Day 5 Copenhagen

A different day today. We docked in to Copenhagen at 9am with partly cloudy skies but temperature reaching 20 degrees. It wasn’t to be the tourist type day we’d usually expect as we went to say our goodbyes to our very good friend Jens. I met Jens in Copenhagen 16 years ago when I came to work here and tought him what I knew (very little but we’ll leave that there). We instantly hit it off and became very good friends. We shared anniversaries and birthdays with each other and have both stayed at each others place a number of times. Whenever we docked at Copenhagen he would meet us off the ship and we would spend the day together, something that was planned for this visit. Sadly only a few short weeks ago he called me to say he was poorly and unlikely to be around. Sharon and I took a flight and we came here to see him and Lena. We had a wonderful time even though we were only here for a day. Despite being poorly he was still his witty, funny and friendly self.

We got the sad news a couple of weeks ago and our meal today was not to be. However a last minute change to our itinerary meant we docked in Copenhagen today on the day of his funeral. Totally unprepared, holiday clothes only, no idea where we were going, we set off this morning. A bus from the ship to the city, a metro from the city to the airport and a car hired (only just - 4 car hire places with no cars) and Sharon navigating us to Koge. I mean, it was 50/50 whether we’d make it to Koge, same again whether we’d find a church and bonus points if there was a funeral and it was Jens. We knew we wouldn’t make the service as time just didn’t permit but we did make it, it was Jens and he was just coming out of church as we arrived. He was nearly getting loaded in to the back of a Peugeot 2008 as the very wrong last turn took us up the church drive instead of in to the car park, fortunately the funeral director put us right very swiftly !!

We went back to the bowling club that Jens setup in 2012 and lots of people were very pleased we’d made it and quite a few remembered us. We were made to feel so welcome and sat with his daughter. A couple of people from work were there and after a bit of memory jogging it all came flooding back. Everything fell in to place and the day couldn’t have worked out better. We drove back up to the airport, and managed our way back to the ship admirably.

We didn’t do much this afternoon, managed to get back on the ship before it rained and we watched a film called “The Amateur”. It was a good film, we did go out on deck and experienced the sail away.Læs mere