Maybe I should have stayed home....

[Atomic]

So, here I am in a small town outside of Copenhagen in Denmark.I am on vacation with my son, and my mom, who grew up here.We drove to Toronto on the 25th, got on the plane to Amsterdam (No, we didn't get to go adventuring), then caught our connecting flight to Copenhagen, and arrived on the 26th, local time 12:30pm. (Denmark is 6 hrs later than Toronto)My suitcase didn't make it here, but everyone else's did.I've been without my stuff since Wednesday morning, and only had the clothes I was wearing, as my carry-on was filled with camera, snacks and some toiletries. (I'm pretty new to this trans-continental flight thing)KLM initially said "Yes, that happens sometimes", but didn't offer ANY assistance or re-assurance of where or when I might get my stuff.First of all, Denmark is freaking expensive.There is no such thing as a Wal-Mart here, but an awful lot of high-end, super-swanky stores and boutiques for clothing, furniture (really cool designs) and jewellery.I don't know if anyone knows what the "Egg" chair is, but the design is about 50 years old, world famous, and they had one in one of the stores for $50,000 kroner, which is just under $10,000 CDN.It's just a chair folks! Get real.So my mom did have baggage loss insurance as the tickets were bought on Mastercard.Mastercard said OK, here's $200CDN for Baggage delay (more than 24 hours).Then after 48 hours we're good to spend a further $750CDN.The only problem is that here, all the stores say that you need to enter a PIN number to be used here.It was a newer card, and she rarely uses it, so she never had a PIN # for it.When she called Mastercard in Canada (and that was over an hour on the phone trying to get the correct number, then through the endless waiting for a human to respond), she was told that they cannot give her authorization over the phone for a new PIN, and that it needs to be done in Canada.#%&%##""%&%/¤#%@%&!!!!So, if anyone is headed this way, (it could be all of Europe for all I know) make sure you have credit card stuff all up to date, so you don't get stuck like this.Oh, and the Schipolz airport in Amsterdam only takes Euros.Anywhoo, while walking through the Amsterdam airport they had one of the Smart Roadsters on display.This thing is nice looking in person, and I'll get a pic on the way out if it's still there.I found out about an hour ago, after calling KLM again, that they found my suitcase, and it's still in Toronto.ARRRRGHHHH!I suggested (nicely?) that they send it to me here in Denmark.Earlier today I went shopping a few towns away (the trains and buses here are really clean and very convenient) and bought a suitcase and some pants and shirts to tide me over for the next few days.I've seen some familiar cars and a whole bunch that we don't have in North America, but that we should.The rest of the week is going to be mini-touristy-type things and vehicle-picture-taking time.

[NascarXprt]

best get them car pics.....i mean land scape pics up or you can combine them with nice cars and some sceneary.but man does that suck having almost everything go wrong. glad to here they found your suit case.Try and have a fun trip over there.

[rebbierae]

Don't worry...your suitcase will get to Denmark....the day after you get back to Toronto. Sorry, I'll shut up. Hope you have a great vacation anyway! It's got to get better from here!

[Atomic]

We got into Toronto last night......Went to the baggage area to collect our stuff and check on my first suitcase.It turns out that my first suitcase is still in Toronto, they just don't know where yet. So much for this high security system.And then, we don't get ANY of our luggage from Denmark.All my mom's clothes, my son's clothes and gifts, my new suitcase with the bit of clothes I had to buy, and the gifts for my wife.NONE.All we have is what we could carry on with us, I am TOTALLY PI$$ED with this situation.I blame KLM for the absolute worst nightmare of a vacation I have ever had.Even crashing my motorcycle in rural Kentucky in 1984, totalling the bike, dislocating my collarbone, and spending three days in the hospital was less grief and stress than this.

[Mavrik]

damn... sounds like the worse vacation ever and I'm about to fly into TO tomorrow. I hope they don't lose my stuff...