European Vacation {Day 19} – Copenhagen to Iceland

We hemmed and hawed quite a bit over what we should do the day the cruise concluded back in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Our flight didn't leave until 2:30pm so we had a few hours to kill.  We thought about sending our luggage with a service that would take it from the port to the airport so that we could go into the city for a few hours, but in the end we decided we really didn't have enough time to make it worthwhile.  We had to be out of our staterooms by 8am, breakfast in the dining room lasted until around 9:30am and when we got down to the level to disembark there was a bit of a backup so we hung out in O'Gills Pub for about 30 minutes.  We had no issue finding our Goofy tagged luggage – no one was happy to be off the ship.

Most people just catch a taxi from the port to wherever they are going, but in an effort to save money we tend to opt for public transportation.  Which meant lugging our suitcases to the nearest bus stop and waiting about 20-30 minutes for a bus to come that would take us into the city were we could catch a metro train to the airport.  There was a cool sign near the bus stop.

We ended up getting on the wrong train - headed away from the airport and so we rode that to the end of the line and then switched tracks to take us all the way to the end of the line in the correct direction.  The bonus was that we got a train that had a big window up front which the kids have been wanted to score throughout all our subway rides in Europe. 

Thankfully we had plenty of time so it was a fun memory instead of a stressful one.  Since we had some extra time at the airport I went in search of a airport lounge I could have free access to and hung out there for a bit.  Unfortunately, it was a complete disappointment compared to what I'd experienced in Seattle.  I just got a glass or two of juice and a couple rolls to eat and share with the kids.

Our flight to Iceland was just under three hours.  I took several videos as we made our descent into Iceland because the landscape was so unique and varied.  There were some farming areas, then some black barren land, and then so much of Iceland (in the summer months) is covered in moss.  Very interesting.  It took awhile for us to get our van rented once we arrived, but we took advantage of having access to a WiFi connection and were able to get a little caught up on the happenings back home.  We had few stops we wanted to make before heading to our cottage rental.  First stop was to the Hallgrimskirkja Church, which is a popular sight to see because of its unique, modern architecture.  We rode an elevator to the top and got some good views of Reykjavik.  I'm glad we went because our schedule wouldn't allow us anytime to return to Reykjavik again. 

Next stop was Costco.  Not sure I've ever gone three weeks without visiting a Costco before.  Of course we knew everything would be much more expensive in Iceland.  Costco was no exception, but it was still a "cheap" way to feed the kids and the pizza tasted just like home.  The Mountain Dew however was not nearly as good.  Just so we remember a few price comparisons… 3 lbs of grapes cost $14 and a dozen muffins $18 - yikes!  We were all super excited to see they served gelato.  The plan was to buy some on our way out; however, when it came down to it we weren't willing to fork out 5 times what it cost when they served it at our local Costco and figuring out how to share 2-3 cones between the 7 of us got too complicated so we bailed.  Lame.  It is a regret.

I found a little cottage to rent on Airbnb for the three nights we would be staying in Iceland.  It was about 1:30 minutes from the city and in a pretty prime location for the things we wanted to see and do while in Iceland.  The drive there was fascinating.  The landscape of Iceland is so different from anywhere else I've been. 

 A few of the kids didn't see much of Iceland until the following morning.

We've switched time zones several times during this trip - today we fell back two hours making it an extra late night for the kids.  They really did amazingly well though considering they never got a regular full nights sleep.

It was getting dark and I was really worried we wouldn't be able to find our little cottage if we lost our daylight.  We did end up passing it, but found it pretty quickly afterward.  It was absolutely adorable! 

Such a great find!  It had everything we needed - a second bath would have been nice, but we spent such little time there that it wasn't a big deal.

European Vacation {Day 18} – Day at Sea

No alarm this morning so we weren't up and moving until around 10am - it was glorious.  We started our morning with a quick visit with Pluto and then it was off to breakfast. 

The girls were already off doing their own thing and Jason skipped Pluto and ate on his own.  I don't think we saw Abigail until dinner and only during dinner.  She's connected with a fun group of teens that she spends most of her free time with. Carly and Jason spent most of the day on their own as well - they went to a movie together during the afternoon, but otherwise I think they are happy to just do their own thing.  Carly has several friends she's spent time with during the cruise.  When Jason isn't with Carly he's perfectly content on his own.  I think he actually loves the freedom we've allowed him.

