With Hamburg visited, it was on to the next destination. Heading north from almost the top of Germany can only mean one thing. After an hour an a half of driving, I reached the gateway to Scandanavia. This is the main point to enter this vast Northern European land by road and I’m so pleased they decided to mark this point properly. Big flags of all the Scandanavian nations mark the entry point to this massive region with an identity all of its own. There’s a small car park here so I decided to stop off again.
The big welcome didn’t stop at the flags. There were two people, sitting in plastic chairs, right next to the main carriageway, presumably welcoming all the cars into their great wide domain, or just enjoying risking their lives with very fast traffic. Still, it was nice to see some pride in their part of the world.
On the approach to the border there were big grand signs stating ‘Customs ahead – declare any goods’. But what did ‘Customs’ amount to? A tiny postbox and some blank forms mounted on a pole, accompanied by a sign – ‘Please declare any relevant goods.’ That’s it. Lovely. A bit of trust and honesty.
After visiting the official border (which, like most land borders are marked by old border posts) it was back on the road – headlights permanently on and with a compulsory speed limit.
I wrote yesterday that this would be a great drive. The reason for this is that Denmark is made up of a bit of mainland plus a number of islands, one of which has Copenhagen on it. Twenty years ago you needed a ferry to go between many of these islands and on to neighbouring Sweden. Now, there’s some long, high and very windy bridges to cross – and it’s not cheap to do so – but it’s more than worth it with some awe-inspring views across Denmark.
It was a longer drive than I expected – it’s a slightly longer way round – but got to Copenhagen in time for lunch.
This is a typical modern city, with a couple of big squares where all the action is, and a decent-sized shopping district. Alphabeat (Denmark’s most famous recent export) are only number 11 in the album charts today so like Chicken Tikka Masala in India, it’s more popular outside of the home country.
After a look round here, and an hour-long city cruise (like Amsterdam it’s got loads of waterways inside the city and it’s all best seen from this viewpoint) it’s off to Malmo, the closest city to here in Sweden. Again, not as easy as driving over the border because there’s another expanse of water to cross. This one’s pretty cool. You go through a nice new tunnel for about 4-5km (it creates a nice shipping lane above) then you pop up out of the water on a little island, from which you go flat for a while and then over a massive bridge into Sweden – via another tollbooth.
A bit late for exploring tonight so went straight to hotel for dinner. Got a result though – was on the top (9th) floor so got a great view to Denmark over the bridge. I’ve been lucky with the weather so far and also with this great panoramic view.
Updates from here on in will probably be a bit shorter, as I have big distances to travel and not much time to take in the sights!
KM TRAVELLED TODAY:589 km TOTAL: 1374 km
