Why do I ever leave home?
We're just recently got back from a trip to Northern Europe, which included a Baltic cruise and then some time in Berlin and on to Poland.
Our flight from YVR to Heathrow was delayed an hour and a half. Not too bad, our previous trip to London was delayed 19 hours leaving Vancouver.
Unfortunately, London wasn't our final destination this time. We had a connecting flight to Copenhagen which was in the air before we landed.
The agent who was to help everyone with missed flights was non-existent. There were however print outs left on the chairs in the area with new routing.
You had to hunt down your sheet. We found ours together with three new friends who would be joining us on a connecting flight to Frankfurt.
Frankfurt, Germany? I queried.
Our plan was dinner in Denmark.
Not to be. Our newly founded group had to hustle our butts off to another section of Heathrow. After clearing security once again, we got to another gate with one clerk slowly handling the issuance of new boarding passes to passengers on new routes.
She was so slow that our flight was again delayed and by the time we got to Frankfurt, you guessed it, our scheduled flight was gone. But at last a bit of luck, there was one more flight that night via Lufthansa to Copenhagen.
One good thing about Lufthansa is that they have complimentary booze and by this time, we really needed a drink. So six hours later than scheduled, we arrived in Copenhagen. Of course, the night was still young and there was more fun to be had. Our luggage got confused with all our rerouting and was nowhere to be found.
We were booked into Copenhagen for a couple of nights before our cruise and, other than starting to smell bad, we were peeved but not overly concerned.
The couple from Nanaimo who had joined our happy band of travelers were less sanguine than us. They were to board their ship the next day for an afternoon sailing. All they had was the clothes on their backs and it looked like that might be all they had for the next dozen days.
By the time we filed our missing luggage report, it was pushing midnight and the shuttle that was to take us to our hotel had shut down for the night. We bid our new friends adieu and headed off to find a cab.
The next morning, no luggage and, surprisingly, no idea where it might be. We planned a day of sight seeing and happily had sufficient outer ware to keep us warm on a blustery day. We walked and did a canal cruise, checked out a few clothing stores just in case we needed a whole new wardrobe in short order.
We were to meet friends who happened to be on the same cruise for dinner. We were definitely not overdressed. Then minutes before we were to head out, our daughter's suitcase arrived. She of course insisted on changing.
The rest of the luggage was still nowhere to be found and we were to sail the next day. Fortunately the restaurant was fairly dark.
Then, mid-morning of departure day our luggage appeared. A quick change of clothes and we were on our way to the ship. As we sailed away freshly clothed with drink in hand, all the trials and tribulation were soon forgotten and even I agreed that it beat a staycation.
