Day 19: Goodbye at Höör, Quick Stop in Copenhagen, Arrival to Ennis, Ireland

Last night we washed all of our laundry and did what we could to get ready to go in the morning. We woke up at 6am and got ready for the day. We finished packing and gave our friends the most brief goodbye before heading to the Höör train station. It was probably for the best that we didn’t prolong the saying goodbyes. We had such an amazing time in Sweden and our friends went so above and beyond in everything that there was really nothing we could do or say to express our gratitude and how much we would miss them anyway.

Luckily, their eldest daughter was able to come with us to our whirlwind Copenhagen morning. She received a train pass in the mail, which made it easy and inexpensive for her to join us. Kids grades 6+ in the Skåne region get a free regional public transport card to encourage them to explore the region over the summer.

In Copenhagen we used Luggage Hero located in a bike shop close to the train station to store our packs while we explored. It went very smoothly. 

We walked past the armed guards of the Rosenberg Castle. We walked through the beautiful and pretty busy castle gardens on the way to the David Collection. 

The collection belonged to a private collector and has been added to since his death. The museum is renown for its Islamic Art Collection. The museum is free and they had free iPads that described each piece in the collection in English. The iPads had really insightful information and worked so much better than I expected them to.

We quickly made our way through most of the 3rd and 4th floors. The collection really was amazing. It had 2 types of works that I believe were new to me. The first was a pitcher that appeared glass, but was actually quartz crystal. Apparently it is one of seven in the world. The other piece was an extremely intricately cut piece of paper. Everything we saw was really impressive and we easily could have stayed much longer. However, we only had about 2.5 hours in Copenhagen, so we had to head to our next destination.

While we were in the museum my map and directions deleted themselves and since I don’t have cell service we used the general Google map that still was on my phone to head to the waterfront. It was a very scenic walk, although one I hadn’t planned on doing, so yay for the map disappearing. We followed the water to the Little Mermaid statue, or as Edon clarified last night, THE Little Mermaid statue. It had lots of tourist groups around it, but we still managed to get close for pictures and views. She looked so sad.

We made our way past tourists and loads of tour buses to our next touristy stop: Nyhavn.

The colorful shops of the old port district were fun to look at. We didn’t have time to linger because we had to get our bags and head back to the train station, which we did. My credit card wouldn’t work for tickets and we had to borrow our friend’s. It all worked out and we took the quick train ride to the airport.

We said our sad goodbyes to our friend. We discussed adopting her and bringing her with us, but we thought her parents would object. So, she headed home via train while we headed upstairs to the airport proper.

Security was easy and quick. The gate for our flight was not listed on the board and we couldn’t find anyone to ask about where we should go, so we went to the gate listed for a different Ryan Air flight. We passed through this huge tax free mall-like shopping area and then kept walking and walking. The gate was SO far from the other gates. Eventually we got there, and eventually our gate was posted. We were pretty close. We stood in line, were about to board, and then had a gate change. Luckily the new gate was just a few gates down. Line again, waiting, boarding again, this time successfully. We took off late, but not too badly. The flight went well. We made it to Ireland!

We picked up our rental car at the airport. Hilariously, it was our car: a black Honda Fit. Only here it is called a Honda Jazz. The interior was very familiar, except the steering wheel placement. 

As we tried to leave the airport I was in a lane with a straight arrow painted on the cement. I went through a yellow light and ended up going straight, but onto the right side of the road. Toward a bus. I did a very panicked uturn then a left turn and avoided a head-on collision and got back on the left side of the road. Immediately after that I got confused about which highway I needed to get onto because Google Maps was not totally clear and ended up on the wrong highway. I took an exit, had Edon get out the directions written on a piece of paper so I could verify Google Maps, probably drove around some roundabouts, and got back on track.

Due to the previous toll error (see Day 1), I wanted to have change for the toll road, so I got off the highway to make a purchase to get Euro coins from my Euro notes (bills?). I just ended up driving around for 20 minutes never seeing any kind of store. We got back to the highway and hoped there was some way we could use our Euro notes to pay the upcoming toll. A cashier! Yay!

The next toll had no cashier, but took Euro notes and issued change and also took credit cards. Also, yay!

We made it to our accommodations outside of Ennis. The place is not really close to town, but is roomy, clean, and has a kitchen and washer. And it is cheap. The owner is fabulous and super nice. 

So tired. So much to do tomorrow!