Travels with "Peedie Charlie and 2017 Adventure: Guten Tag from Germany

Blog 17.8.14

Guten Tag from Germany

Yesterday we crossed from Denmark to Germany, just north of Süderlügum. This town had 5 supermarkets and several petrol stations. These shops were very busy being Saturday and had signs that they accepted Danish money. When we went into one of the supermarkets to stock up we were surprised, and pleased, to see just how much cheaper things are in Germany. We are staying at a campsite in the village of Heidenau - we used it on our way north as it has a good swimming pool heated to 28 degrees with an array of solar panels and excellent facilities. Just as well as air temperatures are now dropping with highs of around 20 – 21degrees. The whole of Northern Europe has an end of summer feeling with crops being harvested and trees are losing their leaves - in Scandinavia children have started back at school.

Our last blog entry was before we crossed into Sweden, just after dropping Sarah at the airport in Oslo. We drove across the Southern part of Sweden stopping to camp by beautiful lakes. While on the motorway we were stopped by a huge electrical storm with strong wind and hail. All the traffic stopped - when we got underway again there were trees that had blown onto the road. Dramatic stuff with all sorts of lightning and tremendous claps of thunder…..Thor at his best!

We found a great campsite near Stockholm, which was on another beautiful lake that was good for swimming. Just what was needed after a hot days sightseeing. The metro only took 20 minutes to get to the centre of town. We had a good walk around the old town, Gamla Stan, managed to find a café with wonderful coffee, almost Welli standard, and….. gluten free goodies. Watched an extremely elaborate changing of the guard at the Royal Palace with a full military band on horseback then caught the ferry over to the amazing Vasamusseum. The “Vasa” was a war ship that sank in 1628 after sailing only 26 minutes on her maiden voyage. She was salvaged in 1961 and provides a snapshot of how life was in that year.

An interesting story of how it sank. Two different groups of ship builders constructed it. The Dutch built the port side with the Swedish having the starboard honour. During the building each group used a different length measurement system. This resulted in it being a bit lop-sided, (also had an incorrect amount of ballast in the keel), following the initial firing of the royal salute by two decks of cannons. This caused the ship to sank as it was not able to ‘right’! Result was that the Dutch received the blame. Resolved diplomatically as the Dutch designer had died, thus no honour was lost!!! The restored, and preserved entire ship is in the museum with the food, clothes, games etc all preserved and on display. A really fascinating place. The next day we took a harbour cruise passing through locks to get from the lake to the Baltic sea.

We drove South stopping at the characterful town of Granna on the large Lake Vattern. All over Sweden there are shops with huge selections of sweets and big self service isles of sweets in the supermarkets. Granna is known for it sweet shops which included an amazing chocolate café. We drove across the elegant, (and expensive) Oresund bridge to get to Copenhagen. In all the years Marg has known Colin she did not realize he has a fascination about structures / architecture / design and he was in raptures about this bridge.

Again the campsite was close to the city, only 15 minutes on a very fast metro. We really enjoyed Copenhagen, it’s a cool place with a good vibe and lots of energy. It is easy to walk around although we got lost a couple of times as the city map was confusing with many streets not being named. We took a canal boat trip to see the statue of the little mermaid and little she is! Also saw most of the fascinating buildings and sailed through the suburb of Christian which is built around water. Visited the Tivoli Gardens which has been an amusement park since the mid 1800s. Beautifully presented with the rides set in a fascinating garden. We visited the Danish Design Museum that certainly was a real highlight, setting the world interest in this design approach/style in context. We wanted to visit a museum about the Danish resistance during WWII but firstly we had trouble finding it (it was all underground in a park!) and then when we found it was closed as they had had a fire.

After all this city sightseeing we headed up to the north of Zealand, the island that Copenhagen is on and had a great day off at Hornbaek, one of the beaches in what is called the Danish Riviera. Great to see beaches with white sand, clear water (cold) and sand hills. The next day we visited the nearby town of Helsingor and Kornborg Slot, the castle where Shakespeare set Hamlet. We had a great tour taken by ‘Horatio’ who told the story as he took us around to all the places mentioned in the play. He was a great storyteller. Apparently the king, at the time of Shakespeare, put on great 3 day parties and part of the entertainment was to use actors across from London to perform. Scholars/historians think this was how Shakespeare knew the layout of the castle so well. This castle was built and collected tolls (Sound Dues) for 400 hundred years from this waterway near Oresund with a matching castle in the Swedish side. This meant “pay the toll or be sunk by cannons on either side of the straits. We were so close that Marg kept getting messages on her mobile welcoming her to Sweden. Our last night in Denmark was spent by another beach near Middelfart, (neither of us!!) just before crossing onto the Danish mainland.

What a wonderful month we’ve had in Scandinavia.

All the way around we have been reflecting on why these countries always score highly in quality of life etc indexes. Interestingly their ‘freedom index’ is not as high as NZ. They are certainly rich and have wonderful amenities. We particularly noticed the very nurturing way young children are parented and how the governments support this with generous parental leave, up to 18 months in Sweden. There is also a concept of equity where people do not seem to be judged by the type of work they do. For example you see beautiful young women collecting the rubbish. Anyway we were certainly made most welcome.

Tomorrow we head down to the Mosel valley where we spent a wonderful week in the 70’s then make our way to Brussels to stay with Sarah for a while. Colin may just try some of the Mosel wines….……..again!

After storm1