Roskilde and Copenhagen, Denmark

We spent last night in Roskilde and headed to the Cathedral for opening time at 9am this morning.  We briefly stopped at the market in the square and it already felt like it was going to be a hot day!  We decided yesterday afternoon that we would wait until morning to visit the Cathedral, as we were there 1 hour before closing yesterday.  We paid entry and with this you receive a quidebook explaining most of the main sights of the Cathedral.  The Cathedral is 1 of 3 UNESCO heritage listed sites in Denmark and has the burials of all the monarchs since 1537 (20 Kings and 17 Queens).  In the end we spent 2.5 hours there.  There is a museum collection upstairs and you are also able to walk along the balcony upstairs and look down into the Cathedral below.  There are fabulously decorated tombs, an amazing altarpiece and the Kings door- 3 metres taller on the inside than outside, and used for the entry/exit of royals, and the exit after a funeral or baptism to the Cathedral.  We also saw work being done to create the place for the next Queen, once she has passed away.  It appears she will be placed in a glass capsule like coffin which is see through- interesting.  Overall one of the must sees in Denmark as it is a place of such importance in Danish royal history.

Viking ship museum

Roskilde Cathedral

Concert in the park

Alterpiece at Roskilde Cathedral

One of the preserved ships

On the Viking replica boat

After lunch we parked down at the marina and went to the Viking ship museum.  The interesting thing here is that they have the preserved remains of 5 ships that were deliberately scuttled with stones in Viking times to blockade a channel into the harbour and  protect the royal city of Roskilde against invasion.    There were 3 sailable routes into the harbour, they blocked two and the remaining was harder to sail, requiring local knowledge.  Here they set a gate, monitored and taxed traffic. They would set off fire beacons further up the harbour if there was an enemy approaching. They have built many replica boats (including of the 5 preserved ones).  Some are used for boat trips for visitors and they even sail some further abroad, around Denmark, to Norway and once to Dublin. We went on two tours, the family one which we pretended we were Viking warriors and sat in one of the replica boats and one inside the exhibition hall with the boats (the later being very informative about Vikings and the discovery and preservation of the ships).  They have dated one of the ships to May/June 1042 Dublin, with analysis of the wood- just amazing.  After dinner we walked around the marina again and up the hill to see some of the old fisherman's cottages.  We also saw 2 red squirrels in a churchyard the day before.  Dale took some really good photos and video as we were quite close to them.

The next morning we drove into Copenhagen.  We stopped on the way to buy gas (without luck) and stocked up on some more essentials at the Aldi supermarket. We have spent a great 2 days in Copenhagen.  The city has many old buildings and palaces, and a great selection of museums.  On our first day it was humid and raining.  We were unable to get a place on the tour of Parliment, so we went to the nearby National Museum and spent the afternoon there.  This is an impressive place.  We spent most of our time in the Danish prehistory section: stone, bronze and iron age.  They had some wonderful items on display, including many items that had been preserved in bogs.  Some people were sacrificed and put in the bogs the preservation is excellent and you end up with the so called bog bodies.  We caught the final 30 minutes of a performance in the foyer from a Indonesian University group.  The show included druming, singing, and highly coordinated hand and body movements. They even jumped up and down on broken crockery at one point. In the final song they invited the audience to join in, which I eventually did.  There was such a happy, good vibe and it was so much fun.  The weather had cleared up and we picniced in a park opposite Tivoli gardens (an amusement park in the central city- which had some scary looking rides!) and then started our trek back to the van. Following a tip we had parked near the Carlsberg Brewery, it is free and 3km from the city centre.  There are buses and trains which service the area, however we managed the walk both days.

