FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG, GERMANY, DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN - Part 4

FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG, GERMANY,

DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN – Part 4

June 7, 2012

For the most part in the early part of our return to Germany we used the famous Autobahns where Westerners drool of driving a road with no speed limit. We dream of 200+ kph with no cops in sight. But at most the fastest we saw anyone driving was about 150 kph…fast but no extreme. And they had to step on it just to get past the White Night!!

Our first camping stop in Germany was about 100 km east of Hamburg. It was full with Dutch travellers…couldn’t have been anyone left in Holland to watch the dykes. The area a German friend told us was in the old East Germany. We certainly didn’t see any signs of the old east/west dividing line. There were a couple of brown boards by the road showing a general map of Europe and where the line had been up to reunification in 1989. Most people in the West think of the Berlin Wall which split the city but there were far longer fences to the north and south. A recent article said an estimated $3 trillion (that’s with a “T”!!) has been spent so far in efforts to merge the two parts.

Last night’s campground was fine…nothing special. Except…no we didn’t spot Elvis…nope not even a common Martian. Something much bigger in stature, much more famous, and much more…well…cool. Next to us was none other than the most famous cartoon cat of all time…Garfield. He even came inside the White Night a couple of times. We wanted to get his pawtogragh but with the sarcastic flick of his tail, he left. The leash he has is actually to enable him to control his human.

This is an area of very large crop farms on gentle rolling terrain. Very pretty and very serene. We were back in the cool rainy weather. As we continued south and a bit east toward the Rhine River, the rolling hills became steeper, the fields of grain became forests of tall trees so dense you would have needed a flashlight to walk in them in the middle of the day. It reminded us a bit of the Black Forest further south and even parts of Austria.  The road sign in the picture made us wonder if the problem was short trees or tall trucks. Many of the towns and villages in the area are called “timbered houses”. This type of construction of olden days used large square cross beams at all angles for the support while the brick was only used as a filler between the beams. This makes for interesting designs and beauty.

And with the weather continuing to deteriorate we drove though rain, rain, and more rain to finally get to the Rhine…well sort of. The campground we had chosen some 50 km west of Frankfurt and south of Koblenz was full so we had to search for another. We found one the edge of the Lahn River which itself empties into the Rhine. Pretty place.

The next day we went sightseeing along the east side of the Rhine River. It must be one of the most fascinating, unique and colourful rivers in the world. The cloudy, showery day didn’t diminish what it presented to us. It was a river of history, of battles, of castles to control the area and charge fees to ships navigating up and down, and of the ever-present church wanting its say for the pope of the day. It now is a bustling beehive of activity for tourism, vineyards, and transportation link to deep inside Germany. Nothing here is or was easy. The slopes are very steep and harvesting the grapes for the crisp white Riesling wines produced here is all done by hand. No machine could stay upright! Some houses from the medieval ages remain with their unique and ancient styles. Many are the famous “timbered” houses. They are homey. They make us yearn for a simpler time.

From Lahn Beach, where we had camped, to just above Mainz, is a short 80 km but covers a thousand years of time. Past Mainz is the current age of industrialization and we were not interested. Servicing that area is one of the main things the Rhine does with vessels transporting everything from coal to scrap metal to petroleum products. Some of these can be over 250 meters long and when loaded need tug boats at full power to go south, or upstream, against the strong current. Even then you could walk faster.

We turned back in Rudesheim, a town of tour busses, trinkets made in China and a place where everything costs more than it should. It reminded us of Banff, Alberta.

Churches are everywhere, on low places, on high places, big, small, steep steeples, small steeples, round steeples, square steeples…so many different styles that they almost look like they are part of a different religion.

Some of the buildings have paintings depicting the activities in the area centuries ago.

For the most part the road is built on and as the very edge of the river. A low barrier doesn’t always give a safe feeling. Floods here are common…every spring we were told. Last year’s was 4 meters high!

We ate outside (risky with the rain showers) at an old hotel and ordered a bottle of the local white Riesling. The wine was amazing and the total bill was a third less than what it would be in Canada.

