The Lady (and The Man, and a couple of friends) went on a little trip last weekend. On the Danish ferry. We left from Oslo on Saturday, arrived in Copenhagen Sunday morning, spent the day at the Christmas market in Tivoli and went back to Oslo the following night.

For non-scandinavian readers, an explanation might be helpful at this point: Since alcoholic beverages are quite heavily taxed in Norway, several ferry companies have trips from Oslo to different locations in Denmark. That way we can book a “cruise”, get a rather inexpensive mini-break, and at the same time save money on booze. Brilliant concept! (Even though some Norwegians tend to take “ordinary” cruises in exotic places, the “minicruises” sold by the ferry companies are much more popular…)

So last weekend we went on such a trip. The ship left Saturday at 17.00 / 5PM, and arrived in Copenhagen Sunday morning at 09.30 / 9.30 AM. After boarding in Oslo, we went straight into the taxfree/ duty free shop to check out the merchandise. As the beer cost approximately half as much as in Norway, we bought a case (24 pcs á .33 litres / appr. 11 fl.oz) to share between us before dinner. Plus a quarter bottle each of sparkling wine. Then we had dinner, with a bottle of red between us, went back in the cabin to share another case of beer, and after midnight the night club seemed quite tempting. So we went up and had a few drinks there as well. We were probably in bed by 03.00 / 3AM.

The next morning the ship loudspeaker woke us up at 8 to say we would be arriving in Copenhagen shortly, and everyone must please disembark the ship between 9.30 and 10.00. So we had no choice but to get up and get dressed. We were lucky to get on the first shuttle bus to take us into the town centre (Kongens Nyhavn) and headed straight for the first breakfast place we could see. Full continental breakfast sounded great, so we had that with personal choices of beer, orange juice or Jägermeister. OK, the rest had beer and I had the OJ and Jäger. You see, I learnt quite a lot of important things from my Dad, and amongst those the magic trick: If you’re abroad; ALWAYS have a small glass of Jäger with breakfast, and then your tummy will be OK no matter what foreign foods you try…

Well, after breakfast, we spent the day in Tivoli, having a hot cup of “gløgg” and shopping for christmas presents. I found one for my sister, (which I’m not telling here what was until after Christmas), a toy truck with his name on the side for one of the nephews, and a couple of things for myself. After shopping we went round the actual booths and rides part of Tivoli, but as it was a bit chilly we preferred shooting at ducks and whatnot to going on any of the rides. On a combined effort we managed to score enough points to win a miniature playing card deck….

To finish off the day nicely we went in the Copenhagen Central Station and watched the minitrains for a while, even spent a few Danish Kroner to make them go round and round! And then we ran through most of downtown Copenhagen in order to catch the shuttle bus back to the ferry, stopping only for a brief “oooh that dress is gorgeous and I have to have it” followed by “The Man is missing where is he?” - “oh he just went to the loo, let’s keep running now”. After a bit of a nap the evening continued with dinner and a few more drinks before bedtime. The next morning at 8, the ship loudspeaker woke us again to inform that we would be home shortly, so we got up under duress and headed for the first available taxi home. Boy were we glad we had taken the day off work and could go straight to bed!

And we all lived happily ever after:D