The second day was sunny and we arrived at the Museum of Copenhagen at opening time of 10am.  There was free admission due to it being a Friday.  We looked at all the collection but spent most of the time learning about immigration to Copenhagen and looking at archaeological finds, which had been discovered due to building work in the city.  We headed upstairs to look at photographs and a Danish democracy and culture section, however it was really hot up there so we didn't linger long.  We headed to the Kings gardens for lunch (an impressive name for a park and we weren't disappointed).  It reminded me of Kensington Palace/Hyde Park in London, but Kings gardens are a lot smaller.  There is a castle there called Rosenborg (it houses the Danish Crown jewels).  Our next stop was a museum called the David Collection which features Islamic, Danish and European art.  The Islamic section was massive, they had such a vast collection of some amazing works ranging from works of the Koran from 600 to art works in the 19th century.  We were loaned an ipad from the front desk on which we could read English translations about each work (as the descriptions were in Danish).  The history of the changing islamic dynasties is so complex that toward the end I felt as if I was reading in Danish anyway as it was really hard to graspe the history that was being talked about!  It is interesting that due to religious reasons, Islamic art does not usually depict people, but instead focusing on animals and plants (which are not always portrayed realisticly either).  We headed to the last two floors of the museum and saw Danish and European paintings, furniture and porcelain.
Then we went to the Botanic gardens.  We saw turtles swimming in the lake and had a short walk inside the gardens.  We finished the day at the Round tower.  Built between 1637 and 1642 as an observation tower for King Christian IV.  It is a wide (3m ish) flat spiral slope to the top, which is nice compared to the usual hundreds of tight twisty steps in these places.  There was a good view over the city and we enjoyed spotting the buildings- the Town Hall, Cathedral, Rosenborg Palace, and even where we had parked the van!  We filled up the water bottles and headed back to the van- 50 minutes walk back this time.

View from the Round Tower

National Museum

Indonesian University performance

Town Hall

Rosenborg Castle

Adventures in Denmark

Dale has let me loose to write the blog this week so here goes.  We finished last time at Jelling on the largest island of Jutland in Denmark.

The following day we went to the horse racing at Billund.  It was harness racing, similar to American Style but with an New Zealand country track feel.  They had a good set up there.  We were able to walk around before the afternoons racing commenced into the stabling area and to see where the tote was.  We parked track side with many other vehicles and sat in our camp chairs, wines in hand.  There were 9 races, with about 3 every 45 minutes.  Both the commentary and the crowd were both very subdued when it came to each race. Nobody really seemed to notice, certainly no cheering on your runner, but it was still a nice atmosphere out in the sun that afternoon.

Billund harness racing

After the races we drove east to the next main island, Fyn.  We ended our day with a swim at 8pm and a spot for the night nearby.  The following morning we had another swim.  The beaches and their facilities are of very good quality.  However most the time I wear my sandals into the water as the bottom can be rocky.  Also we have noticed the presence of jellyfish.  We have worked out from our research that the varieties we have encountered are harmless, but off putting to us to say the least.

The next town we stopped off at was Faaborg, which was quite memorable due to a band that was playing in the town square that afternoon.  The band consisted of a brass section, drums, guitars, keyboard and vocals and their songs featured Danish and English vocals, even the Duffy song 'Warwick Avenue'.  Funny hearing Warwick pronounced War-Wick as two full syllables as opposed to Waw-rick, cute though.  The town also had 1 remaining historic gateway and a bell tower.  We headed toward Svendborg in the south of the island, stopping off for a look at Egeskov slot (castle) on the way.

The next morning was exploring the churches and marina of Svendborg, then we drove across the bridge and walked around Valdemars slot (castle).  People were coming across by boat from Svendborg and there was a lovely lake also.  We drove over another bridge to a small, long island called Langeland.  It has one main highway from north to south and the coast is only ever 3 kms away from the main road.  First stop for us was the main town called Rudkobing.  I will remember this town due to its antiques/jumble sales!  From this point on in Denmark we have started to notice that people with any second hand goods that they want to sell, will put them outside their house with a price and honesty box.  We came across a stall in the town which was manned and had a lovely chat to the owner and bought several items.  We bought a Wedgewood plate from England (however not perfect condition), a porcelain teacup and saucer made in Poland, a porcelain teacup made in Colditz during the GDR (former East Germany so we thought that was really cool) and 3 forks, as we have broken some in the van.  All up it was 2.50 euros, so we were very pleased.  That afternoon was rounded out with a look at another castle called Tranekaer slot and then we headed to a beach where we parked for the night overlooking the ocean.  Just perfect.

