stood for "McDonald's." So, we thought, "well, we'll just have dinner at McDonald's. When we set out, it was blowing much too hard to keep the umbrella from turning inside out. We were getting wetter by the minute!

We found the canal boat dock, with a boat just arriving. We got the departure times and decided that seeing Copenhagen in a driving rainstorm was not a good idea; we'd wait and see if it was better in the morning. We did not have to board the ship until early afternoon.

Our search for the McDonald's was fruitless. Like most European cities, the streets were somewhat like a maze. Our city map got so wet that it was soon almost unreadable--it was turning back into paper pulp quite rapidly! We splashed about from street to street, seeing a few points of interest, including some building that must have once housed royalty. We gave up the search for McDonald's and were ready to settle for ANY restaurant, but never saw any place that wanted to feed us until we were practically back at the hotel. Our choices there were a Pakistani restaurant or a very seedy billiard/tavern spot. We were now sopping wet.

The hotel brochure indicated they had a restaurant, so we said, "o.k., it's probably spendy, but let's eat right there." Back in the hotel, we found out to our dismay, that no, their "restaurant" was only open for breakfast.

There was a little bar behind the lobby counter, and we asked the nice young man on duty if there was room service. He said he could supply us with coffee, tea, beer---and cookies. We splashed our way up to our room, peeled off all our soggy clothes and draped them all over the bathroom to dry out. By now, it was about 9 p.m.--and still raining, but of course not at all dark due to the long days of the summer solstice. We couldn't see another slog through Copenhagen's rainstorm to look for something to eat, and just asked the nice young man to please bring us up a Carlsberg Danish beer for Glenn, tea for me, and all the cookies he could find! This worked out to about ten bucks U.S. but we weren't about to haggle over price at this point.

After our "dinner" we had a relaxing evening, watching Danish TV which featured a lot of American sitcoms, in English, with Danish subtitles. We also had BBC and CNN news in English, so no lack of contact with the outer world.

All this TV-watching made us sleepy, and we both finally got some zzzz's. For awhile. About 11 p.m. Glenn was awakened by BOOM! BOOM! Pop pop pop BOOM! The noise finally woke me up too, and we gradually realized that a big city-wide celebration was going on--it was Midsummer's Night! We turned on the TV in time to see the local folk gathered around a big burning effigy, singing Danish songs and frolicking, probably not far away in Tivoli Park. Why didn't anyone at the hotel tell us we were in town for the big party?? Oh yes--amazingly, the rain had stopped, and did not start in again until after the last fireworks had died away.

At first, we thought "well, it's too late to bother getting up and going outside--they are probably done." Then, about 11:45 p.m the pop-pop-popping began to sound VERY close to the hotel, and we couldn't stand it any longer. Throwing on clothes, we dashed out of the hotel--and it was all over. We asked the desk clerk what had been going on. "Oh yes, this was our midsummer's night celebration, which is going on all over Denmark." Bummer!

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Thursday, June 24, Copenhagen-Boarding the MS Westerdam

Back to our room, back to bed, and while I got to sleep quickly, Glenn claimed he was awake until about 5 a.m. And guess what? The rain had started in again! When we got up at 9 a.m. it was raining and blustery so we dropped any thought of walking over to the canal cruise dock. We didn't want to get those almost-dry clothes in the bathroom all wet again!

We had a very nice breakfast in the hotel's "restaurant." A good variety of food, very similar to what Karen and I had every morning in Germany. I was so pleased to learn that I still remembered how to eat a soft-boiled egg--a skill I acquired on our trip last May. Glenn was impressed.

By 11 a.m. we had our bags all packed; it didn't appear to be raining at the moment, so we decided to take a little walk along the canal in front of the hotel. A very pleasant little walk. We saw some very old, and very unusual buildings along an adjacent canal. One building had a tower with the tails of four (dragons? alligators?) twined together--and their heads pointing downward. An amazing sculpture. An arriving rain shower sent us scooting back to the hotel. We checked out, got a taxi, and told the driver we wanted to go to Langeline Pier, which is where our cruise documents said the "Westerdam" would be docked.

The driver dutifully took us to that pier, where we saw a whole long line of cruise mega ships--but not a one of them said "Westerdam" on the side! What to do! At this point the driver said, "Hmmm, this happened to me about a month ago. I think maybe it is around at another pier." So, off we went, with the meter ticking of course, and sure enough at another pier, two miles away, was the gigantic "Westerdam" docked all by itself.