In the heady days of this area, castles were the way to protect your property and your ability to tax anyone who went up and down the river. These castles are everywhere in various shapes, sizes and conditions. They stand now as tourist attractions and as a reminder that power of any kind is temporary.

But were they built for another reason? Was it in fact to protect the hillsides, the vines themselves, and the fabulous grapes born of them? The wines here are still known, now worldwide, for their uniqueness and for being crisp. But the main reason to drink wine here is exactly as the poster says.

June 5^th, out last day on the Rhine and in Germany, and we awoke to overcast skies…again!! Today we drove down the west side of the Rhine heading south. Driving is better with lest traffic on this side. We stopped in St. Goar to visit the remnants of a castle high above the Rhine. Built in the 1200s, it was built, rebuilt, sieged (once for an entire year; even that failed), inherited, bought, sold, attacked, and blown up numerous times. Thanks to the events that took place over 600 years it is an absolute must-see for tourists. Originally built to force boats using the Rhine to pay a toll, it has become an incredible historical symbol. Some of the methods of construction have been well preserved and are impressive such as the fish scale-like roofs on adjoining buildings.

Even today, torture for being a bad boy can be doled out. Just take a look at the men’s urinal. Pulling the levers can be nerve-racking. Which one is to flush and which one is to chop? It was best to simply stand back.

Everything intact it we headed further south along the river toward Bacharac, an amazing town where the core’s medieval buildings and atmosphere have been well preserved. Old dilapidated churches, cobble stone streets, and timbered houses dating back to 1368.

Further on it was time for a lunch stop when we noticed across the road through the trees some structure some 250 meters long, over 1 meter thick, and 15 meters high. The inside looked like a dark straw laid on its side. A brown water was seeping from the bottom. We have no idea what it was.

From there it was on through heavily forested ravines with countless old villages caring for their very own medieval look.

And then, as it is now throughout Europe, with no border restrictions whatsoever and with no fanfare we were in France again.

Between Nancy and Auxerre (about 3 hours from of base near Vendome) heading west the land is rolling with large fields of crops mainly different types of grains giving every shade on green imaginable. We continued to see the timbered style houses. And finally, the vineyards of the Champagne region. Pretty cool even though we don’t care for the stuff.

Two days later is was back to our little apartment in Areines. This was a great trip especially through Norway. With 8,436 km in 30 days it was a busy one.

Postscript: Remember the 20 euros we “lost” in a Portuguese toll road? How it was going to be refunded with a bank transfer? For the massive amount of 17.85 euros? Well, yet another two letters were received from them saying the amount had been transferred to our bank account in May. It was received. And so far Portugal has probably spent well over 150 euros.

FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG, GERMANY, DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN - Part 3

FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG, GERMANY,

DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN – Part 3

May 29, 2012

From Norway we crossed into Sweden into a land of endless forests and countless lakes. The snows higher up are still melting and the rivers are swollen to flood stage. Ran the air-con in the van for the first time with 28C outside. Our first night in the country included a losing battle with a gazillion mosquitos, the result of a country full of lakes and rivers. As we’ve said before, the red-wine colour in Norway and Sweden is extremely popular made such by a red by-product from the world’s longest lasting, at 300 years, copper mine and one of the biggest for its time.

As we drove toward Stockholm through more and more towns we also began to see more and more immaculately restored cars from the 50s to the 70s. Certainly brought back memories, all good.

Thanks to our Tom-Tom GPS unit we arrived safe and sound, though held up by a drawbridge letting expensive sailboats through, into one of the oddest campsites we’ve ever stayed in. Located in the middle of the city of Stockholm. Good. Under a noisy bridge and airplane landing path. Not so good. “Sites” were dirty dusty dirt with the facilities inside the remnants of construction materials. Bad. But we stayed two nights so we could spend a full day in the city. Stockholm is on the southeastern coast of the country very far from the rest of Sweden and as a result seems to go overboard to be the best at everything. It is built on fourteen islands with walkways and bike paths everywhere. If you hear a chinsy bell, it’s not your imagination…it’s time to get out of the way of an overzealous bikist (a wanna-be cyclist going too fast on a too-heavy-to-stop bicycle). We walked the three kilometers from the “campground” to the old part of the town. Neat old buildings stuffed full of too many restaurants, too many junk shops and too many tourists of yet another cruise ship recognizable by the same “follow me” banners the guides use to keep their flock from getting lost.

