Europe 31 May––2 June 2012 - on to Copenhagen

OK, this is the end of the cruise. We have two sea days to get back to Amsterdam, and then on to Copenhagen.

Baltic calm & sunset

We experienced some more of the incredibly smooth water in the Baltic, but not as much as last time.

Bridge to Sweden

Sailing between the Baltic and the North Seas, we passed by Copenhagen, with clear views of the city and its surroundings. OK, the city was a bit off in the distance. But the airport was clearly visible, and we could see the city center area. We also passed the bridge to Sweden again, and saw windmills lined up in the water. We'll be back in a couple of days.

Last Dinner on Cruise

Copenhagen Airport (CPH)

Helsingor (Elsinore)

Overnight we sailed in to Amsterdam and docked before we woke up. Our luggage had been picked up the night before, so we only had small carry-on bags. Since we didn't have a short connection, we were some of the last group off the ship. After retrieving our luggage, we walked to Amsterdam Centrum to store our luggage. The luggage lockers were expensive, and we needed three to get all the luggage in. But we did it.

Bikes in Amsterdam

Our goal in Amsterdam was the newest and largest Starbucks in Europe. We needed to use the free internet. It is a large interesting store on Rembrandt Plein. So with drink and snack in hand, we found comfortable chairs and caught up with email and the like. We returned to Centrum to retrieve our luggage and catch the train out to Schipohl airport.

Lunch at AMS

We had miscalculated the time of our flight and got to the airport quite early. It took a little time and effort to find the right terminal for SAS for the flight to Copenhagen. And they were not even checking people in for a couple of hours. So we had a typical Dutch lunch at a restaurant in the airport near the observation deck where people can watch the planes.

They told us the flight was fairly empty, but actually it turned out to be nearly full. And we missed the announcement of a gate change, wondering why no one was there to start the boarding process. There was plenty of time to change gates when we did discover it.

It is a fairly short flight to Copenhagen from Amsterdam. And we didn't go through any passport control or customs. Arriving in Copenhagen, the first order of business was find a Starbucks for a Copenhagen mug. The first store had none, so we walked across the airport to another. By the time we got to Baggage Claim, only our bags and a couple others were left, and someone was gathering up the left behind luggage. We got ours just ahead of him.

Ron &  Vonnie met us outside the customs area, which we had simply walked through. We walked out to the train platform and road the train to near their house. We settled in for a few days of visiting and site seeing.