In the morning we woke up and of course went swimming.  It was a glorious hot day.  We then drove 20 minutes to the northern tip of the island, to a town called Lohals.  Quite small with 1 or 2 shops, but a good sized marina and swimming beach.  The island being small was great to get around and the roads generally quiet.  Dale has mentioned the driving here is easier compared to Germany as the Danish are more patient and also the speed limits are lower.  We have only started to see more traffic now we are near Copenhagen, but will get to that later.  That afternoon we drove to the ferry terminal to get to Lolland, another island (yes there is a bit of a pattern forming).  The ferry crossing reminded me a little of the Portsmouth to Isle of Wight crossing in the UK.  It was 45 minutes long, and you parked your vehicle and went up to the passenger deck for sailing.

Egeskov Slot

Concert in Faaborg

House in Koge from 1527

Mons Klint

We didn't have anything planned to do in Lolland so spent the night before completing the drive to the island of Mon in the morning.  Using one of our glossy brochures we had acquired at the information centre, we visited two historical sites.  Both passage tomb burial mounds from Viking times amongst farmland.  They were interesting to see, as we had been driving past signs with heritage symbols for about a week and it was good to follow one and see what it was all about.  There was good signage (we have appreciated seeing more English) and it reminded us of a site we went to in Ireland.  The main sight to see in Mon was the chalky cliffs called Mons Klint (Danish for Cliff).  They were pretty amazing, as there are steps down to the bottom and a beautiful swimming beach down there too.  It was getting near 30 degrees that day so we found a shaded spot on the beach, put out our towels and relaxed for an hour or 2.  To finish the day we went to Nyord, which is a small island, very close to Mon, which was joined by a bridge in 1967.  It takes about 5 minutes to drive end to end, and we stopped at a nature centre and had a look in the village.  We couldn't seem to get enough of the sight seeing that day and went across the bridge to Zealand where we stopped in Vordingborg (to see the Goose Tower) and then in Avno.

Passage tombs on Mon

First thing the next morning we went to Avno nature centre.  There is an estuary and bird life that can be seen from an ex airport control tower.  Therefore it is the highest bird hide in Denmark.  We went up the road to Svino strand (beach).  This was where we have seen the most jellyfish so far.  They were harmless- there were plenty of children in the water and even one man throwing them at his family, but it was a bit hard to get used to them brushing past you.  Needless to say I was chicken and didn't last very long in the water, which was very warm and clear.  We drove to Rodvig, where based on a  tip that we had read on another blog you could pay for showers at the marina there.  Water and toilet disposal is harder to find in Denmark, so we didn't have enough water in our van for a shower.  I had been eyeing up the ice creams pretty much since we had got here as they looked delicious and they didn't disappoint.  I tucked in to a coffee icecream and vanilla/chocolate/cookie icecream cone, probably for the equivalent of over 3 euro, hence we had not bought one before now.  Everything is more expensive in Denmark, so we are watching what we spend, and stocked up on food before leaving Germany.

We got up early and had a walk around Rodvig, which has a nice marina and coastline, with some chalky cliffs in sight.  We saw a church which is precariously perched on a cliff (some of it fell into the sea below in 1928) in Hojerup, and we saw Vallo castle, now a home for 'single ladies of an upper class', our guidebook said.  After Dale joking that he would leave me there, he let me back in the van and we headed to Koje.  The sights there were St Nicholas church, which had an amazing 17th century alter piece, and many of the half timbered houses.  One near the church is from 1527.  We drove inland to Roskilde and saw the marina and cathedral this afternoon.  There was a concert on in the park this evening which we watched for about an hour.  We followed this with a walk around the marina where we happened upon the country and western club line dancing to Brooke Fraser's 'something in the water', which was a bizarre moment.

