5. Back home


click the pics big

 

Sunday, 26. September

At 6.00 a.m. with the first daylight we are on the road again. The last night in Norway we sleep before a children garden. To educate the kids for the traffic little streets are painted on this place.

The sun rises above the country with trees, grass and thick fog over the lakes and the bridges over the fjords. Blue sunny sky over the soft hills hunts away the cold night with 5 degrees Celsius only.

On smooth streets Nobydick, the motor home, sways softly. Suddenly a squirrel crosses the way, sharp brake, the squirrel turns back and the right front wheel kills the animal.

We celebrate dinner in the Swedish town Sunnegund. We park in front of the sea. The bath in the sun is fresh.

Recreated we continue our via back again the comfortable highways with four lanes in good speed: 110 km/hour are allowed. Around 2.00 p.m. we come to Varberg with the bath in oriental style. The entrance fee is around 10 Euros for both. Women and men bath separate. After the sauna you go some steps down and swim in the open sea.

From the sauna windows you look over the harbour. I watch a sailboat and a motor yacht coming in. Still the sun blesses our journey all the way back from Kristiansand in Norway. The last 250 Kilometres to Malmoe we expect to drive in four, five hours.

But after the sauna bath I cooked a pot of salty soup with one onion, to bring back the lost water to the body.

The atmosphere in the sauna was not so strict ruled like in Germany: some read their newspaper, others drink their Danish bottle of Tuborg beer, while sweat pearls down the skin.

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Blue sunny sky over the soft hills hunts 
away the cold night with 5 degrees Celsius only.

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On smooth streets Nobydick, 
the motor home, sways softly.

 


Monday, 27. September

To much, to far, to long, to arduous, to mechanical, to thoughtless.... Varberg in Sweden, a sleepless moonlight night, up since 2.00 a.m., reading a book for my job, I write a review in the night, can't sleep anymore. At 5.00 a.m. I start to prepare coffee for us two, at 6.300 we are on the highway in direction Helsingbor, Malmoe. Around 250 Kilometres we drive to this our last city in Sweden. 

When Mima drives through this sunny day, my tense nerves start to relax. The body falls asleep. 

Mima is anxious, that the bridge to Denmark is closed, because the wind brings car in danger. Her ridiculous fear on this sunny holiday creates anger and more tension.

In Malmoe we park beside the public library, that I can send my book review to my colleague in Munich. I can not finish my ''7th report from our northland voyage'', because my free half hour is used up.

We walk through Malmoe to the Tourist Info in the train station, and ask the price, to pass the bridge to Denmark: 280 Swedish Crowns. Exactly that money we still have. 

So we leave Malmoe without a last bath in the midday sun. Longing for the sign ''Cold bath house'' my body would prefer this joy a thousand times instead to travel on today. But we continue without mercy, pass the bridge - 14 Kilometres from Sweden to Denmark.

The already stressed nerves drive now to Copenhagen, we have to go there, because we need to change Danish Crowns.

Miserly we only change 50 Euro, I spend more than the half part for food: water, fruits, cheese, bread, butter, milk. Mima has cooked our daily ration of noodles. She is such a patient wife in all these enormous efforts. 

I give her money, to feed the park clock. She's miserly, only pays for one hour. We take off the bikes, the wind blows them down on the ground, she's angry about this. So we bike through Copenhagen, see the Opera, the harbour, some buildings of last centuries powerful warriors demonstration. Every nation is proud about their killing historic cruelties - except Germans.

A British private Yacht of a Multimillionaire, a swimming motor home parks before the palace. Splendour and sweat, the rich ones buy beauties, the poor ones get drugged in misery.

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When Mima drives through this sunny day, 
my tense nerves start to relax. 04092622
Varberg in Sweden: 
the ''cold bath house''


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the rich ones buy beauties, 
the poor ones get drugged in misery

 


We come back one hour to late, what Mima has paid for the parking place: 70 Euros penalty! I have to change more Euros, have to find a post office in the train station, to pay this penalty. So we leave Copenhagen in west direction - a highway drive around 300 Kilometres more till we reach Germany. The boat would be better, I know now, but to travel brings more excitement.

This day brings my mind over the edge. In the evening we take the first Danish Camping Place, pay our 20 Euros, and I buy a bottle ''Akvavit'' - 45 % alcohol. The first sips smell terrible. At the end I empty a quarter of the bottle.

Mima sleeps upstairs. The last four travel days ahead I feel mixed up: One side of me wants to continue the war for money, another part wants to relax, grow a grey long bear, settle down somewhere, best on the Norway Atlantic coast, read the books, that most people throw in the rubbish today, because video entertains with less effort.

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So we leave Copenhagen

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video entertains with less effort

 

Tuesday 28. September

The journey back from Norway, Sweden over the bridges to and in Denmark is more expensive, longer and much more arduous, than the way from Sassnitz, Germany, by ship to Trelleborg in South Sweden.