Canada likes its moose…but not like Sweden. It appears everywhere, sometimes in odd positions. What ever happened to the famous Vikings?

Maybe this is the answer. This odd couple can be seen in broad daylight. Note the cheeky hand placement.

The mating result was what is commonly known here as the reason for the disappearance of the Viking race, the last such person was this blue-helmeted not-so-blond goddess.

In 1628 these same people wanted to continue their famous sea-faring heritage by building a monster wooden ship measuring 69 meters long and 49 meters tall. It was the pride of the Swedish crown. Within minutes of its launching, the top-heavy vessel capsized sending it and its 100 man crew straight to the bottom. Not to be outdone by ancient stupidity, in 1961 the vessel, in 14000 pieces, was raised and reassembled inside its very own ready-made museum. The one shown here isn’t it but merely a suggestion of what maybe, just maybe, should have been attempted.

From Stockholm, the driving was tedious and boring as was, frankly, the country-side. Endless trees, very few buildings, and no moose in sight regardless of the “Moose Crossing” signs. Maybe they too ran off with the Viking goddess.

So…our general view of Sweden? Very nice people but the scenery is bland especially after having first been through Norway. And Stockholm doesn’t seem to fit into the rest of the country…too many cultural differences. Having said that this poor little sad, and dry, mermaid was sorry to see us leave.

From Sweden we crossed into Denmark again over the long, beautiful and very expensive ($120!!!) bridge under threatening skies soon to turn to full-on rain with heavy traffic. Fun. Through Copenhagen to a campground on the edge of an 1886 fort complete with the old cannons and bunkers on the edge of the sea. Tuborg, the Danish beer company, offered us a large beer to compensate. We expect to have it finished in about 12 years!

The next day we took the local bus 14 into the center of Copenhagen to visit the old town and the canal district. Copenhagen is a delight being a mix of Amsterdam and Paris. Old brick buildings, incredible churches some looking like they rose right out of Babylon.

The city is full of bike paths which are full of people roaring by on single-speed oldies going from where they were to where they are going. As a pedestrian it is in your best interest to stay on the sidewalk or get creamed. The beautiful lady cyclists in short skirts add to the flair of it all. Some of the bikes are meant to carry things in front of then…everything from stuff and things to kids. Even some taxis have bike racks for passengers who have a bike but have far to go.

And of course there is the royal castle complete with the family tree of the royals, the useless battles fought over colonies, two eighteen year old guards, and all things paid for by the non-royals. Kinda cute but after a number of these royal affairs they all feel and smell the same. Lose a historical battle and become a taxpayer – Win a historical battle and ya got it made. And let us not forget the crown jewels.

Copenhagen is a very nice place where there is lots to see. It has a great feel with very nice people. And where did we eat? In an Irish pub of course!!

FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG, GERMANY,

DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN – Part 2

May 23, 2012

May 18…and SUNSHINE!!! About time!! Continuing along the coast which seems more and more like B.C. and Alaska. Seeing lots of wood split for household burning in standard mesh bags about one meter cube. They need it here with the short cold winters and the size of the houses which are large. Most have two or three stories with lots of windows to take in the scenery. Some, but usually out buildings, have sod roofs. All the properties are clean and tidy; houses painted, lawns mowed and no junk lying around. And they love the colour red for the buildings; a darkish wine red…something we can relate to.

Same applies for their cars; doesn’t seem to be any beaters. The drivers don’t speed much (listening Canada??), never tailgate (listening France??), never honk (listening USA??), and are very courteous (listening all drivers??).

