September 17th, 2008: Copenhagen, Denmark - Embarking the Sun Princess
Bob: After a quick and meager breakfast of bread, jam, and an apple, we finished packing, which included pouring the liter of wine Monika had purchased into our two half-liter water bottles. We had decided to try the "bulging pockets" approach to smuggling the wine on board in which we each would carry one of the wine-filled water bottles in a pocket through the metal scanner. Monika had a pocket on her jacket large enough to cover the bottle, and I used the large front pocket on my gray zip pants. We were trying to perfect the wine-smuggling method we had started working on in Lisbon, Portugal, with Helen and Jeff during Wanderung 17, but there we had used the original paper containers and I had been worried about them springing a leak at the worst possible moment while waddling through the metal detectors. The security guards might have smelled something that, if not fishy, would have been definitely winey. Decanting the wine into plastic water bottles like we had done when we were with Lois in Bermuda on Ausflug 35 seemed to reduce that possibility as long as we screwed the cap on really, really tight.
Since we had visited Nyhavn the previous day in the late afternoon, the morning sun was now lighting the opposite side of the harbor. But both sides of Nyhavn are equally photogenic, with the tall, colorful old houses overlooking the waters of the little inlet and the sailboats docked along the sides. We also revisited the Nytorv Plaza to take a panoramic picture of the majestic buildings surrounding colorful flower garden around a bronze statue of a guy on a horse in the center. |
Monika: At our last breakfast we managed to consume everything except the jam, which we left for the next guests. Since it was still early and the sun was shining in a clear blue sky, we decided to take another walk for picture taking. Yesterday, Bob had tried out his new camera but had not tried the panoramic feature. So we decided to go back to Nyhaven, where the old colorful houses with the sailboats in front made for good panoramic subjects. We both enjoyed taking more pictures |
Bob: That didn't take too long, so on our way back to our bed and (no) breakfast, we detoured to a canal in the Christianshavn area that we had seen across from the Royal Naval History museum on our first evening. We were in luck. The morning sun was lighting one side of the canal with a beautiful mellow light and the still waters of the canal created very pretty reflections of the sailboats tied along the wharf and the old houses in back of them. |
Monika: But finally, we went back to our place, passing a canal in Christianshaven that had wonderful smooth waters for great reflection pictures. Finally, we got back to our abode. We had divided the one liter Liebfrauenmilch into the two 1/2 liter water bottles. We actually carried the bottles in our coat pockets through the security screenings and no one asked any questions. |
Bob: But by then it was time to stop fooling around with my new camera and seriously pack up and get to the ship. I manhandled the big pieces of luggage back down the narrow stairs, and we strapped the camera bag and the computer bag to the wheeled luggage so we had fewer pieces to handle, and then away we went. Working our way back to the Nordhavn station just down the street from the cruise ship terminal was a lot easier the second time because we knew the tricks like using the bicycle elevator to get up and down levels in the stations. Except, of course, that the sole elevator at the Nordhavn was out of service, so I once again was manhandling the heavy luggage down two more flights of stairs. After that, we just had to dodge the bicycles, cars and trucks (roughly dangerous in that order) and roll over to the Crown Princes, which was towering above the wharfside waiting for us. |
Monika: After checking and re-checking, Bob schlepped the suitcases down the narrow staircase and we were on our way. By now we knew the drill. Metro to Norresport, S-tog to Nordhaven, 10 minute walk to ship. We got to the waiting area for the ship around 11:00. They were not going to start the actually check-in until 12:00 so we got a number and set down to wait. Coffee and water was provided, so we sat and worked on a Crostic. By the time we were done, they started to process the "preferred" passengers, those that have had more than 5 (I think) cruises with Princess - not stockholders. That went remarkably quickly and our turn came actually around 12:00. They had set up 33 check-in counters. One person directed you to the next open check-in. You gave them your boarding passes, passports, and credit card. She wrote our stateroom number on a stickem note and put it on the back of her shoulder. Someone came by, got the stickum and came back with our cabin keycards. It worked well and we were checked-in in a few minutes. |
Bob: We were way too early, of course, so we had to wait an hour before processing onto the ship, but when we reached our cabin, E701, we were pleasantly surprised to find that our "obstructed" view really wasn't obstructed at all. We had a large window looking out to sea above the promenade deck, and having a good view of the horizon is really all we needed. I like to be able to see outside because it's nice to know what the weather is like when you are dressing to go out on deck. |
Monika: We could go to our cabin, and were delighted to see that we did not have any obstruction in front of our beautiful picture window. After dropping off our hand luggage in our cabin, we went up to the buffet for lunch. The buffet was very good, wide selection of food and a great salad bar. We sat down at a table that had been set with silverware and a cup, and a waiter came by to pour our water and ice tea. Sigh. We are definitely back in the lap of luxury. |
Bob: But we still had some Danish kroner to spend and I also wanted to get a last crack at free internet service, so after dropping off our luggage we grabbed the computer bag and hopped back off the ship to walk into the town around Nordhavn. By asking local folks we located a library and caught up with our email, then curled back past the train station where we had spotted an Aldi store and spent our last kroner on some "Mund Godt" (good mouth?) assorted licorice candies.
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Monika: After lunch, we decided to go back to the railroad station. We had seen an Aldi, and thought we might pick up something for our last 22 Krone. Bob also brought the computer along in case we could find a library. The first two people asked about a library were unfortunately tourists themselves, but the third one, a proprietor of a laundromat (now we find one!) gave us instructions to the nearest library that was not too far. We did find it and spend an hour sending out last emails to kith and kin.
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