And Off We Go

To begin our trip to Norway we left our house at 11:00am to head to the Albuquerque Sunport. We parked and took the shuttle to the airport. We checked in at the American counter and the agent asked if we wanted to upgrade to first class for $100 each. We decided to do it as a treat for Valentine's Day and since we had saved $3000 on our trip. This gave us priority boarding and better seats. Our seats were 1A & 1D - next to each other. We got drinks before takeoff and lots of attention. The seats were extremely comfortable and roomy. We also were served a lunch - we chose ham sandwiches, chips and cheesecake. Everything was served on real dishes and with real silverware and cloth napkins. We also had a snack of a bowl of mixed nuts. It was an incredible flight.

We arrived in Chicago (at Chicago O'hare Airport) about 5:00pm and the flight attendant told us where to go to get the shuttle to the international terminal. We checked in with them and we were given a green ticket for the shuttle. Once at Terminal 5 we turned in our ticket and then proceeded to find our gate. We found a departure board with our flight to Copenhagen and noticed that our flight has been delayed 40 minutes. So instead of leaving at 10:05pm we are leaving at 10:45pm. I am hoping we don't miss our connecting flight tomorrow from Copenhagen to Bergen. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

Walking to our gate we were accosted by chaos and noise. There were so many people everywhere and it was a little overwhelming. We tried to find an area that was more quiet so I could call Viking to see what would happen if we missed our flight. They weren't much help and just said we needed to talk to the airline. We decided we would not worry about it until we arrived in Copenhagen tomorrow. I am sure it will all work out. So now that we checked on that and found our gate (M13) we decided to get something to eat. The area where the food is located was busy and noisy so we walked for a while and found a nice quiet place and then Thomas went and got us some food. It was much calmer where we sitting and we could relax until our next flight. We had some teriyaki chicken bowls and read and worked on the computer for a while.

About 45 minutes before our flight we headed to the gate so we could be sure to hear the announcements when they started boarding. Boarding was a slow and crazy process. The plane was full and it just seemed to take forever. We got settle in our seats (40A/C) which were at a bulkhead with great leg room. But we were also at an exit so there was no where to put anything. There were no overhead bins above our seats so we had to store our bags a couple of bins down the aisle. There were also no pockets or cubbies in front of us to put things in so we had to hold out stuff or put it in the overhead bin. We were both tired and a little cranky so we just closed our eyes and rested. We didn't eat or watch movies. We didn't read or journal. We just closed our eyes and waited for the long flight to be over. Finally, after seven and a half hours we landed in Copenhagen. Since our flight ended up being over an hour delayed we missed our connecting flight. So we had to go to the travel center and get moved to the next flight. We arrived at the counter and they checked our flights and we had already been booked on the next flight our to Bergen at 4:50pm. Because of the delay and us missing our flight they gave us vouchers for 75,00 Krone (so 150,00 for both of us, which came to about $22) that we could use at a few places in the airport. So we were able to have a snack while we waited for our next flight. We found out that about ten other people from our cruise missed the same flight we did. When we made our way to our gate for the flight we met about 20 other people that were going on the cruise and we were all on this flight to Bergen.

When they finally got us boarded we were so happy. We really wanted to get to the ship and get settled and rest a bit.

So the flight took off and everything went well, Thomas and I just closed our eyes and rested for the little over an hour flight. When it was time to land we were all happy we were almost done with flying. But as things can change we had a problem. The weather and winds were really bad in Bergen and as we made our approach we started having bad turbulence. The plane was rolling side to side and the pilot was having a hard time controlling the plane. So, he aborted the landing and went up again. He circled the area for about 15 minutes and made a second attempt. Still couldn't land so back up we went. After this second attempt he made an announcement that we had been diverted to Oslo. It took about 35 minutes to get to Oslo and when we landed he told us they were going to refuel the plane and then we were heading back to Copenhagen. We were not happy campers. But I guess it is better for us to be safe. So back to Copenhagen we flew and once back at the airport they moved us immediately to a waiting plane that was much bigger. Then we took off and headed to Bergen. It was a little over an hour until we arrived in Bergen and this time we were able to land. Once we landed and were able to deplane I was so happy to be on the ground. We made our way to baggage claim to meet a Viking representative. Once all our bags were collected we made our way to a waiting bus to get shuttled to the ship. Once at the terminal we had to be checked in and with the corona virus we had to have a five minute health screen. Finally, on the ship we were issued our stateroom keys and were able to get up to our cabin. It was now 12:30am and it was seven hours and 40 minutes since we first left Copenhagen. There were no food places open on the ship but they do have 24 hour room service so we could get something to eat from there but when we arrived in our room we found that they had left us sandwiches, cookies and a bottle of wine. So, we ate quickly and then took showers and finally at 2:00am we were ready for bed. It has been a full 36 hours since we woke up on Friday, February 14 at home and we are really tired. We will try to get some sleep since we have an 8:15 excursion in the morning.