Chapter 19: Mike and Elizaveta’s Excellent Adventure, Part XII

July 12, 1985, Greater Copenhagen, Denmark

On Friday morning, we had breakfast near our hostel, then headed to the train station to begin our tour. It began with «Roskilde Domkirke», or Roskilde Cathedral, the largest cathedral in Denmark, which held the graves of over three dozen royals, mostly from Denmark and northern Germany. The artwork was beautiful, especially the gilt altarpiece.

Next, about a ten-minute walk from the cathedral, we visited «Vikingeskibsmuseet», the Viking Ship Museum, where we saw a fascinating collection of Viking ships and learned a bit about Viking history. From there, we boarded our bus for the nearly two-hour ride to «Frederiksborg Slot», a castle built in the early 17th century as a royal residence for King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway.

We had two and a half hours to explore the castle and have lunch, and quickly came to the consensus that we’d maximize our time exploring the castle and eat quickly before boarding the bus. We wandered through the castle, admiring the Valdemar Room, Great Hall, Chapel, and Audience Chamber. We finished our exploration with about fifteen minutes to spare, grabbed a quick lunch of sandwiches, crisps, and local soft drinks, then boarded the bus for Kronborg Slot, the castle in Helsingør, known to me as Hamlet’s ‘Elsinore’.

At Kronborg, we had a guided tour which took us through the Chapel, the Royal Apartments, the Ballroom, and several other rooms, all with gorgeous artwork and furniture, as well as tapestries dating from the 16th century.

“Anyone want to play hooky?” I asked at the end of the tour.

“What do you mean?” Elizaveta asked.

“We take the ferry to Helsingborg, have dinner, then take the ferry back to Helsingør, and the train back to the city. I checked the schedules before we left the city, and it works out such that we’d be back at the hostel just before midnight.”

“So like Brussels?” Clarissa asked.

“It adds one more country to our list, even if only for a few hours!” I said.

“I’m up for going to Sweden!” Pete said enthusiastically.

“Down boy!” Sandy ordered mirthfully.

“How do we get to the ferry?” Abby asked.

“It’s a fifteen-minute walk from here, or we could ask the tour bus driver to drop us off. It’s literally on the way back to Copenhagen.”

“I’d prefer if we could get the bus driver to drop us off,” Sandy said.”

“Let me check,” I replied.

I went to the tour guide and explained our plan. She had no objection, and the two of us spoke to the driver who agreed to drop us at the station so we could walk to the ferry which was adjacent. Thirty minutes later, we were on board a ferry waiting to depart on the twenty-minute trip across Øresund, or ‘The Sound’ as I knew it from history class discussions of ‘The Sound Toll’, which the Danes charged any ship which wanted to pass from the Baltic Sea to the Kattegat.

July 12, 1985, Helsingborg, Sweden

Twenty-five minutes later, we stepped off the ferry, cleared passport control, and then asked the cute blonde female clerk at the ticket desk for a restaurant suggestion.

“With a short amount of time, you don’t want to go too far,” she said. “Right across Järnvägsgatan is a new casual restaurant named ‘Paletten’. The owner is a former sea captain. Right next door is a disco, 57:n, which he also owns. It’s maybe a ten-minute walk.”

“That sounds good,” I said. “How do we get there?”

“Follow the path along the access road, cross Järnvägsgatan, follow Trädgåerdsgatan, which is next to the park, and the restaurant is on your left, across from the bus stop.”

“Thanks very much!”

“You’re welcome! Enjoy your short stay in Sweden!”

We followed the directions that the clerk had given and easily found the restaurant. We had to wait to be seated, but not too long, despite it being a Friday night. The food was very good, and the owner, Rolf, introduced himself after we’d been served, to ensure we liked our meal. We assured him it was excellent, and he invited us back, though I felt the chances of that happening were slim.

“What do you say we go next door to the disco?” Elizaveta asked. “We get in free after having dinner.”

“I’m game,” Pete grinned.

“Of course, you are!” Sandy said, shaking her head. “I think there are WAY too many blondes around for safety!”

