Away we went on our next adventure! Now I have to talk about these airports for a second: who said a flight is faster than any other form of transport? Seriously... a short, cheap flight from London to Hamburg sounds great, and on paper it’s only 2 hours or so, but the reality is so much longer. I’m not complaining, just letting you all know that 2 hours is not the actual time it takes when flying. This is the illusion of the airways, where we think we are getting a faster cheaper option, but honestly who are we fooling! London to any of the airports takes at least an hour, express trains or not you have to get to the train station and then catch the express.
An hour, minimum. Then you have to be there up to 3 hours before a flight, depending on your travel destination. The train costs another 25 quid or more, depending again on where you start. Then if you failed to notice the “no-checked” baggage allowance it can then cost another 25 quid ($40 AUD). It’s also funny how none of the shops in the airport have actually seen the prices of anything in the real world. The flight itself is almost a footnote to the actually journey, then you land and have to go through the ballet of customs and baggage claim. (my favourite part actually as the free-for-all begins: people jostling for the best position on a conveyor belt that will bring your item to you wherever you stand) and after all of this you have to make your way to your intended destination. Your 2 hour flight just took all day. This is why we decided to hire a car from Germany and drive around. You see so much and in the meantime you get to listen to music, eat what you want, stop where you want and enjoy the amazing scenery.
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Denmark Hotel
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Now thats a bridge
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This freezes over in the winter
Off to Denmark for our first stop, just a few hours north of Hamburg we found a beautiful bed and breakfast near Odense, literally by closing my eyes and pointing at a map. The roads are amazing and our last minute GPS navigator purchase was a godsend. Even before we updated it we found it the most amazing piece of equipment. A dark winding road through the Danish countryside, at night and in the cold, chased by the moon and the stars we found the dirt road to our hotel and met the ridiculously friendly owners of the hotel, who on seeing that we were starving whipped up a nice stew for dinner. They even made our bed, which, by the way was the most comfortable sleep I had had in ages. And then the breakfast was an amazing smorgasbord of meats, cheeses, fruits and bread. All homemade or home grown and just awesome. We left our new little home in Denmark and headed for Sweden, saying goodbye to the owners and honestly feeling great!
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Frozen I said....
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Our trip north was to visit my Cousins in Roros, Norway, but on the way Emma has some friends in Stockholm and Oslo, some she hadn’t seen in 20 years. But this gave us the chance to visit and view some of the most beautiful countryside! Our trip across to Stockholm included an expensive ($60) trip across this truly epic bridge that joins Denmark and Sweden. A long low bridge that sweeps up and arcs across the ocean, towering pylons and spider-web-like cabling spanning a few kilometres of ocean, allowing behemoth freight carriers to drift below. I like bridges, not really sure why. It just amazes me that we can get together and build something so huge. Our GPS also took us across a ferry “now travel straight for 5 kilometres...” she really is a pushy women. Stockholm looks like it’s built from lego, massive and modern we arrived in the evening to bright neon and lights everywhere. We stayed just north of the city and met up with some of Emma’s friend for a big night of drinking and laughter, food and a really big, friendly dog! Have you ever been shopping for food in Sweden? The supermarket is laid out like IKEA and is perfect and clean. Maze like stands offer an incredible and confusing array of foods. Nothing is where it should be, but there’s a weird sort of logic to the stores. I have a game I like to play, and it’s called “Foreign Country Mystery Shopping!” Where you have to buy at least one item from the shelf without actually knowing what it is, and eat or drink it! Fun for the whole family. My friend Craig believes that IKEA is like church to the Swedish. I believe that it’s written into their constitution that they have to undertake a pilgrimage to Almhut (first Ikea store) at least once in their lives, or they will be asked, politely, to leave the country. I’m just glad the roads weren’t built by the designers at Ikea. Oh and 2 burger meals at Maccas costs about $30 AUD.
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Looks like some sort of bug...
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Take off!
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After a too brief overnight visit to some more of Emma’s lovely friends in Os, south of Oslo we headed north to visit my cousins Brendan and Berit and their kids, Maya and Ayan in Roros. Now Emma wasn’t too happy with the cold so far: Nights of -3 so far in Sweden, but I did warn her that Roros was a little higher up the planet and closer t the Arctic. Last time I was there I had -18 and we have been since told that they had weeks of -30. The drive north was filled with sweeping, grand vitas and very little snow, except for the iced peaks in the distance there seemed to be no real bother with the cold. Until we got out of the car! 0 is a normal day and we hit that when we first got there. Bitter but refreshing our trusty GPS took us up a muddy, frozen path that meandered over an icy hill, until finally bringing us the back way into Roros. I then noticed a signed, tarred highway heading back the way we came. The GPS is sometimes too accurate and will take you where it thinks is best even if its only by a few metres. I noticed a man pushing a pram, crossing the street ahead of us, as I called my cousin for directions, the man stopped, fished out his mobile and spoke into it as my cousin said “hello?!”. Laughing I told him to look down the road for a red car! After a big catch up I took Emma for a walk around the town, at night, in the cold. I don’t speak Tagalog, but I’m sure there were some half whispered curses about me taking her to a frozen hell and her taking me to a sunny paradise. I love the cold, not for too long, but I find it refreshing and cleansing. Emma is from a country that rarely sees below 20c. She may have not completely enjoyed to cold but we did enjoy wandering around the fairytale town of Roros, with its miniature doors and warm interiors.