Next stop: Copenhagen.

Hamburg, Lubeck, Ribe, Legoland, Vejle and Jelling

After leaving Antje we stayed two nights in Hamburg and visited the city centre.  There is a big lake in the middle with sailing on it which was impressive.  However the jewel in the crown is their park they call Planten un Blomen it is very large with numerous notable features, gardens, water features, playgrounds. The town hall was pretty impressive and they were building an interesting modern building on the waterfront. It is known for it's red light district, however it leaves a lot to be desired on a sunny weekday afternoon. We also visited several of the churches.

Hamburg

One day was enough and we moved on to Lubeck which has a UNESCO status old town full of patrician houses (like everywhere you look), a magnificent 15th Century gateway, town square and several churches.  We walked the town and visited the Willy Brandt museum (former West Berlin Mayor and West German Chancellor).  On this day we had two strokes of luck, firstly we stopped at a motorhome service place and they fixed the problem we were having with charging the leisure battery for FREE YAY.  Then in the evening we went into a supermarket during it's last trading hour and on looking at the receipt turned out it was 'happy hour' 10% off, we were way too overexcited about saving 67 cents but after last week having a good weekend with friends and a good day or two on the road our spirits are right back up.

Lubeck

The day after Lubeck was sunny and we had planned to go and see a U-boat (german WWII submarine) they have at a beach called Laboe near Kiel so we decided so go in that then spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach which we did and it was great :-).

Our last day in Germany started in Glucksburg near the border where we looked at their castle which is in a lake and checked out the beach, they were having a small craft market there which was nice.  In the afternoon we crossed into Denmark stopping briefly in Tonder before getting to out main stop in Jutland Ribe.  Ribe is known as the first town in Denmark and the cathedral is the oldest in Denmark, you can still imagine it as the old town because it mainly occupies the same footprint it always has.  The next stop was Legoland in Billund.  You can get in free 30mins before the rides close and 90mins before the whole park closes.  So we did this and managed to get on a couple of rides, Viking Splash and the Dragon Coaster (twice) then we walked around looking at everything.  The miniature land is very impressive it has models of all sorts of places (see photos).  I managed to figure out that there is Harness Racing right next door to Legoland on Wednesday afternoon so we are staying close by to come back.  So we visited Vejle County including Rands Fjord (a former inlet cut off from the sea forming a lake), a nice beach area called Hvidbjerg Strand and the modern town of Vejle itself.  We had read that Denmark has glossy tourist brochures for everything even if it is nothing special.  We have found this to be true the info centre in Ribe was full of glossy brochures which was good but we'll have to see how the town shape up.

Ribe

Vejle

Today we visited Royal Jelling Viking Graves and Runestones.  There was a good quality exhibition which helped us appreciate the site as it's significance is not entirely obvious to a modern eye. Tomorrow we are going to the Harness Racing in Billund and then we'll go over to the next island of Denmark - Fyn.

Szczecin, Greifswald, Wismar, Luneburg

Firstly apologises to those that may have received a blank e-mail after my last post, I was testing out putting a youtube clip into the blog which worked but it seemed may the e-mail notification didn't.

Anyway this raises a good point I have uploaded a bunch of videos to youtube. Have a look here http://www.youtube.com/user/daz230 and may subscribe to my channel?

Anyway on to the goings on.