Lakes of all shapes and sizes are everywhere. Along the southwestern tip there is an incredibly beautiful large area of huge rounded boulders some the size of houses. The fjords are stunning! To get closer to them we chose to drive the secondary roads with few cars but which are really narrow and twisting. With their harsh Canadian-like winters here they can also be busted up and rough. No large towns; only small villages. Camped near Bursand with an amazing view of the ocean.

Back into light rain the next day through large rolling farmland fenced with the large rocks picked from the fields. More sheep. We stopped for a few groceries and the lady at the store told us they had had rain for the last eleven months! They were very sick of it. Really!?! And because of the cool temperatures and rain lately fresh snow was on the surrounding mountains.

Norway means fjords which means ferries…four for us today. While waiting for one we bought French fries in a small café. A small handful cost the equivalent of $6 or about 25 cents per fry! With so many fjords there are lots of fish farms though none are big.

We had planned to stop in Bergen, Norway’s second largest city with 250,000 people, for a day but we were more interested in getting back into the countryside. We continued toward Balestrand, a very pretty town spread on the edge of the second-longest fjord. Looked to camp. Ah…closed. Asked a lady for directions and she promptly provided a map and information on the area…she worked for the tourism bureau and had some pamphlets with her. We continued another few kilometers and found the village of Dragsvik where we found a campground just opening for its first day of the season. And we camped five meters from the water with an endless view of the fjord one way and large snow covered mountains the other. The views were some of the most magical we have seen anywhere…so we stayed the next day, a 25C, sun-filled day. Turned out the owner had spent a month near Calgary and Banff while he was in the Norwegian army in joint training exercises with Canadian forces. Did he like Canada? Yes…but it was January and -40C! The rest of his tales included the burning down of a Canadian forces tent in the middle of the night. No…Norway never paid us back!!

While at this last campground we had a (few) drinks with a British couple also staying here. They have lived in Norway for one year hoping to stay permanently. Unfortunately they just cannot find substantial work and sadly have to go back to England. They absolutely love Norway and its people. Apparently housing is inexpensive here which is probably why we have rarely seen any small places. One thing they did mention though is the ability of anyone to get on the web with a simple piece of information such as a person’s name, address or telephone number and find out everything about their personal life including earnings. Privacy here is out the window!

One of the things everyone thinks about when they think Norway is Vikings. But oddly enough there is no talk about that part of their history here and rarely is a connection to the Vikings made in their buildings, names, tourism and so on. Not sure why this amazing piece of world history is put aside. Near Dragsvik though, there are two burial mounds said to contain parts of a Viking ship, the remains of a man and a woman, and other artifacts.

And of course as with all things, Norway has the biggest and longest…fjord. We crossed the two longest and deepest today, a day of three ferries. Both these cavernous bathtubs are over 1300 meters deep, the second-longest at 180 km long and the longest at 240 km long! Ocean-going cargo ships can be seen all the way to the ends to bring in goods. Driving around the perimeters of these fjords can be tiring and long and of course involves lots and lots and lots of tunnels. They are mostly poorly lit, which feels eerie, and can be long, which feels eerie. Our longest today was 7.5 km. One had three lanes the full length. This is far wider than most of the roads in this part of the world. Two narrow lanes are great but often it is a single lane, sometimes barely wide enough for our van, with small turnout places to let oncoming vehicles by. It does get very hairy at times.

May 22 and we continued on Route 13 on a stretch between Dragsvik and Forde into the high mountains and over a snow-bound pass. The scenery was as good as it gets. Twisting turning roads with hellish drop-offs and snow above our van…and that’s in mid-May! And of course at the end of the day was yet another ferry but this one with a crew member, a girl, who had studied in Vancouver for a year. She loved it and found BC’s west coast similar to Norway’s. Similar but not the same level. And she’s right. Though it isn’t often you’re come around the corner thinking you’re about to run into a good-sized cruise ship.

That day finished in Alesund, a beautifully situated fjord town of 42,000 people. The town burned totally in 1904 and was totally rebuilt with beautiful art-inspired buildings. It is also a stopover for the large cruise ships  and one was in during our visit. Nothing like walking the streets of a tourist sector with 5000 of your closest friends. And of course we had to try the Norwegian fish-and-chips. With all due respect to any other country claiming theirs is the greatest…move over…this was by far the BEST!!