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They do like their trolls...
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There really isn’t much to do in Roros. There are no real pubs, and the beer will cost you about $15 a pop anyway. 12 cans of beer in the supermarket was over $30 AUD, so it’s not cheap to get drunk either. Makes a round kind of out of the question. Compared to Germany where a 6 pack will cost you less than $3 AUD. Wine sales end at 4pm and all other alcohol cannot be bought after 8pm at the supermarket. Food is expensive as well: 2 small bags costing around $80 AUD. So it’s a tough life up there. Brendan moved to Roros after meeting Berit in Townsville and marrying her. It’s a big call as he then had to learn the language and find a job. Amazingly after 8 years he can speak the language and has a good job and offers on other work elsewhere. He was surprised to find that people in Norway would speak to us in English, as he has spent the last 8 years learning the language in order to fit in. It can be tough living up there: in Summer the sun never really goes away and in Winter you have nearly 20 hours of darkness. This can be kind of depressing, and added to that you have the bitter, icy cold, you find that you will definitely need something to keep you sane. Brendan chose to fly! He is slowly gaining his pilot’s licence and asked us if we would like to come up! Hell yeah! I couldn’t believe it! I love to fly and always wanted to learn. Watching him do the pre-flight, I couldn’t help but feel proud and maybe a little jealous at this new skill. Well done mate! Then we took flight, and he was in control. The absolutely best way to see this country is a small plane, windy roads give way to 360 degree views of lakes, rivers, forests and snowy mountains. The flight was 52 minutes, and in relation to my first paragraph, that’s all it took! You soar in a small plane, you climb, turn, rise and dip and feel every movement as if it’s your own. And you can see forever...
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Emma’s first snow
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We organised some lunch for his instructor and his friends and chatted for another hour before heading off and driving up a nearby mountain so Emma could see her first snow in Europe. Make sure your car tyres have S+M on them, not for leather and whips, but for snow and mud. Even so some icy roads were a little slippery but interesting to drive on. After a fun few days we also went out to a cabin in the woods. First a trip to the top of another mountain as the sun set on the ice and snow, then another slippery drive to an old farm where the wood cabins used to house cows and pigs, and seriously looks like something from a horror movie: secluded, wooden cabins, set in the snow, woods all round. First rule of horror movies: don’t have sex. Well it was too cold anyway. A quick hello to Berits family, a wood-fired dinner and back to Roros. On the last day the great news that Brendan and Berit had won a bidding war for a house in Roros! But then we had to head on south and Brendan had programmed the little lady in our GPS for a great drive back through Norway and onto Gotheburg in Sweden. So goodbye to our cousins and Norway, the country of cranky people, brown cheese (Yummy) and weird road rules (give way to the right? WTF?) We did get lost a little before finding our Hostel. I don’t get why the Hotels and Hostels in Europe have small rooms and massive hallways. I understand the rooms are expensive to heat, but the hallways are heated too! You could drive a hummer through the hallway in Gotheburg. Would love to try! The city itself is a wonderful mix of old and new with Ferries wheels and a theme park in the centre of the city. At night it’s a fantastic sight and again everyone speaks English! Glittering streets and buildings, but a very quite night’s sleep.
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Roros
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Another great breakfast and we drove down the coastline towards another huge bridge (and another $40 AUD) That joins Sweden to Denmark, coming in close to Copenhagen. I really wish we could have had more time there as it’s a huge beautiful city filled with old buildings and suicide bike riders, canals and cafes everywhere. But we had to keep moving and hit the road again for Germany and Hamburg, back where we started! We found a really great hotel and headed for the pub, Schweinski (Pigs Snout) purely based on the fact that Emma wanted a beer. She did! It really wasn’t my idea. I wasn’t going to argue either! After our run through Scandinavia and its criminal prices on food and alcohol we were surprised when our bill came to less than what we had paid for that Macca’s in Sweden. A big platter, 5 beers and a cocktail for less than 2 burger meals! We then went to Lidl (like Aldi) and found the cheapest food prices ever! Next time we come to Norway Brendan, we will fill the boot with beer!
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Ford releases a new model for Norway
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Leaving Hamburg through a thick fog, cranes and windmills looming overhead, assessing our progress through the country we travelled south to visit some more of Emma’s family. My next story will include our trip to southern Germany and the beginning of our Bus tour across Europe. This is going to be awesome!!
