The day truly had all the makings to be a wonderful experience. It was June 24th, Dave and my 6th wedding anniversary...hard to believe that 6 years have flown by. Anyways...today was not about our anniversary...a travel day is a travel day and we hope to do an anniversary dinner at some point in the near future. He did buy me some lovely roses for me to enjoy for the 1 hour before we headed out. Very sweet...I took a picture of them so that they would last longer!
So the day started as any other travel day has, with things that need to be done to get going. Dave went and returned the rental car that had to be back by 9am. We then got our things packed up and headed into Aalborg to have a walk around before we headed for the train station.
The girls were referring to this day as the "train, train, boat" day. We had to take a train from where we were in Aalborg, heading north to Hjorring, and then another to the norther coast of Denmark to a town called Hirtshals. From there we had reservations on the fast ferry across I guess what is the North Sea to the town of Kristiansand where we would spend the night.
Aalborg turned out to be quite a lovely town...the pedestrian area was great and we had a nice stop in a little coffeed shop where Avery sang the ABC's so loud that we had to sheepishly duck out as soon as we finished our danish. There was a huge number of bands that were in town from Norway that were playing all over town and overall it was just a pleasant morning.
The trains for Hjorring left every hour, and our ferry left from Hirtshals at 4:45pm, so we decided that we should take the 1:20pm train, which got us into Hjorring at just after 2pm, the train for Hirtshals left about 7 mins later and the transition went great. We arrived into Hirtshals about 30 mins later.
Hirtshals was where things started to go downhill quite quickly. When we arrived at the train station, we could see signs for the Fjordline...which is what we were booked on. So we followed the signs thinking that it would be close as we could see ships and water nearby. We ended up in a dead end as we lost track of the signage. After asking for directions, we got back on the right track and started walking towards the ferry terminal. It ended up being a loooooong walk. Several kilometers for sure. Avery was asleep in the stroller, but Cadence was walking because we had the stroller loaded down and we were carrying all our luggage.
It was as I said...a loooong walk. Poor Dave was schlepping most of the luggage, and as we neared where we thought the terminal would be, the wind really started to pick up. This would not have been so bad, except for the fact that the fine white sand also was being blown around. On the final stretch to the terminal, the wind and sand was so bad that I wasn't sure we would make it. It was like we were in some kind of cartoon. I had to put my whole back into pushing that stroller...and I had Cadence tucked in front of me and behind the stroller to protect her eyes from the sand. We were all walking with our eyes partially closed as the sand would get in your eyes and blind you. We were aslo totally hunched over to try and make progress against the wind....the trouble being that when it gusted, it brought us to a standstill. It was blowing so hard I literally could not push that stroller an inch further. Cadence was being an absolute trooper. She was helping me push that stroller with all her might. Poor Avery had woken by this point and was screaming as it must have been terrifying under the hood of the stroller. I covered her face with the blanket and had pulled the hood down all the way so she was as protected as she could be...it was still scary with the wind whistling in around her.
After what felt like an eternity, we finally made it to the terminal. We were exhausted and there was sand everywhere...all over the stroller, in our ears and in our hair, inside some of the bags...it was like coming out of a desert sand storm.
Of course, having been totally focused on getting to the terminal and out of the wind, it hadn't occured to us that the ferries might have trouble sailing in this kind of weather. When we arrived at the terminal around 3:30pm (about an hour later....and hour of walking!) the ferry was of course delayed!
At first we weren't sure if it would sail at all, but finally at around 5pm we got word that it was indeed making its way over and should arrive into Hirtshals at approximately 6:45pm. As I had mentioned before, the ferry was supposed to depart from Hirtshals at 4:45pm and then arrive into Kristiansand at 7pm. Giving us plenty of time to explore this new city in Norway before heading to bed. This was now going to put us in later, but it still seemed manageable.
The ferry arrived, and started to offload, but we then got word through some of the other passengers waiting that they were being told that the crew would need to rest before heading out again as the voyage over had really taken a lot out of them. I was all for them having a rest...I wanted them to be ready to take us safetly over the sea, that being said, we were now being given a departure time of 8:15pm...getting really late!
They offloaded the ferry and started to bus the foot passenger to the ship...I went and asked if there would be food on board, and wanted to confirm the departure time etc...the guy was great and very friendly, but as we left the terminal to get on the boat, he called to me..."do you have any pills?"...as he shook a bottle. I gave him a puzzled look, and then realized that he meant motion sickness pills. I had gravol for the girls, but I didn't have anything for us...well for Dave actually as I don't tend to get motion sickness. So I went back and he shook 4 of these little white pills into my hand. I looked at him and said "this will be safe right?", he assured me it would be safe, but that it would be very rocky and that the waves were at minimum 6-7 meters high.
Off we went to board. As Dave and I chatted, it became apparent that he was most concerned about not getting motion sickness, while I was most afraid of this darn boat capsizing and us all drowning. He assured me that I was being totaly irrational and that they would not sail if its wasn't safe....that sounded reasonable to me, but still was of little comfort.
