Traveling (back) to Denmark

Well, we’re safe in Denmark. Yay! The trip home wasn’t bad. I guess we should start at the packing.

I am definitely a last-minute packer. I guess it’s half to do with the fact that I wear the clothes I pack and I’m just not in a hurry to get the packing done. We started-finished packing the night-morning before we left. It took most of the day and night but we were ready, packed, and the room was cleaned. It was a miracle all in itself. Aside from actually getting it all done in time, we fit everything we needed (minus a few clothes and socks), and cleaned up the room Grandma quality. Woohoo!

We had 4 checked bags, one carry-on, and a guitar. Mel drove us to the airport when the time came and we sat and talked seeing as how we were 2 hours early with a 50 min delay. After finally saying all of our goodbyes we headed on through security. We bought some Mcducks because we were starving and waited until our flight boarded. We didn’t wait long. We boarded as soon as we could. We wanted to make sure there was room for his guitar in the overhead compartments. There was… luckily. The flight had movies and we both watched Monster vs. Aliens. A little after that we were at our next destination. We had a connecting flight so we didn’t have to get our bags and go through security. We didn’t wait too long for a next flight.

We boarded again and again raced to find room for his guitar. We had little trouble. Sweet deal. This flight was our longest flight. It was a 777 so we had individual entertainment systems. Simon watched several that he doesn’t remember the names of (must not have been that good). I watched 17 again, Hannah Montana (It wasn’t as bad as you would think), and this one about being bullied as a 4th grader or something. It was actually really good. We had chicken plate for our hotplate and had yogurt, a muffin, and orange juice for breakfast. We landed shortly after that. I slept the last hour and 30 minutes. We landed in London and retrieved all our bags on those really really difficult to steer carts. Security was easy. We then had the hardest part of our trip coming.

After taking a national express bus from Heathrow to Gatwick, we searched out a place to camp ourselves for the next 12 hours. Can someone say Boring! We found a set of 3 chairs (one double and a single). We decided that we weren’t both going to be asleep at the same time (so that nothing got stolen). I had the hardest time staying awake while Simon slept. We took one hour shifts. I was so tired.

Both of us had only had 5 hours sleep total for the two previous days so were both dead tired. I almost fell asleep standing at one point. We bought meal deals from Boots, a store close by. We had different types of sandwiches, such as BLT, tuna and corn, meat and cheese, and this other really good sandwich. The meals came with a choice of snack and a drink. We got 2 yogurt things, one water, and one fruit water thing (whatever they are called). Later we went back and bought at least 4 bags of Salt and Vinegar chips. They helped to keep us awake.

Finally the time had come for us to go check our bags. We had to arrange a few things for weight this time but only because they checked my carry-on… oops. Lol. We got on the flight (we actually had our marriage license out this time for proof of my name change and stuff. Before I simply had my driver’s license…which really probably shouldn’t have worked, but did.) I slept most of this flight while Simon tried to sleep unsuccessfully. We arrived in Denmark around 10:45 or something, an hour earlier or so than we thought.

We walked off the plan and through the revolving doors into a crowded pile of people waiting for their passports to be checked. Simon got ahead of me and went through. I was close behind but they had to ask me questions since I was a non-citizen. He asked if I was travelling alone and I said no. I called Simon over and he rechecked his passport. He stamped mine and let me through. He didn’t even ask how long I was staying. Sweetness!! So we waited for our bags. One of ours was almost the last bag through…blah. Waiting for luggage isn’t the funnest thing. It turns out that our text saying we were early didn’t go through…bummer. We only had to wait like 30 minutes in gorgeous weather. I didn’t have a problem as long as we weren’t downwind from the group of smokers. The car was a little packed as our nephew Matthias came too. It probably wasn’t that bad, just that I was in the middle back. It felt cramped to me. Lol. The drive home was pleasant. Birgit and Ole had brought us cold homemade pizza. Mmmmmh. We were starving. After dropping off Matthias and saying hi to his family, we finally were home.

We couldn’t sleep until 8 in the morning. Stinkin jet-lag. Simon slept in until 13:00 and I was out until 16:00. We spent that day just relaxing. It was nice to be back home (and Simon to be with his PS3 again) :P The next day we almost fell asleep at midnight but couldn’t sleep until 4am. We were getting closer to being normal again. Lol. The next day Simon spent helping with Pia’s yard work but that’s a different blog update. Thanks for keeping up with us. We had a great trip and are happy to be done travelling (for now). Love all and Miss all.
-The Bendtsens