Our transfer from the Paris hotel to the airport insisted that we had to be picked up four hours before our departure time, so we were up at 4:45 a.m.  Yippee!  Best of all, we had two hours to kill at the airport, waiting for our flight time–time that I would have preferred to spend sleeping prior to the pickup.  Oh well, as the French say, c’est la vie.

The ride to the airport was weird.  The driver was grumpy (probably because he had to get up so early, like us) and began our acquaintance by arguing with another driver in front of the hotel about a parking spot.  It didn’t get better.

It was still dark outside when, without a word to us, the driver parked the van with the engine running, got out, and walked around, apparently looking for a street sign.  Even Ted and I could tell we were driving in circles, and this wasn’t a nice neighborhood.  I kept telling myself that our travel agent absolutely would not book us with an unreliable service, but I was mentally questioning whether or not my purse would be an effective weapon.  The driver got back in the van (thank heavens!) and we continued to meander around.  We stopped at the entrance to an alley and, again, the driver got out without a word, left the engine running, and then disappeared down the alley.  A few minutes later, he reappeared with three women.

This happened once more, except that by the third time, it was getting light, so it was slightly less scary.  Ted and I were less worried, but the three women wondered what was going on.  We told them what had already happened and the five of us decided there might be one more pickup.  Sure enough, the driver returned with two more passengers.  After that, it was a daylight trip the rest of the way to the airport.

The adventure wasn’t over.  When we arrived in Stockholm, we found the cruise representative and learned that our name had erroneously been omitted from the pickup list.  The lady told us not to worry, that we’d straighten it out onboard.  She put us in a nicer car with a much nicer driver than we had in Paris and we went directly to the ship where we were greeted with a glass of champagne and our stateroom key cards.

Our stateroom is a deluxe veranda with outdoor seating, complimentary mini bar, complimentary laundry, complimentary room service for meals, etc., etc.  The ship’s maiden voyage was in early April, so everything is brand new and beautiful.  Of course, the cruise crew lives to meet our every need before we know we need it, so life is very, very good.