This morning, I do one last June walk to the barn..
(Penstemon and lavender flood the Secret Path)
One last quick weed, quick watering of the tubs -- outside and porch! One last appreciative glance at the emerging blooms (hold off for a bit, lilies! Okay?)
I eat one last June breakfast with my sweet, gentle, agreeable, strong Ed..
And then I'm off. To Copenhagen.
This is a trip that had been on the calendar for May 2020 -- or, a version of what we had conceived of back then. We -- the younger families and me -- were all to convene in Paris. One of those once in a lifetime things you do. There were fewer grandkids, life was stable. Some of us were also going to do some days in Copenhagen. My younger girl and her husband have visited Denmark in the past and they wanted to return, en famille. All set, hotels booked, flights paid for, and then of course all hell broke loose. Covid, the pandemic. Pregnancies, new jobs, on and on. There seemed to be no good time to do this anymore.
Until now.
We wont overlap in our travels completely. For instance, I'm leaving for Denmark earlier, so that I can give myself a day of recovery (my knee tells me I'll need it!) before they arrive. And "they" means the younger family. I've traveled plenty with the older one, but it's these guys who have been left by the wayside. Eventually, there will be Paris in the mix, but for now, I'm concentrating on Copenhagen!
With few exceptions, most of the European countries that I grew to know very well were ones that were good flight connecting points between the US and Poland. The UK, the Netherlands, France -- I first visited them through en route stop-overs. Their airlines (BA, KLM AF) offered good overseas airfares, so that is where I would land. I added Italy (because I bothered to learn the language). I added Spain (because Ed spoke Spanish). Denmark's airline (SAS) was, in those years, not competitive, I knew not a word of Danish, and so I stayed away.
Eventually my perspective changed, my appetite for travel skyrocketed, but my habits were entrenched. Stick with the beloved. And so I never got to know Copenhagen.
I do have a small jumpstart: a few years ago, my good friend moved to Denmark with her family and in corresponding extensively with her, I got at least a small feel for the country. So I am excited. And who wouldn't want to visit a nation of happy people (Denmark and Finland trade off for the designation of happiest country in the world)! And do recall that I try to practice the Danish art of hygge in the winter. And this spring, I even learned a few Danish words. I'm set!
My flight routing is a tiny bit different. Yes, I stick to my preferred airline (Delta), and I connect in Detroit, but then at JFK, from where I fly straight to Copenhagen. There was to be a long layover in JFK, but things unraveled a bit when the flight to take me there became super delayed. I'm posting from Detroit, hoping that the schedules will work themselves out in the end, because believe me, on this busy weekend of a busy travel season, there are no switches to be made! Go now or wait forever for the next transatlantic flight. Still, in travel you are not allowed to worry until you have reason to worry, which is pretty much never. Right now my feet are up, I'm sipping tea, missing so much my beloved and beloveds back home, but so eager to meet up with the youngest family in Denmark.
Godnat! See you on the other side of the ocean.