Want to start your own café or restaurant? Don’t rent a building…buy an old unused barge instead.

Want to be paid and get the benefits of a postal worker and sell ice cream on the side? Get something that both delivers mail and keeps the ice cream nice and cool.

The next day we headed east and sadly away from the fjords (pronounced “fee yords”)…or as we call them…FEE JJORDS. Temperatures were above 25C for the next few days with heavy humidity. Given that one lake was still half covered with ice!! Saw lots of old wooden barns and houses made of squared logs. These are old and may have been part of the old settlers. We wild-camped that night, our first time this trip, and it felt great to be back in nature with only the trees and the birds for company.

So we continued toward Sweden. And what did we think of Norway? Absolutely amazing! Magic! It is the most beautiful country we have ever seen…more beautiful than Canada and even New Zealand. The people are very helpful and friendly. It is expensive but come see the place…you will forever appreciate the mix of mountains, fjords and people.

FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG, GERMANY, DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN - Part 1

FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG, GERMANY,

DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN – Part 1

May 17, 2012

The April weather continued into May with coolness, wetness, windiness…and with most people enduring seven weeks of this…bitchiness. And for the first day of our next jaunt, May 9, it followed. Light rain though turned to sunshine temperatures warm enough for shorts!! Okay then…no more complaining!

That day took us from Vendome, skirting Paris, through the un-vined part of the Champagne region and into the Lorraine department. Most of the day was through flat farmland called the Beauce, one of the largest agricultural regions in Europe. Verdun was our destination. This is where the largest battle of WWI took place. Ironically, some three kilometers from Verdun is a small town appropriately named Regret. The hills just outside Verdun were the hold-at-any-price front lines, and the price was steep. In 1916, two years into the war, the hills outside the town were bombed into oblivion. Nothing but mud, trenches which were part of a line from the North Sea to Switzerland, devastation, and corpses covered a grassless, treeless battleground. The fighting here lasted two years straight but the most fierce lasted seven months with non-stop shelling. The first two hours saw an estimated 1,000,000 bombs rip the hills apart….140 shells a second! By November 800,000 soldiers had died, an equal number from both sides. That’s 3810 a day!! There are huge French, German, and American cemeteries in the area with countless crosses marked “Unknown Soldier”.  Countless were never found. Some were found later. In one case, three years went by before someone noticed that bayonets were sticking out of the ground on one hillside; a search found that the rifles were still being held by dead French soldiers all buried alive by the mud blasted on top of them by the endless bombardment. The place is called “The Battlefield of Bayonets”. Nine towns were completely destroyed. Each is now marked at its original beginning and end with French road sides…as if they still existed…out of respect. Under a massive fortress in Verdun are the tunnels where up to 10,000 soldiers suffered, some waiting to go to the hills to be slaughtered, some waiting to die from the wounds they received where these frightened men were going. The cold, damp stench in the tunnels was nothing to what awaited them outside. We visited the battlefield of the Bayonets, the tunnels, and the hills above Verdun. It is an amazing shrine to humanity’s stupidity, cruelty, and hell-bent path to self-destruction. This is INTENDED to be one…long…paragraph. For every word in it, the full battle of Verdun lasted TWO DAYS!!! I had an uncle, my father’s brother who died in World War I, the so-called “war to end all wars”…well it didn’t! Come and see Verdun for yourself.

The next day we left Verdun and saw why this had been the major battle line. The hills outside the town suddenly became completely flat which of course would be more difficult to defend. The trenches in the ridge above Verdun made much more sense. The French department where Verdun is located is Loraine, part of France along with Alsace which went back and forth between French and German control for over a hundred years. Loraine is a depressed region now; it had lived on coal mines and steel mills now mostly gone. The towns show it; they are sad, buildings unkempt, and showing no flowers as are seen everywhere else in France.

