Our driver picked us up at 4:30 AM to take us to San Diego’s Lindbergh Field marking the beginning of our current adventure, a 12 day knitting cruise “The Celtic Adventure” on the ms Zuiderdam.   This will be a round trip from Copenhagen, Denmark with the following itinerary.   I will also be posting copies of the menus and other information here

Celtic Adventure Cruise Map

As you can see, there is an overnight visit to Dublin, Ireland and a late departure (1 AM) from South Queensferry (Edinburgh), Scotland along with 3 sea days and 2 gala nights.   We will be joined by 76 other people in the knitting group and will be visiting various sights and places of special interest to knitters and fiber enthusiasts.

Our flights to Copenhagen were on time with Delta and KLM but long as expected.   We used frequent flyer miles for our ticket so we had limited choices for flights and had to decide between a 1 hour layover or 8 hour layover in Detroit.

A cycling mural inside the A38 Delta Skyclub in the Detroit Airport.

We chose the longer layover, which required our earlier departure to catch our 6:50 am flight, but then we had no worries about making our connection.  As it turned out, everything was on time, so we could have managed a shorter layover, but you never know that in advance,

We connected in Amsterdam to a KLM flight to Copenhagen.   Although the flight was only about 1 hour, KLM managed to provide a full beverage service with complimentary sandwiches for all.   We noticed that the folks in business class received a full meal – this on a one hour flight!

These cycling machines were available in the Amsterdam airport to recharge your cell phones

Copenhagen’s airport is modern and efficient.  We quickly cleared immigration in Amsterdam.  After a short wait we retrieved our bags and headed towards Euro Customs.  Customs consisted of pushing our luggage cart (no charge for the cart by the way) thru the green door marked “Nothing to Declare”.   There was no line for the taxis and we were soon on our way to our hotel “The Square” located right next to the famous amusement park “Tivoli Gardens”   Total time from stepping off the plane to stepping into our hotel – 55 minutes – not bad.

The Square hotel is where we stayed in Copenhagen

Tivoli Gardens is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world

After we got settled in we headed out to get some dinner,   The closest spot was the familiar “Hard Rock Café”.  We were soon seated and ordered a very expensive Cheeseburger –  150 Kroners or about $24 USD.   Thankfully, although expensive it was very good and huge, so Judy and I shared one which was plenty.

On our way back to the hotel we were surprised to find the street blocked by men in yellow vests labeled  “Blocker” “Friday Night Skate”,   In a few minutes the street filled with 700 people on various type of roller/inline skates escorted by motorcycles and other “blockers” in yellow vests.   We learned later that this happens every other Friday or so during the summer and the skaters skate a 20 KM loop thru central Copenhagen.   It was quite a sight and was over in a few minutes – pretty amazing we managed to stumble across this without any prior planning.  If you ever find yourself in Copenhagen on a Summer Friday Night – be sure to look up the route and check it out HERE.  Fun!

Friday night Skates blocker stopping traffic as the skaters whiz by

Motorcycles and blockers getting ready for Friday Night Skates in Copenhagen

One of the Friday night skater pushing a giant boom box

That was enough for the night and we headed back to the hotel for some rest after our day of traveling.

Overcast skies greeted us the next morning.   We took it easy in the hotel all morning after a nice buffet breakfast on the hotels sixth floor.

About 1 pm we met others from our group in the lobby and set off on a walking tour of central Copenhagen along with some stops to a couple of yarn shops.   The tour took about an hour and ½ and we covered about 1 mile at a very leisurely pace – along with time for some yarn shopping at Uldstedet   and then at Sommerfuglen .   The weather didn’t cooperate and it was sprinkling most of the day requiring using an umbrella and a light rain jacket.   Of course, once the walking tour was over, the clouds parted and we were treated to sunshine the rest of the day.

Uldstedet Yarn Shop in Copenhagen featured local yarns as well as Hedgehog fibers from the USA

Summerfugen Yarn Shop had a nice selection of European yarns.  The Staff was very friendly and helpful

After a quick bite to eat, we headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready to meet the Zuiderdam at Copenhagen’s Ocean Quay Cruise Terminal tomorrow.