We left Berlin and headed to Szczecin in Poland, we didn't make it there until late afternoon and had a quick look around and stumbled across a performance by the 'representative artistic ensemble of the Polish Armed Forces' in the Castle grounds, didn't understand a word but fun none the less.  Next stop Wolin National Park (far NW corner of Poland).  We visited a few places including a reserve which has European Bison and than a nearby seaside resort.  The park was mainly forested and there were mountain bike and walking trails.  At an info sign we bumped into a Polish guy that has been living abroad for 19 years first in Denmark, then Germany and now Canada (10 years).  I must have spoken with him for about an hour about things.  It was like a first hand account of the things we have been reading about in the exhibitions.  He refused to toe the communist party line in the Russian controlled days and this caused difficulties for him in his career in Poland (he had a Masters in Mechanical Engineering or similar).  He used to spend 1/2 of the year working in Germany to make extra money. When he comes back to Poland they sort of try and interrogate him, he is supposed to tell them everything about what he did who he dealt with etc. When he refused to discuss all his personal business they stamped his passport to say he could no longer leave.  I think he said after this his life went on a downward spiral and after some years he decided he had to get out.  He managed to get on some sort of group trip to Denmark and despite his passport situation got approved and didn't come back.  In doing so he had to leave his wife and 2 children.  He was not able to reunite with them for some years until his wife and daughter got permission to visit him in Germany (his son was held back to 'ensure her return').  His wife and daughter stayed in Germany and some time further down the track his son was able to  get out by bribing the officials, he had to give up the families flat/house to some official.  He struggled for a long time but now has a good job in Canada and was on holidays in Poland visiting relatives. At 62 this had been a very hard road and was a great insight.  His son had just bought a VW camper in Canada for his wife and small child so he was quite interested and had some thoughts he might do likewise in the future.
Anyhow this second trip into Poland has put us in a much better frame of mind regarding Poland.  On our first visit i feared everything including my teeth were going to fall out due to the state of the roads and everything looked in dire need of a good spruce up.  In this NW corner the roads where fine (NZ standard and above) and there were many buildings that looked new or new ish and there was a general feeling the things were being maintained.  We noted that in terms of yard space and size of homes they were fairly similar to NZ, you certainly couldn't say that for the UK.

On 'fix the van Monday' we had our exhaust welded in Szczecin as just prior to getting to Berlin it had managed to shake itself apart.  In the afternoon we completed our visit of Szczecin, we bought a walking route map and did some of that and made a brief stop at the 3rd largest cemetery in Europe.  Then we returned to Germany as we are going to visit some towns on the North Coast but unfortunately we hit a snag. Fix the van Monday has extended into Tuesday as our only 6 month old starter motor I had done in the UK gave up leaving us stranded in Greifswald. We found a garage that towed our van but we can't get fixed till the morning.  For those thinking gee they must have stopped for repairs a bit well you would be right this is number 6. 1. Fridge not working, 2. Oil Change, 3. Boiler electric board, 4. Front Brakes, 5. Exhaust welding, 6. Starter Motor.  This means on average we have stopped once every 10 days to fix something, given my previous complaints about dealing with mechanics this is getting tiresome and unfortunately we need to visit a motorhome specialist ASAP as we have an electrical upgrade we need to do so that will be number 7.

Szczecin 

 Greifswald

Okay so it gets worse unfortunately that afternoon an hour down the road the new one started to play up. We got to a garage and they rang the first garage for us and long story short we had to go back to Griesfwald the next day.  Fortunately an English guy that lives in the area saw our van bonnet up outside the village garage and came to see what was happening and he helped with interpretation and generously offered for us to park up and spend the night at their place.  We ate with them and watched American Pie - the Reunion which was quite funny.  Then the next morning we went back to the garage and they checked it out and we had to wait until the next day for a replacement part so we finally got away again in Friday about 11.30.  Luckily it didn't drag on over the weekend.  So 3.5 days later and hundreds of Euros lighter we were off again this time to Luneburg to visit my friend Antje via Wismar (Unesco World Heritage town).  We stopped for nearly 2 hours in Wismar and made it right on time around 6pm to Antje.

Wismar

We spent a lovely weekend with Antje and her boyfriend David.  The weather was good and we had meals outside.  Luneburg was quite pretty and we visited their Saturday market.  On Sunday we went out into the heathland for a hike.  The heathland is like the moors in England.  It was great to catch up with some more friends we haven't seen for so long and really recharged our batteries for more touring.  The van has been starting so fingers crossed there.

Luneburg

Well wonders will never cease this actually gets us up to date and we are about to risk the road again.