We got through the embarkation procedures very easily--took maybe half an hour. We boarded the ship about 12:15. We were told our cabin would not be ready for awhile, so we went up to the Lido Deck buffet and had a little dessert of ice cream and cookies to top off the big breakfast at the hotel.

We went to the "Vista Lounge," the ship's big theater, for an orientation session and while there they announced that our rooms were ready--although they cautioned that our bags would not appear for some time yet. We found our cabin, No. 5075 on (where else?) Deck 5. A very pleasant room, nice colors and decor with some very colorful bird pictures on the wall. This was a "verandah" cabin, and had a nice, big sliding glass door. A refrigerator was under the dressing table--chock full of mini-bar items which we carefully avoided during the cruise. All in all, a very similar cabin to those we've had on other ships. Everything is brand, spanking new on this ship, since it only went into service in April. A nice bathroom with tiny tub and shower. Plenty of storage room for the two of us.

After leaving our hand luggage in the room, our next destination was the temporary office of the Maitre d’ in the Explorers Lounge. We wanted to find out if we really did get a table for two or four, as requested earlier. When we arrived, there was a whole room full of people, also waiting for their audience with the all-powerful Maitre d. Outside the Inner Sanctum, a lesser personage, a waiter, was stationed to assign numbers for our audience. He looked up our seating on a chart and said, “Oh you are at a table for six.” Well, this was exactly what we DIDN’T want, so we decided to take our number and wait for our hearing with the Maitre d’. Since we were number 27 and they were only currently working on number 15, we had about a 45-minute wait.

This Maitre d’ was much more pleasant than the Mafia member we once dealt with on a Celebrity cruise. He checked his chart and said, “well, you have a table for two. There is a table for four next to the window, and you are just beyond them at a table for two. It is a nice location, near a window.” So, after our long wait, we left satisfied with our table for two.

Back in our cabin, our suitcases were waiting, and we unpacked. LOTS of hangers in the three closets, and very comfy bathrobes were waiting for each of us.

We didn't have much time to unpack, because the mandatory (with a capital "M" ) lifeboat drill took place at 4:15p.m. We're pretty much old hands at this now, and can slip into these very bulky jackets quite quickly. On some cruise lines, they just have everyone put on their jacket and go into the comfy theater to hear what they would have to do in the event of abandoning the ship. But the Dutch are old-fashioned--everyone must appear at their lifeboat position, and get checked off by the crew. They also very seriously tell everyone to shut up while hearing about evacuation procedures. Aye Aye Sir!

When the drill was over, it was getting close to sail away time, at 5 p.m., so we headed to the top of the ship and the “Crow’s Nest” bar/observation area to watch the proceedings and enjoy a sail away drink. Every table had a full jar of peanuts on it, and as if that wasn’t enough to spoil our supper, soon the waiter came around with nice hot appetizers.

Five o’clock came, and a cruise ship did indeed sail away....but it wasn’t us. A few minutes later, another behemoth ship sailed away--both left the Langeline Pier. We think the Westerdam had to wait until those two ships were gone so that there would be enough room for this 85,000 ton floating hotel to back away from the dock, then turn itself around, and finally, sail out into the Baltic Sea. A watchful tugboat stood by, but thanks to the powerful thrusters on the sides of the ship, it made this maneuver look easy.

The Copenhagen rains came back--and if any sail-away ceremonies were planned for the deck, they must have been cancelled. We were quite content to eat our peanuts, drink our drinks and watch the proceedings from the cozy Crows Nest.

We chose early dining for this cruise, assuming that would be dinner at 6 or 6:30. But this ship, perhaps because of its size and the size of its dining room, had FOUR dinner seatings. We ended up with the very earliest time, 5:45 p.m. on the upper level of the dining room. When we entered the dining room for dinner we found our table no. 37, for two, just as promised. The foursome at the adjoining table seemed happy to include us in their conversations, and suggested we just ask the Maitre d’ to push the tables together for future meals. Apparently that couldn’t be done, as the tables were permanently in place. So, for the remainder of the cruise, we enjoyed evening conversation with these pleasant four people--although the extra distance and the overall noise level in the dining room meant that we shouted, more than conversed with them.

One gentleman (Bob) was from Philadelphia, his partner, “Elsie” was from North Carolina, while the other couple, “Tom” and “Barbara” were from the Denver area of Colorado.