“His?” Clarissa smirked. “Or yours?”

“Probably both!” I chuckled. “Abby is the only blonde in this group, and just barely.”

“It was flaxen when I was little,” Abby said. “By the time I was fifteen it was ‘dirty blonde’.”

“You mean the hot guys for Sandy?” Elizaveta asked.

“Aha!” I chuckled. “You DO notice!”

“Duh!” she laughed. “This restaurant is loaded with tall, good-looking blond men!”

“Hmm. So, if we go next door, are you going to want to dance with any of those ‘tall, good-looking, blond men?”

“No! Because then YOU will want to dance with one of the tall, cute, blonde girls!”

We finished our after-dinner coffee, paid the bill, then walked next door to the disco, only to discover it didn’t open until 8:00pm. We had thirty minutes to kill, so we elected to walk to the park and sit on the grass to wait.

“It would have been cool to go way up north and see the midnight sun,” Pete said. “But that would have been a hell of a train ride!”

“About twenty-four hours, right?” I asked.

“Has to be, if not more. And I can’t imagine there’s anything to do up there unless it’s hunting reindeer!”

“You know,” Clarissa said, “If we’d thought about it, we could probably have added a few more countries - Luxemburg, Lichtenstein, and Monaco.”

“Lara said Monaco is crazy expensive,” I replied. “As it is, we pretty much hit every western European country except Portugal and Norway. We’ll get England, but not Scotland, Ireland, or Wales.”

“Not Iceland, if you want to count it, either,” Pete said. “But I’d say we’ve done a damned good job without using airplanes!”

“Sorry,” Clarissa said, “that wasn’t meant to be a complaint, just an observation from what we’re doing right now.”

“I didn’t take it as a complaint,” Pete said. “I was just making a counter-observation! Sandy, before we go to the disco, what are the ground rules?”

She laughed, “So long as no skin touches, except perhaps your hands, dance with whomever you want!”

“I can live with that,” he chuckled.

“I believe I need to limit myself to dancing with my wife,” I replied. “Though if she approves, I could dance in an appropriate manner with the other girls in our group.”

“Thinking about your ordination?” Clarissa asked.

“Or his life!” Elizaveta said menacingly, but then she laughed. “I think Mike knows what’s appropriate and what’s not.”

“I do. It’s only two weeks until my ordination, so despite being three thousand miles from home, decorum is warranted. Not to mention I can have sex with the sexiest girl in town when we get back to the hostel!”

Everyone laughed and a few minutes later we got up and headed to the 57:n disco where we spent an hour dancing and drinking. Pete had several dances with cute Swedish girls, and Sandy danced with some Swedish guys. I danced with Elizaveta, though I turned down a dance with a very attractive young woman who introduced herself as Ann-Kristin, and instead danced chastely with Clarissa. When our hour was up, we headed back to the dock to take the ferry, and then a train, back to Copenhagen.

July 13, 1985, Copenhagen, Denmark

On Saturday morning after breakfast, we made our way to the departure point for a canal tour which would also afford us a view of «Den lille Havfrue» - the Little Mermaid statue in the harbor. Our boat took us past numerous sights, including Christiansborg Castle, Amalienborg palace square, several churches, and the Trekroner and Kastellet Forts. The tour was enjoyable, and when it finished, we made the twenty-minute walk to Tivoli Gardens.

“Split up or stay together?” Sandy asked as we entered the amusement park and gardens.

“How about we split up for now and meet for lunch at the Biergarten at 1:00pm?” Abby suggested. “We can decide if we want to do something as a group after lunch.”

“Works for me,” Sandy said. “Mike? Elizaveta?”

“Sure.” I agreed. “We’ll see you guys at 1:00pm.”

The couples parted and Elizaveta and I discussed our options and decided we’d ride the roller-coasters. We started with «Rutschebanen», which surprised me with having a brakeman operate the car.

“How about having that job?” I asked Elizaveta as the ride began. “You get paid to ride roller-coasters!”

“I can’t imagine this is going to be anything like ‘The Beast’ or even the ‘Twin Racer’ at King’s Island!”

