Monday, May 30, 2022
By some stroke of great fortune, my parents, wife, and I are en route to Stockholm via Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). You see, we were supposed to be in Amsterdam already, but, sadly, we made a rookie travelers’ mistake. The Netherlands requires full COVID-19 vaccination to gain entry into its’ country via the United States. As you can probably guess, not a single one of us is fully vaccinated. Because of this arbitrary rule we overlooked, we could not fly to Amsterdam yesterday. Hearing about this rule and watching the departure gate close and the plane to Amsterdam that I had waited so long for takeoff without us was a tough pill to swallow. I had spent months planning this four-week-long trip and used it as motivation to finish my final collegiate semester.
Keeping my head up, I wiped the tears that were swelling in my eyes, quickly took out my MacBook, and tried to conjure up a different plan. I soon discovered that Holland was one of the few European countries, along with Germany, that requires its’ travelers to be fully vaccinated. I scoured government websites for any information I could find. I soon found that Denmark has no COVID restrictions. Furthermore, I learned that Denmark, Germany, and The Netherlands are part of “Schengen” and do not have physical border stops like between the US and Mexico. Rather, their borders are comparable to Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a sign that reads something like, “Thank you for visiting Denmark! Welcome to Germany!” Knowing that our flight to Amsterdam had a layover in Copenhagen, I went back to the SAS ticket desk and asked them if we could simply leave the airport in Copenhagen, not board the second leg to Amsterdam, rent a car, and then drive to Amsterdam; crossing the border via land and skipping any COVID-19 vaccination checkpoints. The ticket lady looked at me in wonder and then shrugged her shoulders and said with a smile, “I see no problem with that.”
Since we had already missed our flight to Copenhagen at 4 PM, the ticket lady put us on standby for the 10 PM flight to Copenhagen. As 10 PM rolled around, the plane filled up, and all four of us were left without a ticket to Europe. We begged and pleaded with a new ticket man, who eventually put us on standby for the next flight to Copenhagen the following day at 4 PM. We spent the night in a hotel near the airport. We repeated the same process we did the day prior and waited for 4 PM to roll around. At 3:20 PM, the ticket man finally announced our names over the loudspeaker to come claim our standby seats. Not only did he get us four tickets to Copenhagen, but he also put us in Business class, where we are now enjoying our extended legroom, complimentary food and drink, and peace and quiet. Boy, am I glad I didn’t throw in the towel and go home.
Truthfully, I have absolutely no idea if my plan will work. There is a fairly decent chance that we will get stopped at a German border and be told we cannot enter the country. If that is the case, I will have to call another audible. If push comes to shove, and we’re unable to travel outside the country, I could think of many things worse than road tripping Denmark with my wife and parents for a month.
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
It took a mere 90 minutes to discover my new least favorite country: Sweden. Upon disembarking the aircraft, we made our way over to the Customs and Immigration line required for all passengers with a connecting flight. The line was no more than thirty meters long, and it took us two hours to reach the end. Because of this unforeseen delay, we sprinted to our gate to catch our flight to Copenhagen. When we got to the gate, several Swedes told us that our tickets had been canceled.
My dad and I made our way over to the SAS customer service counter, where we ran into a whole heap of trouble. As it turns out, the ticket man in Chicago gave all four of us tickets to Copenhagen that he was not authorized to do – rebook us for an entirely new destination in a different country. The Swedish SAS manager could only see that we had never boarded our flight to Amsterdam, and yet somehow, we were standing in front of her in Stockholm. After an hour of talking with several SAS managers, they decided not to send the four of us back to Chicago and gave us the necessary tickets to Copenhagen. I’ve never been so relieved to step into an airplane.
Jetlag has been hitting the four of us like a ton of bricks. Not to worry, though; I think I have it figured out this time. I haven’t slept a wink since our hotel in Chicago (28 hours). My plan is not to take any naps, go to bed super tired, and wake up rejuvenated and jet lag-free. I’ll keep you posted.
To kill some time, dad and I went on a five-mile walk around Copenhagen. We walked along the Øresund River, where we saw some crazy Danes swimming in the frigid waters. We stopped along the picturesque “Nyhavn” district. From there, we walked to Amalienborg Palace, where the Queen of Denmark and her family live. We were fortunate enough to talk with the mother of one of the Danish Life Guards, whose job is to protect the Palace (think guards at Buckingham Palace). Afterward, we made our way to the King’s Garden and Rosenborg Castle.
