Copenhagen, Denmark

Being in the US this year means I haven’t travelled much so I haven’t posted in awhile.

I went on a Baltic cruise that left from Copenhagen. 

I’m used to the Texas and US flags flying all the time and being in every classroom etc. Apparently they only fly the Danish flag on certain days so the cab driver made a point to tell me why it was flying on June 15^th when I arrived.   Danish King Valdemar II led an attack against Estonians trying to Christianize them and according to the legend the flag fell from the sky to a Danish archbishon and he sent it to the king on the battlefield and it led to their victory.  This year marks the 800^th anniversary of the Danish flag which is supposedly the longest continuous national flag.

I stayed at the Hotel Christian IV which is named after a king who ruled for 59 years..  I had breakfast at the hotel with 2 lovely Australian couples.  They had spent a week in Malta, two weeks of cruises on the Mediterranean and were about to embark on a week long cruise to Norway with MSC which was a pretty small ship compared to mine. The Norwegian Getaway is HUGE – nearly 4000 passengers and the total number of souls on board are 6536!

I was able to walk around the area and see some things before I boarded the ship.   There were a lot of beautiful buildings including the palace where a changing of the guard type of thing was happening. It was a gorgeous sunny day in the 70s.

across from the palace

The palace where a changing of the guard thing was
happening but I couldn't get close enough to see anything

 I happened to come across a park while walking - it was so lovely. 

One of the best parts of traveling is getting to meet different people and hear their stories.  I was in the embarkation line with a huge group of extended family who were cruising together and had shirts on that said “Oh ship! A family trip!”  and on the back is said 50th anniversary.   I got through all the lines and went to eat lunch up in the buffet restaurant. It was really crowded so I asked a group of people if I could sit with them. Other people kept coming up to greet them and it turned out 38 friends from Sri Lanka are all on this cruise together.  They said many of them went other places first (UK, Poland, etc) then all met up on this cruise.  Cruises are great for big groups because people can choose what to do during the day then meet up at night for dinner etc.

I have a studio room which is a little cheaper than getting a regular room.  It was in that is in a separate area and not off the hallway like normal rooms so it is really quiet.