We boarded and got settled into some seats near the washrooms and the doors to the outside. This would prove to be a poor decision later on, but at the time it seemed good.
We had not had any dinner at this point, and the little cafe only had sandwiches which Cadence could not eat, so we went up to the buffet and fed the girls and myself. Dave decided that he would not eat as he was unsure how he would hold up in the waves.
Before dinner we had all taken a motion sickness pills. The girls each had a Gravol and Dave and I took one of the little white pills, saving the other two for if the going got tough.
After dinner, we went back to our seats and got settled in. The boat had really filled up by this point as the car traffic had now boarded. We had a family of four beside us, a family behind us and a biker gang a little further back. Just below us where the bathrooms were was another seating areas with several other family groups.
As soon as we got back to our seats, we put Avery into her car seat and she konked out. Cadence was not far after in Dave's arms. It was around 9:15pm before we finally left, and the fact that both girls were asleep by the time we finally did pull out...was a blessing in disguise.
From as soon as we came out of the breakwater, that ship started to sway. It was not a super large ship, not as big as a BC Ferry, but not super small either. It rocked hard from left to right and there were times when it seemed to sway in every direction. We would hit waves and the ferry would crack like lightening and shake and shudder. It was thrilling at first while also being a bit terrifying. The other passengers were enjoying the excitement for the first little while, but that very quickly turned to carnage...
Within very short order, the little girl from the family of four beside us started to get seasick. The crew had left sick bags all over the seats for everyone before we boarded, so the mother was prepared, and she was nice enough to take the girl down to the half level below us so we wouldn't have to watch. The older sister also started to look a little green, but she held strong for most of the trip in the seat beside Avery.
The scene basically went from bad to worse. Dave was beside me with his eyes clamped shut tightly. He did not say a word to me the whole trip. He later told me that he just had to go to his happy place and shut out everything, as that was the only way he was going to get through.
As I mentioned, I don't get motion sickness normally, but I was extremely nervous about the trip, so I coudln't sleep. I just sat there and watched in awe as every single person around me turned green and started to get sick. I have never in my life seen so many people be sick repeatedly. One family below us...there little boy must have been sick 15 times at least. All you could hear was the sound of people barfing and children crying...it was awful. The worst came after some children had not made it into a bag, and then the ship started to smell like barf. That was when my resolve started to fail slightly....that and the sound of one of the biker guys upchucking in deep "huughhhh, hugghhhhh". I finally had to take the second little white pill, as I wasn't sure I could stand the smell and the sounds and really didn't want to head down that path if I could avoid it.
I know my words will not do this scene justice, it was carnage...there is not other way to describe it. I just felt so lucky that my girls were fast asleep. I could easily have been the mother that was thrown up on several times and having to pacify her screaming child. The mom behind me was laid out the whole trip and she just kept moaning. The dad must have been thanking his lucky stars that it was just his wife and not his two children as well.
The father of the family beside us was trying hard to be stoic through the whole thing, but he literally turned GREEN, like actually GREEN in the face and he too finally bolted for the toilet part way through.
The crew were coming around with garbage bags and picking up all the filled puke bags and handing out news ones at an alarming rate. They were also handing out little cookies to settle peoples stomach's. It was a terrible nightmare.
All this while the boat continued to rock and shake and roll and dive through the waves. I wish that I could have gotten a picture of the waves around the ship...I just couldn't bring myself to get out of my seat and get tossed around, let along go outside and try to contend with the water and wind. Memory will have to serve us on this one.
At almost and hour and a half into the sailing, the captain came on and advised us that were were through the worst of it. The trouble was that he had had to veer of course quite a bit in order to steer clear of the worst of the waves, so we would not be getting in until around 12:30am.
The second half of the journey did go much smoother. The waves were smaller and the rocking was less dramatic. The touble was that people then started to go out the door behind us and chain smoke...which made our area cold and very very stinky.
I have actually been on a ship this bad before. We crossed the Red Sea many years ago on our way to Sharm El Sheikh. For years we have talked about that boat trip and how bad it was. Robert had gotten sick all over the inside deck at one point, but although that trip was bad...it was short. The worst thing about this sailing was that not only was it bad...as bad as the Red Sea crossing, but it was long, over 3 hours of this was excrutiating to everyone. Bottom line...if you're thinking of doing this crossing, make sure its a fair day...otherwise fly or drive!
We did finally pull into port at half past 12. We had to wait quite a while for the bus to come pick us up and take us to the terminal. We were able to put Cadence in the stroller and Avery in the carrier on my chest. The girls were too exhausted to walk themselves...but again they were being so good and so brave. Cadence wanted to burst into tears I know, but I said to her that I needed her to be brave and help us out, and could she do her best...she certainly did. She has really shown some maturity on this trip.
We then had a horrendous time finding our hotel which turned out to be minutes from the terminal, but we found it and got the girls in bed and us showered and into bed by 1:48am. It was grim...we were tired and cranky and absolutely drained physically and emotionally. Sleep came easily for all of us.
It had been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!!
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