After our black-&-burn-out-syndrome and the 70 Euro penalty for wrong parking in Copenhagen I enjoy the safety of the camping place in Soroe with Mima and alcohol Akvavit: 45 %.

The result of the sharp fluid in the morning headache. My booked four minutes for the hot shower are used up, when my hairs are still soaked with soap. So the rest of the cleaning ceremony has to be done with cold water.

The way around the little lake in Soroe is 8,5 Kilometres long, we pass on our bikes. The next huge bridge from Korsor to Odense we pay with our last Danish 250 crowns - 34 Euros. Now we have to differentiate between three kinds of money-crowns from Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Nobydick needs fuel too, so we have to change the third time money in Denmark, each time with three to four Euros fee! Nobydick is thirsty for his Diesel Oil, so the car changes all money into the engine's food.

Happy we live as woman and man. Mima is such a playful company, mostly in the mood to joke. It's such an innocent childlike game we play. We look for fishes in the lake, imitate the sounds of seagulls and ducks, admire huge old trees or explore faces in clouds and roots of the trees.

When we leave the car, we walk around, buy ''prey'' like milk, yogurt, bread, fruits and salad. Most things we bought in Munich and carry on board in Nobydick's ''stomach''.

The camping place in Soroe provides the water tank with fresh water, and there we leave the used water from the second tank under the floor of the car. 

Our two beds are quickly prepared for the night. And in two, three minutes in the morning our little living room is arranged as well.

Late in the afternoon we cross the border to Germany, the most northern town Flensburg. We drive a small street 10 Kilometres out of this town at the seaside to ''Gluecksburg'' - ''Lucky Castle''. There is the most beautiful castle in Germany, surrounded by water. This sort we call ''Water Castle''.

At the beach we find a costly hotel with pool and sauna, So we play water games together and find sleep today rather late: 10.00 p.m.

The best time to start the day is 5.00 a.m., to use the first daylight to drive around 6.30. Tomorrow I'll guess we will sleep a bit longer.

We rest tonight 50 meters away from the costly Hotel ''Intermare'', where one person pays for the night 85 Euros and 23 Euros for dinner.

Our dinner: some spoons of yogurt with a can of mandarins. I'm happy tonight and feel love for my little woman in the bed above. Some raindrops fall from the tree on Nobydick's plastic roof. A soft hammering shower.

We have travelled till today 3500 Kilometres and have still 1000 Kilometres home to Munich. The car is dirty like my trousers are. In my Camel vest are some holes. But my eyes are smiling, my hairs are brighter from the salt water and the sun, my muscles function better and my body feels stronger. 

One handicap we still suffer from, we two loving healthy couple: we need to share a half brain together. Enough till tonight, hopefully enough for the end of the journey. The end of our life journey too! Good night, beloved reader.

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The journey back 

 

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from 

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Norway

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over

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the

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bridges 

 

Wednesday, 28. September

From Flensburg first plan via Luebeck and little street towards Magdeburg we soon drop. These little streets with red lights through little towns can't succeed for long distance drive.

So we go back to another plan, pass the million city Hamburg on the eastern side, and are caught for one hour in thick traffic jam.

Finally we are on the road to Hannover, highway number 7. Careful we listen in the radio announcement and the warning about 12 Kilmeters traffic jam ahead. We leave the highway.

With fresh food from Flensburg Mima prepares a delicious meal with tofu sausages. I cut the onion. After this we open our last can with Leeches, a sweet fruit from Asia.

The news are like usual: the debts of the German country are raising over 40.000.000.000 Euros. Karstatt, a company with over 185 warehouses all over Germany, has to close 77 shops. 30.000 people will loose their jobs in these shops.

Immediately when we have passed the stop-&-go of the traffic jam the cars try to speed up as quick as possible: on the right lane big trucks should drive not quicker then 80 km/h, most drive around 100 km/h. The middle line is for usual cars with around 120 to 140 km/h. The line on the left is for sport cars, big Daimler Benz or BMW with 160 to 190 km/h - or even above.

Mima is pissed about the rat racing. She mentions the Norway calm traffic with 70 km/h speed limit. ''Do you have to drive so fast?'' Angry I ask back, tense to balance the car through the night on the middle line: ''What do you want from me? In Malmoe you ask in the tourist office during sunshine, if the bridge is closed afraid of wind. You are afraid to travel by ship. Do you want me to move here on the highway with 80 km/h behind big trucks?''

In this mood we leave the highway 180 Kilometres before Wuerzburg, not far away from the beautiful bath ''Kissingen'', where we want to relax from this high tension. 

The rain has stopped and the moon smiles with mellow yellow light behind dark clouds. We leave the highway, find a place for the night on a public parking place, I open the valve for gas like on every stop for the fridge and oven and coffee in the morning, prepare the beds, we brush our teeth, and my last reward of the fulfilled day: a little cup of Akvavit. Good night - the last two nights.

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In Malmoe

 

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view from Kolding-House - Denmark

 

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Mima is pissed about the rat racing. 

 


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