Departure: Ferry from Norway to Denmark

Ferry from Norway to Denmark

Ahoy Mateys!

We have finally begun our European road-trip!  Last night after dinner, we packed the car and headed out to catch the 12-hour overnight ferry from Stavanger, Norway to Hirtshals, Denmark.  The ferry is located one mile from Carrie L.’s house so we didn’t foresee a problem getting there in time.  After trying two different roads that lead us to dead ends, Carrie became anxious and called her husband, Peter.  Carrie asked Peter to look on the internet and give us directions.  Peter calmly explained that we hadn’t driven far enough and needed to go through one more round-a-bout before turning on the road that will lead us to the ferry.  Once we received these directions, we found the ferry with ease.  At that moment we became concerned that if we were lost only a mile from Carrie’s house, how this trip would turn out for us.    

Just off the ferry

We drove up to the booth where the ferry attendant checked us in and gave us a packet that contained our room keys and breakfast vouchers.  The ferry was to depart at 9pm so we thought checking in a little after 8:30pm wouldn’t be too late but we were the last car to drive on the ferry and were put on the bottom with the tractor trailers. When we got out of the car, Grace grabbed my arm and was visibly frightened.  After seeing Grace’s reaction, Elise became scared too and they both attached themselves to my side.  I can’t blame them, it was loud, smelly, and we had to squeeze through rows of tractor trailers to get to the stairs.  Once we opened the doors and we walked up the stairs, the girls realized that we would not be sleeping in the loud, smelly carpark with big, burly ferry workers hovering over us and calmed down.  They heard music and saw middle-aged Norwegians eating, dancing and drinking their duty-free purchases.  While the girls looked around in awe, Carrie and I glanced at our room keys to see where we needed to go.  I was a bit worried when printed on the key it read “above nightclub” but then again, if this was the nightclub they were speaking of, I assumed these people would be in bed by 10pm.   

Ellie, Elise and Grace

Ellie's bedhead

Good night!

We opened the door to our adjourning rooms to find one room with three twin beds and the other with one queen sized bed.  Both rooms were decorated in a nautical theme of blue and white stripes.  We had ocean view rooms which should have been called smokers view because every time I opened the curtains there were people standing next to our window smoking.  Once we put the bags down, a fight began about the rooms.  I had given one of the room keys to Ellie and Elise, in her tired state, began screaming and crying.  I took her in to the other room to try and rationalize with her.  When Elise is tired, you must tread lightly or you will experience, what my husband and I refer to as, her “exorcist moments”.  As I was trying to console her, she made the following comments.  “I don’t want to sleep in this room because there are too many stripes!”  And, my favorite, “You don’t want to travel with me.  Just take me back and I will stay with Peter.”  Once I was able to calm her down, rule #1 was made:  Children are not allowed to have hotel keys in their possession.  Only parents will carry the room keys and unlock the doors.”  It’s amazing how something so small can cause such a unexpected upset.  It’s also amazing how a quick moment like that can encourage us to develop a comprehensive behavior plan to curb this nonsense in the bum!  (Something Carrie L. failed to think of as she planned the learning opportunities)

Once the girls fell asleep, Carrie and I poured two glasses of wine and sat down to enjoy the silence.  With the first sip, the boat began rocking and the nightclub turned up the music.  We still aren’t sure if we began to feel a bit nauseous because of motion sickness or because the song we were hearing was “Achey-Breaky Heart”. To drown out the bad wedding reception that was happening below us, we put on Horrible Bosses and fell sleep half-way through the movie.  

Up next, Day 1:  Driving from Hirtshals, Denmark to Hamburg, Germany