“Considering this was built before World War I, I’d say you’re right!”

The coaster, which passed through several tunnels, wasn’t all that high or fast, never going higher than about forty feet and in, my judgment, not exceeding 40MPH. That was low and slow, compared to ‘The Beast’, which had a top speed of about 65MPH and a drop of around 140 feet. That said, riding a coaster which was over seventy years old was fun in and of itself, and I doubted I’d ever be on a roller-coaster with a ride-along brakeman again.

Next, we rode «Odinexpressen», a powered coaster, something else I’d never seen. The track was short, but we got three laps, though once again, the speed left a lot to be desired, and I was positive it didn’t even reach the same speed as «Rutschebanen»!

“Well, those were fairly boring,” Elizaveta said.

“I agree. How about we drive bumper cars and then ride the «Ballongyngen», the Ferris Wheel.”

“Let’s go for it!”

We were, truthfully, nonplussed by the rides, as even King’s Island back home provided more thrills and entertainment. And compared to my one trip to Disney, Tivoli, as an amusement park, left a lot to be desired. We had basically run out of time because of waiting in line, so we made our way to the Biergarten to meet the others for lunch. Elizaveta accepted my suggestion of a soft drink, rather than beer, and I followed suit so as not to cause any unnecessary friction.

“I think the roller-coasters leave a lot to be desired,” Pete said.

“I’m right there with you,” I said. “Other than the novelty, they really aren’t anything to write home about. That said, the park is gorgeous and the architecture is cool.”

“I think allocating a half-day here was optimistic,” Abby said. “And I’d say cutting a day from the city was a good choice.”

“I concur,” Pete said. “Any options for what we do for the rest of today?”

Abby flipped open her guidebook, “Well, there’s «Rundetaarn», a tower with a unique ascent via a spiral ramp. The observation deck is about thirty-five meters, so it’s not very high, though the guidebook says the views are decent. There’s also the Botanical Gardens, an art museum called Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, and then the shopping district, Strøget Street. By the way, the guide says that Tivoli Gardens after dark are cool because of the lights.”

“How about we check out the tower, then the shopping street, then come back here for dinner and the lights?” Sandy suggested. “And afterwards, find a place to listen to some music.”

Nobody objected, so that was our itinerary for the rest of the day.

July 14, 1985, Denmark and the North Sea

On Sunday morning we slept in, ate a leisurely breakfast, then headed to the train station to board a train for Esbjerg where we’d catch the DFDS Line ferry which would take us across the North Sea to Harwich, England.

“Just four days to go,” Elizaveta said as we sat down in a 2nd class cabin.

“And a good chunk of that is traveling,” Pete said.

“Our original itinerary calls for getting to our bed-and-breakfast in Enfield, checking in, then taking the train back to London,” Abby said. “I still think that makes sense, so we don’t have to carry our backpacks all day. Our plan is to walk around Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, and Buckingham Palace, and have dinner, then hit a pub. Any objections or changes?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“OK,” she continued, consulting the itinerary, “Tuesday is Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Trafalgar Square. Wednesday is the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, then the British Museum. Any concerns?”

We all shook our heads.

“The only concern,” I said, “will be that we have to bring our backpacks for the day. We have to check out that morning and need to be back at Harwich for the ferry departure at 10:00pm, which means leaving London by 6:00pm.”

“I think the plan is good,” Clarissa said. “We’ll be OK with our backpacks for a day. I suspect we can find lockers the way we did in Venice because we couldn’t take the backpacks on the gondolas.”

“That’ll work,” Pete agreed.

Just over three hours later, we arrived in Esbjerg, and had a few hours to kill before we could board the ferry, so we had lunch then walked around the town, arriving at the ferry station about forty minutes before our departure time. We were able to board immediately and found our cabins, stowed our packs, then headed for the deck to watch our departure. An hour later, when we had cleared the harbor and were out into the North Sea, we decided to explore the ship.

