Day -3 & -2 - Tue-Wed - 08/04-05/26 Seattle to Copengagen

We were packed and ready for our departure well before our Pastor picked us up at 11:45am to take us to the airport which is only a few minutes away.  He dropped us off at noon and it took around 30 minutes to wait in line to check in.  My electronic boarding pass said we would be departing from gate S-15.  So we found the TSA checkpoint nearby and waited another 15 minutes before boarding the train to the S terminal where we normally depart from.  Arriving there we saw no departures for our flight and the electronic message board said our gate was A10.  So we re-boarded the train which took us back to the A gates and we were there just after 1pm for a 1:35pm starting boarding time.  Boarding was by group and went relatively smooth, but since we were in group 5 much of the overhead luggage space was taken.  The space over our seats was used for emergency supplies, but I found some nearby space.  

We have the aisle and center seats, and the window seat is occupied by a young teenage boy who appears to not have much flying experience.  We learned from his mother that they were heading to Spain to watch the upcoming solar eclipse.  We'll be in Tallin, Estonia for a partial view of it.

The flight is projected to be 9.5 hours with a projected arrival time at our stopover point in Frankfurt at 9am tomorrow.

We arrived on time in Frankfurt and were loaded into busses for transport to the terminal.  There we went upstairs to the new EU entry system which did not work.  It was then about a 1.5 hour wait to get through a manual inspection of our passports.  All totaled it was 2 hours from landing to border inspection and collecting our luggage until we waited for our Uber pickup for transport to the hotel.

It was around a 45 minute drive from the airport to the Comwell by Wyndham hotel near the cruise port.  Ariz, our driver, shared tourist information with us along the way.  The hotel is clean and neat and Frederikke checked us in smoothly and oriented us to the area.  Our room 5315 is in the top floor and it's about the size and configuration of a cruise ship cabin.  That's okay as we're only here to sleep and it'll train us for the next few months of cruising.

I had forgotten to bring my printed luggage tag, so I sent a pdf to the hotel front desk.  When they called to inform me that it was ready, we went down and picked it up.  We then decided to explore the surrounding area.  We quickly figured out there were no services like restaurants nearby, but there was a light rail station, Orientkaj, a block away.  We went there and explored how to purchase tickets and a helpful employee explained the process and what type of ticket to purchase.  We also met there a mother and son from Australia who are on our cruise.

Wanting some dinner, we looked up where the nearest grocery store was and headed that direction which was about a half mile walk.  We passed by a few restaurants but wanted to check out the Lidl store as it's a favorite of ours when traveling in Europe. We found it easily and purchased some sushi, nuts, a banana, and some water for a picnic dinner alongside one of the many canals.  We found a spot with a bench and enjoyed our dinner watched the sunbathers and swimmers across the canal.

After walking back to the hotel, my body hit the proverbial "wall".  I prepped for bed and was instantly asleep before it was dark. No alarm was set!

Tomorrow we face a full free day and we're planning to explore Copenhagen using the hop on hop off bus from the center of downtown which we'll reach by the light rail.