Drew wanted to hit the pools right after breakfast.  I think the high today may have reached the low 70's but with the wind it felt much colder.  I'd envisioned my day at sea poolside soaking up some summer rays, but instead I was poolside wrapped up in two blankets sipping hot cocoa.  The water in the pools must be kept really warm because Drew played for hours and never complained about being cold.  Katie spent most of the day in the kid's club - coming out for an occasional character sighting or for food.

Our final dinner of the cruise was in the Animator's Palate - having cruised on Disney before we'd already experienced having our hand-drawn characters come alive on screen, but I think it was just as fun the second time around.

Much of the day/evening was spent getting our laundry done (along with the rest of the cruisers) and packing up.  Such a bummer that this cruise that we've been anticipating for nearly two years is already over.  Even sadder is that we don't have another family trip already in the works to help us feel better.

European Vacation {Day 17} – Stockholm, Sweden

Beautiful, peaceful, enchanting Stockholm, Sweden today! Another country I could spend days exploring. We were able to get off the boat at 9am this morning.  Once again Disney had buses at the port to take us to the main part of the city.  Such a huge lifesaver not having to arrange for a cab or walk a long distance to get to public transportation.  Once in the city we quickly realized that Justin's intended one-mile walk to the Vasa Museum was going to take us much longer than expected, especially at the pace Drew was starting out at.  It's funny we've seen so many kids his age in strollers and it seems so odd since we haven't seen a stroller in years, but I suppose it could be helpful at times.  Drew typically has no problem keeping pace with my fast pace stroll, but he's two weeks into a very active vacation so we can't blame the kid for slowing down a bit by this point.  We're all actually pretty tired.  The walk along the water was beautiful.

Anyhow, as we were passing by a hop-on-hop-off tour stand they asked if we were interested and with a little negotiation we secured ourselves some day passes and soon boarded a boat that took us directly to the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa Museum was a must see on our Sweden point of interest list, but to be honest we really didn't know much about it.  When we walked into the museum with the Vasa ship situated right in front of us it took all of us by surprise.  It was striking.  It’s so big it’s impossible to get a picture of the whole thing so here’s a bit of video.

We explored the various levels of the museum, each offered a different view of the restored vessel and exhibiting artifacts from the ship.  The movie was particularly informative and interesting.  The Vasa sunk on its maiden voyage back in 1628 and remained at the bottom of the Saltsjon for over 300 years, until 1961 when it was raised from it's grave and restored. 

After the Vasa Museum we rode the boat around the city.

We got off at Gamla Stan (Old Town) and were near the palace and able to catch part of the changing of the guards; however, there were so many people that we didn't stick around too long. 

Justin attempted to give us a walking tour of Old Town, but he quickly got turned around and we decided to just walk around for a bit. 

We stumbled upon the Martens Grand, which is apparently the narrowest alley in all Gamla Stan and is covered with graffiti - warrants a walk through, right?

It was starting to sprinkle a bit so we decided we catch a hop-on-hop-off bus and ride around the city.  Problem was that due to a festival of sorts taking place the stops closest to us were closed so we floundered around the city in search of a bus - these are the moments most frustrating to me.  Wandering around aimlessly when there's so much else we should/could be doing.  We finally got on a bus, but traffic was terrible so it took us 30 minutes to circle around a block to get going at all.  That's two hop-on-hop-off cities tours gone bust - London & Sweden.  When the bus got to the pier we decided to call it a day and head back to the ship to get food.  There's so much food in these places we visit, but I can't justify forking out big bucks when if we wait a couple hours we can have all the food we can stomach without any additional cost.  That's tough for me because a large part of what I enjoy about traveling is trying out new restaurants and yummy foods.  Not really feasible with a large family.  Good thing there’s all the ice-cream cones we could ever want onboard.

Katie and Drew ran off to the Kids Club immediately after we got on board.  Jason killed some time doing who knows what until a movie started that he wanted to see and the girls, as usual, we're off doing their own things.  After grabbing something to eat, Justin and I settled on deck to watch the ship leave port.  Sweden is made up of thousands of islands and our ship sailed right through them.  It was dreamy.  One of the prettiest scenes from the entire trip and that's really saying something.  Pictures just don't do it justice. 

We all (less Carly) watched an early evening performance of Disney Dreams - another fun Disney production for the whole family.  We decided to skip our dinner reservation and instead get Katie and Drew to bed and order some room service.  Our sixth day at sea and this was our first room service order - for shame!  I made up for it though and ordered a cheese platter, tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwich, a margarita pizza, macaroni and cheese and a Mickey bar.  Yum! 

Tonight was the first night we didn't set an alarm.  An entire day of rest and relaxation at sea was much needed.