A. thought I should definitely write about our mishaps. Before any trip I often tell the kids that it won't be perfect. When we get lost or caught in the rain, they can just think, "This is the imperfect part of the trip that Mom told me about." Fair warning.
The first leg of the trip was uneventful - to the airport on time, bags were underweight, smooth flight. We landed and were told which gate to head to, but we had lots of time so we stopped at our favorite sports store and looked at all the Olympic and soccer paraphernalia. We played with the ipads and read Tintin. We got to the gate and I decided this was a good time to look for someone Danish to help me read some paperwork about my bank card, which I hoped to use to buy train tickets. No one spoke Danish, which seems fishy on a flight to Copenhagen. Maybe we are at the gate too early? Eventually I realized there was fine print on the screen said that instead of being at the end of Terminal C we needed to be at the end of Terminal B. No problem, plus I am relieved that I figured it out. We made our way over there and saw several people we had seen at the other gate and Copenhagen is listed as the destination, although at a slightly different time. We were relieved until we heard the announcement we had heard so many times. "Passenger Tanenbaum traveling to Copenhagen. You are delaying the flight. Immediate boarding at gate C16 or we will proceed to offload your luggage." Aargh! I am delaying the flight and all of Schiphol knows it! A. and I raced through Termial B, through the shopping area, and up Terminal C. The gate staff berated us for being at an SAS terminal, but the flight attendants were sympathetic and the plane hadn't left yet (and I suppose we could have bought some time while they looked through all the luggage just to find ours). That was one way to get our heart rates up, but all is well that ends well.
Our next misadventure happened while on the way to Sweden. I mentioned to a friend of hosts that we were going to visit our hosts and taking the train there. He asked the time and said his daughter had to be at the station just before that so he would be happy to give us a ride. I couldn't figure out why he was picking us up half an hour before the train left since it takes about half an hour to get into Copenhagen, but after much fretting I decided he knew the area better than Google maps. The worse case scenario meant taking the train an hour later. He picked us up right on time and drove us to the Roskilde station! We had a good laugh about the assumptions each of us had made and then were lucky to get onto a express train to Copenhagen. We would have arrived about one minute before our other train left, but we had to wait for the previous train to leave. Oh well. At least we didn't have to run through the station. The next train was delayed about twenty minutes, to which A. said, "That's nice for the people who are running late." Good attitude!
On the way home from Sweden we caught the right train to Copenhagen and very quickly were able to get onto the express train to Roskilde. We arrived before the toy store closed so we could check out the newest soccer cards and pick up some groceries. We could have walked home, but I thought it would be nice to take the bus. It was a couple minutes late, but we were off. Great! Until the bus turned a corner and started heading away from our house. I asked some teenagers where we were going, but they were uncomfortable answering in English. We recognized the school where A. had played soccer and got off, knowing the school was next to his friend's house. We got onto the walking path between houses, but then we couldn't see the street and lost our sense of direction. After a bit of wandering we came out in exactly the right spot. Ta da! We sheepishly asked for a ride and were grateful to be home before the rain.
Not always the direct route - but these were really only very minor disasters compared to potential problems.
