Denmark . . . . and the Saga of The Bridge!
Well it was hardly a saga and it certainly wouldn't have run to 10 episodes but there was a small incident and I couldn't resist that title!
We were on a coastal site just north of Malmo and I had put the coordinates of a site near Copenhagen into the satnav. When we set off, Holly, the satnav, told me to head north on the E20 and it was a few minutes before I realised that she was sending me to Helsingborg to catch the ferry over to Denmark. I had left the satnav set to avoid toll roads and she clearly thought it was preferable to pay a ferry fare than a bridge toll! We did a u-turn, when possible, and navigated ourselves onto The Bridge. A beautiful clear sunny morning and the views were spectacular. No bodies and no sign of the Malmo or Copenhagen police but otherwise a good journey.
So where have we been in the last few days?
Well Sweden is certainly a long country when you travel it from North to South and an amazingly large amount of it is covered with forest! Eventually we got down to a landscape that was a bit more like home with fields and livestock and much fewer trees.
We had decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary, on 28th August , by calling at the IKEA store to the north of Gothenburg, for lunch! We knew it was beside the main E45 motorway and we would be sure to spot the enormous tower with the three sided sign, that they all seem to have. Well, for some reason this one didn't, and it was on the other side of the road and we very nearly missed it. It was quite a revelation though, when we did get to it, a huge IKEA on two floors!! The restaurant was upstairs with windows overlooking the car park so you could enjoy watching people trying to load all their purchases into their cars, whilst you ate your meatballs!
We arrived on the outskirts of Gothenburg (Goteborg) around five in the evening and made for the site in our book which seemed to be the most convenient for getting into the city. We found the place ok . . . . . but it was closed for renovations and not due to re-open until next week!! So a quick change of plan and we headed for the only other site we knew of, which was out on the other side of the city. About three quarters of an hour later we rolled up at a seaside resort site which was coming to the end of the season but still had quite a few folks about, partly, I suspect, because the only other site in the area was closed!
They helpfully provided detailed instructions for catching the bus into the city, a twenty minute journey and the 10 minute walk to the bus stop was along a very pleasant coastal path.
Gothenburg proved to be quite an interesting place, once we had eventually located the Tourist Information office and got a map. It is quite a lively university city with some attractive architecture, an older quarter with some artisan craft shops, a busy waterfront and a very large modern shopping mall.
A pleasant surprise was to arrive back at the campsite to see that, once the cloud and mist had cleared, we had a view of the Oresund Bridge from our campsite, together with the entertaining spectacle of dozens of kite-surfers who use the campsite beach as their base.
We were on a coastal site just north of Malmo and I had put the coordinates of a site near Copenhagen into the satnav. When we set off, Holly, the satnav, told me to head north on the E20 and it was a few minutes before I realised that she was sending me to Helsingborg to catch the ferry over to Denmark. I had left the satnav set to avoid toll roads and she clearly thought it was preferable to pay a ferry fare than a bridge toll! We did a u-turn, when possible, and navigated ourselves onto The Bridge. A beautiful clear sunny morning and the views were spectacular. No bodies and no sign of the Malmo or Copenhagen police but otherwise a good journey.
Well Sweden is certainly a long country when you travel it from North to South and an amazingly large amount of it is covered with forest! Eventually we got down to a landscape that was a bit more like home with fields and livestock and much fewer trees.
We had decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary, on 28th August , by calling at the IKEA store to the north of Gothenburg, for lunch! We knew it was beside the main E45 motorway and we would be sure to spot the enormous tower with the three sided sign, that they all seem to have. Well, for some reason this one didn't, and it was on the other side of the road and we very nearly missed it. It was quite a revelation though, when we did get to it, a huge IKEA on two floors!! The restaurant was upstairs with windows overlooking the car park so you could enjoy watching people trying to load all their purchases into their cars, whilst you ate your meatballs!
We arrived on the outskirts of Gothenburg (Goteborg) around five in the evening and made for the site in our book which seemed to be the most convenient for getting into the city. We found the place ok . . . . . but it was closed for renovations and not due to re-open until next week!! So a quick change of plan and we headed for the only other site we knew of, which was out on the other side of the city. About three quarters of an hour later we rolled up at a seaside resort site which was coming to the end of the season but still had quite a few folks about, partly, I suspect, because the only other site in the area was closed!
They helpfully provided detailed instructions for catching the bus into the city, a twenty minute journey and the 10 minute walk to the bus stop was along a very pleasant coastal path.
Gothenburg proved to be quite an interesting place, once we had eventually located the Tourist Information office and got a map. It is quite a lively university city with some attractive architecture, an older quarter with some artisan craft shops, a busy waterfront and a very large modern shopping mall.
It was a reasonable day's journey from Gothenburg down to Malmo and we located a site in a small place to the north of the city called Lomma. It was on the coast looking straight across towards Denmark, although when we arrived it was a bit overcast and cloudy so we couldn't see a lot. We booked for two nights so that we could go into Malmo the next day but, in contrast to the helpful staff at the Gothenburg site, the guy here just knew where the bus stop was. I went on a reccy and sorted out the bus times and we managed to have another interesting day. Malmo was a bit of a surprise in apparently not being very tourist focussed. No Central Tourist Information office, just some leaflets and maps in a few shops, and very few 'souvenir shops' although plenty of very nice design and craft shops, mostly at very high prices, a castle, a park, a couple of museums and a fish market!
A pleasant surprise was to arrive back at the campsite to see that, once the cloud and mist had cleared, we had a view of the Oresund Bridge from our campsite, together with the entertaining spectacle of dozens of kite-surfers who use the campsite beach as their base.
So, having crossed over into Denmark, and negotiated the Copenhagen traffic, we got to our usual site, just north of the city, to find it was fully booked! Fortunately they gave us a list of other sites and we have managed to get onto one which is just a little further out, and not in such a picturesque location as our preferred site, but should still enable us to catch a bus into the city tomorrow.
Comments
Post a Comment