Only three months late, but better late than never!
This year, our grand vacation was spent with the extended family - We met up with Grandma and Grandpa Lian, Brother Ed, Sister Melinda, and Sister-in-Law Sara in Copenhagen, Denmark to embark on an 11-day cruise of the Baltic Sea and the surrounding nations!
We arrived in Copenhagen a day earlier before the rest of the family, making sure to avoid missing the boat due to China's infamously poor on-time flight record. Fortunately, our flights were actually all on time, and the trip to Europe was fairly pleasant, in no small part thanks to my Gold membership status!
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| The lounge at Detroit |
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| Entertainment on the plane |
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| The lounge at Amsterdam |
Before long, we had arrived at our ship's launch location - Copenhagen!
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| We were greeted at the airport with this fairly odd scene at night - an Anti-ISIS rally |
Seeing as it was quite late at night, we decided to quickly navigate the confusing public transport system. Unlike Shanghai, which basically just has bus lines and metro lines, Copenhagen is criss-crossed with trains, metros, subways, "S-trains", "A-trains", and buses, all of which have their different schedules and maps. It took double checking with no fewer than 4 locals to determine the route to the hotel, since the normal easy single train route for some reason was not operating on that day.
Fortunately, the English level in Denmark is extremely strong - basically everyone can speak it with full fluency, which I would learn later is fairly characteristic of the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, but by no means universal in Northern Europe.
The next morning, we started with our first Real Danish Breakfast:
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| Our first Danish breakfast, complete with real Danish Pastries! |
Then we took a stroll around the neighborhood:
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| Some fancy architecture near the Hotel Osterport |
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| China used to have a lot of bicycles, but Denmark still has a lot of bicycles, including interesting ones like these. And for good reason too - speaking to a local, the cost of buying a vehicle in Denmark is close to triple that of the U.S. (which is somewhat par for the course in many places overseas, China notwithstanding)... but the cost of fuel was nearly four times as much as in the U.S at around 12 Kroner/liter - or roughly $8/gallon! |
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| A nice church |
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| A shot of some of the decor inside the church |
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| European cars like these are fairly rare to see on American streets |
Finally, we made our way to the port to get on board the ship!
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| Meeting up with Uncle Ed and Aunt Sara |
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| Getting our cruise cards! |
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| Exploring the pool deck |
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| Chilling on our stateroom's balcony! |
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| Our first of many gourmet dinners |
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| Checking out Grandparents' stateroom, with the bunk bed set up! |
Next up, Oslo and Gothenburg!