Our first night dinner selection was halibut, and it was excellent. After dinner, it was time for the entertainment in the Vista Lounge for our seating group. Tonight it was an overview of the ship’s entertainment cast, with a clarinet, singer, and introduction of some of the crew that deals with the activities onboard. By now, the ship was definitely at sea, and guess what? The casino was open! And it was right in front of us when we left the Vista Lounge theater. We happily tried out their various slot machines--in addition to the usual quarter machines, there were quite a few nickel ones--some familiar names from our local casinos, and some that were new to us. I was sitting a few yards from Glenn, who was playing a “Double Diamond” machine when it obligingly dropped 320 of the ship’s version of quarters into the tray! That $80. win set Glenn up very nicely for the rest of the cruise. We decided to head for bed, while Glenn could savor his winnings.

Friday, June 25, In the Baltic Sea

This is our first “at sea” day, and they kept us busy with various lectures on St. Petersburg (excellent background given) and on "From Vikings to the Napoleonic Wars in Scandinavia." This latter speaker managed to put me to sleep long before she got to Napoleon; we gave up and decided to do something more interesting, like going to lunch in the Lido buffet on the top deck, by the covered swimming pool.

The buffet has been organized into separate areas: the Wok, the Deli, the "Sweets" (my favorite because that's where they keep the ice cream and cookies), the Beverages, etc. It certainly spreads out the diners, rather than all being in one long, cafeteria-style line, but it also took awhile to figure out what kind of food you were going to find in which section. And, deciding where to sit involved more than just being on the view side of the ship--we tried to get a table somewhat in the middle of all those "islands" so we could reach them all without too much hiking. I seemed to spend a lot of time going around and around the areas--at least, I got a little exercise along with my meal!

After lunch, we took a nice little rest on our comfy bed--this ship has adopted the "pillow top" mattresses similar to ours at home. For rather sleep-deprived people, they probably weren't necessary, but certainly were fine for sleeping. Not so good for sitting on and tying one's shoelaces--the mattresses and springs sit way up in the air, and we had to almost bend in half to reach down to our shoes!

Tonight was a Formal night, and to kick off the evening, we were all invited to the Captain's Champagne Reception in the Vista Lounge. Never ones to pass up free drinks, we got into our formal finery and arrived at the Lounge in time for a couple glasses of champagne, and little nibble food as well. The actual greeting by the captain seemed a bit short and cursory. This skipper is at the very top of all the HAL captains in rank and experience, but he certainly didn't have the personality of our captain on the "Beautiful and Elegant MS Statendam!" I think he did refer once to the ship as the "beautiful Westerdam" but somehow, it just didn't have the "ring" of the Statendam captain's description of his ship.

The dining room had a special menu for this formal night. Glenn chose the Filet Mignon (what again?? That's what he had on the flight over here.) with prawns and I chose the Veal Medallions. Glenn declared his choice to be very tasty; I declared mine to be not very good at all--very tough veal.

When we signed up for the cruise, the travel agent quizzed us about any celebrations coming up: birthdays? anniversary? So, I said, "well, we are celebrating our 54th anniversary a bit ahead of time with this cruise." Tonight my comment brought us a gathering of the waiters bearing a big chocolate cake, saying "Happy Anniversary" and they did their best to get their Indonesian tongues to sing the Happy Birthday song, just substituting "anniversary" for "birthday." Being much too full to eat MORE dessert at this point, we asked if we could have a "doggie bag" for the cake. When the cake reappeared, it looked like a silver swan! They had it all wrapped in aluminum foil, twisted into the shape of a pretty bird. Very nice. It took us most of the cruise to finish off the cake--keeping it in our already-full mini-bar refrigerator.

After dinner--casino time! Actually, those of us with the early dining time were supposed to go right from dinner to the Vista Lounge for the evening's show at 8:30p.m. But, we reversed the order, playing the slots first, then going to the Lounge plenty early enough for the late show. This assured that we had great seats for tonight's big production number, called "The Grand Tour." The show was good, but really not great, in my humble opinion. I think the production numbers on other cruises have really been better. We visited a bit with a group sitting near us--mother, grandmother and son, who all turned out to be from Newtown, PA--and certainly knew where Doylestown was. Small world time!

Another little visit to the casino after the show--this time, Glenn shifted his attention from the quarter machines to the nickels, and managed to haul $15 out of one called "Lucky Leprechauns." Strolling over to the "Little Green Men" Glenn took away another bucket of nickels. Certainly lucky for Glenn tonight.

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Trip Log, Portland to Copenhagen

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