Then it was through Luxemburg, a super-clean, super-crisp place with lots of wealth which shows in the cars, stores and buildings. We could move here. It’s a rolling hills region, very beautiful, and lots of vineyards. Very quickly it was into Germany without realizing it what with the lack of physical borders in today’s Europe. Beginning in Luxemburg we drove along the Mosel River in a fairly steep valley with vineyards everywhere including on the steepest of terrain. The Mosel River and its valley is one of the prettiest places we’ve seen anywhere. The river and connecting canals are used for pleasure boating as well as commercial transportation in barges. This area has some of the best cycling paths in Europe.

We continued northeast toward Kohl, Bremen and Hamburg. Canals in this region are also commonplace and well used.That afternoon and the next day saw driving conditions that varied from 25C, sunny and calm with light traffic to 7C, rain and 80 kph cold winds from the north with high-speed bumper-to-bumper free-for-alls. Wrestling a large, tall van in these latter conditions for a thousand kilometers was not exactly enjoyable. Our campsite in Germany was on the coast, battered by wild gusts…and totally warm inside our ever faithful White Night. This part of the country has mostly brick housing and lots of alternative energy sources with wind turbines and solar power.

On to Denmark where wind power is even more prevalent; not surprising in the flat land wind constant winds from the North Sea. The country side is rolling hills with large dairy and crop farming while the west coast is one long sand dune which protects the coast. At the end we had intended to take a small ferry but found absolutely no info on cost or times. We couldn’t even get the attention of the ferry crew when it did come in…so we left and went the long way around. Denmark is a camper’s heaven with great campground everywhere. The weather continues to suck with 10C, high winds and rain.

The next day was a quick hour drive to the west coast at the ferry port of Frederikshavn. We wanted to catch the 10 am boat but it couldn’t come in from Sweden due to high winds. We went into town with another French couple, Bernard and Chantal, we met on the docks. Found a coffee shop with a waitress who had an odd accent. She was from San Francisco and had lived there for 18 years. How did she like Denmark? Amazing, she exulted, especially with the socialized medicine!! The 2 pm crossing to Goteborg, Sweden was fairly smooth but we arrived at the height of traffic hour. Rain and crazy city traffic made for serious forehead creases. Drove to Grebbestad to camp. The town is small, on the coast and as pretty as they come. We stayed one extra to visit and rest up a bit from all the driving so far. It’s a place we could live since they already have life-size likenesses of the two of us.

May 16 we drove from Sweden’s west coast, up above Oslo, Norway and down to the Norwegian coast. The inland countryside is very much like British Columbia, Canada and made us homesick. Just inside Norway, we pulled over to let a car go by but as soon as we did it cut is off and stopped abruptly. Two young guys jumped out looking like well-shaved Rambos with killer gear hanging off them everywhere. What the…?!?! They announced they were from Customs Norway. Phew! A quick chat and they realized we weren’t smuggling people, drugs or fish. Although we didn’t confess that we had converted most of our van’s gas tank into a wine cellar!

As in Sweden, much of the homes and barns in Norway are painted the same colour…a wine red, usually with white trim. Houses are wooden since these countries have an ample supply of lumber. In Canada you see wooden houses with the clapboards laid horizontally while here they are put on vertically. A nice look especially on the numerous out-buildings which are on stone stilts. Lots of medium sized farms.

Finding campgrounds in this part of the world is and isn’t easy. They are plentiful but poorly marked. The one we finally found near Langesund, about 150 km southwest of Oslo, was one of the prettiest and most calm places we have ever seen anywhere. The mini-me fjord fifty meters behind us was stunning with rock formations from both platonic uplifts to smooth-as-glass rock polished by the last glacial age. The campground didn’t accept Euros or foreign credit cards so we had to go into town the next day to find an ATM to get local currency. Being May 17, Norway’s national holiday, parades were in the streets and the traditional costumes were out of the closet.

Price of fuel? Diesel was almost 14 Kronas or 2 Euros or about $2.75 Canadian!!! A liter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Twice the price of Canada and 50% higher than France.