We spent some time in the lounge, then had dinner. After dinner, at Pete’s request, we went to the small casino on the ship and watched Pete lose about thirty dollars over the course of twenty minutes. He gave up and we went back to the lounge and got drinks, then went out on the deck to see the North Sea. We spent about twenty minutes, then Elizaveta and I said ‘good night’ and went to our small cabin.

“I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone!” Elizaveta said as we climbed into the small bed.

“Same here. But I said the same thing about four years of college, too. When I started, it seemed like forever, then, suddenly, four years had passed and I was graduating.”

“And getting married!”

“That was even more whirlwind and out of the blue!”

“Only because you never asked me out!”

“As I keep reminding you, you were twelve when I started attending services at Saint Michael! You’re only sixteen now!”

“Do I act like I’m sixteen?”

“Sometimes,” I said gently. “It’s lack of life experience, more than anything, and I have the exact same problem at times. It was worse when I first started college.”

“You don’t think I’m mature?”

“I think you’re mature for your age, Kitten. There’s a difference. Heck, I don’t think I’M mature at this point, but I do have more life experience, such as it is.”

“But you’re going to be a deacon!”

“Which means nothing other than I have a ministry to carry out. Am I mature enough to handle it? The bishop believes I am, but if there’s one lesson I’ve learned since graduating from High School it’s that I will encounter situations for which I am not fully prepared, and sometimes, for which I’m not prepared at all.”

“Such as?”

“Well, for the future, if I could tell you, then I could be fully prepared. For the past? Jocelyn’s accident; Liz’s troubles; Angie’s illness. Those are the big ones; there are lesser examples as well.”

“So what do you do?”

“My best,” I replied. “And I seek advice from people who might have experience. It’s not all that different from what you did when you spoke to the women of the church about marrying me. Your challenge, Kitten, is not changing your attitude about casual sex, but in dealing with my past. You had nothing to prepare you for that.”

“What could ever prepare me for that?”

“Dating, which is a preparation for marriage.”

“Which worked SO well for you!” she retorted.

“Actually, it did, even setting aside physical intimacy. I learned a tremendous amount from the mistakes I made with April, Jocelyn, Nancy, and Janey; I learned a lot from my relationship with Angie. I actually learned a lot from Kimiko, even though I don’t believe either of us made any mistakes. I learned lessons from other girls I dated as well. All of that makes it easier to be in THIS relationship, which is the most important one of my entire life. And Kitten, I’m going to learn from mistakes I make with you as well.”

“What kind of mistakes?”

“If I knew in advance, I could avoid making them! Maturity comes from learning to work through problems and challenges. It’s not just being able to cook, bake, clean, do laundry, sew, care for babies, or,” I ran my fingers through her soft pubic hair, “knowing how to make them.”

“You think I’m immature?”

“I think we both have a lot to learn, and in two weeks it’s going to be VERY real. Getting married was a big step; ordination is a bigger step. And it’s one you have to be absolutely sure you want to take.”

“I told the bishop I was!” Elizaveta protested.

“Yes, and now you’ve had several months to think about it. He’s going to ask you again, either Saturday evening or Sunday morning. And you need to be absolutely sure, because there’s no going back.”

“But ... wait! Are you having second thoughts?”

“I think I’m up to seventh or eighth thoughts at this point! In the end, I’ll do as Vladyka asks because it’s good for the parish and the church as a whole. But that’s only true if you’re with me every step of the way.”

“I promised I would be!”

“Yes, you did; I’m simply confirming that you’re still ready to do it.”

“But I’d hurt you so badly if I said ‘no’ now!”

“Perhaps,” I replied, “but changing your mind later would hurt far worse.”

“But isn’t it like being married? You make the commitment to solve any problems you run into?”

“Yes, of course. And you took that step. I just want to make sure you’re ready for the next one.”

“Is ‘no’ but ‘yes’ an OK answer?”

I chuckled, “If it’s not, I’m in big trouble because that’s MY answer.”

“Can we go back to something you said before?”

“Sure.”

“I did figure out how to make babies, and I wonder if you want to practice?”

Despite what I felt was an attempt to end the conversation, I was aware that ANY answer other than an affirmative one would result in my young wife being an emotional wreck.