(Part 2) Dublin to Copenhagen.

August 03rd 2009

European Leg of the world tour

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31405705@N08/



24th July After an 8am breakfast kindly prepared by Maiike we were soon on our way to Utrecht. It turned out to be my favourite Dutch city with traditional Boutique shops, canals full of activity with wildlife, stunning cruisers and timber speedboats. It had a real stereotypical Dutch feel. A couple hours later we headed to Rotterdam, an hour down the motorway. Rotterdam is a new city and lacks the charming centre of the other older Dutch cities. Its an interesting place however and boast the largest docks in Europe and has many strange architectural creations. A couple hours later we drove another 30 mins down the motorway to The Hague. It too was a beautiful city and although its not the capital its the home of the Dutch royal family, many foreign embassies and the Government but didn’t match Utrecht. We headed to a campsite in a town nearby called Delft for the night.

25th July We headed into Delft this morning and as expected was a lovely spot, typically Dutch with cobbled streets for pedestrian and cyclists. I think the Dutch have a great life balance with work, family, socialising and exercise all built into normal life. After Delft we headed off up the coast to Haarlem, a suburb town of Amsterdam. It was a really cool place with a huge café culture around the canals. After a couple of hours there we were in the van again heading up the coast. It was strange driving along the coast during the day and not being able to see the sea. This of course is because of the Dikes block the view as sea level is level with ground level and the Netherlands otherwise would be liable to serious flooding without them. A couple of hours later we were in a town called Dan Helder. This is a gateway town to an island called Texel off the north coast of Holland. We took the car ferry and arrived there 30 mins later. It’s a nice island, very clean and well kept with lovely little postcard towns. We bought food in the supermarket and headed to a place called Cocksdorp which was a peninsula with a lighthouse. We cooked up there, had a couple pints in the local pub and slept like lords.

26th July We toured around the island a bit stopping at towns, villages and beaches before boarding the ferry to the mainland in the afternoon. Making our way toward the German border we crossed the ZuiderZee enroute. The ZZ is a 32km long causeway built to connect 2 provinces and as part of a huge land reclamation project. It now separates sea water in the North from fresh water to its south. It was great driving over it as I had learned about it in national school and always wondered about it. That evening we arrived in Groningen, the most Northerly city in Holland. It wasn’t great there and went to a campsite on the outskirts of the town.

27th July We left Groningen this morning bound for Bremen. New roads around Groningen were giving Mary (the Sat Nav) a hard time which delayed our departure from the Netherlands. It took us about 3 hours to get to Bremen. I particularly wanted to get there to meet up with Jorg, our 70 year old friend from Me and Fiachras Antarctica trip. He had given me his address and Mary brought us to his door. Unfortunately he was not in and we walked the 1.5kms into the city centre to have a look around. Like most cities, Bremen is not without its rough edges but had a very pretty centre. We intended to head to Hamburg today but after stopping at a very nice service station we decided to make the most of their green areas and relaxed for the rest of the day.

28th July Woke up this morning and there was a Cork car parked beside us. Inside there was a lad and a girl fast asleep with the seats rolled back. On my way back to the van after my shower he was up and about and I asked him if he had a good nights sleep. He muttered something and it turned out he was Polish. Later on our way to Hamburg we battled tailbacks miles long due to huge Autobahn upgrade works. Hamburg was lovely (descriptions sounding familiar?) we went to this café and asked for 2 Americanos (Black Italian coffee) and the waiter brought us out 2 cocktails (at 11am!) He got into a right strop when I told him that we did not want them. He said ‘you are not in America now, you are in Germany’ and americanos are cocktails here. I told him Americano is an Italian invention and we were Irish. I think he lightened up then and was quiet amicable after that. After a few hours in Hamburg we set off on the long journey North to Denmark. We drove through the Jutland island province and across the bridge to Odense island province. We camped at a service station outside Odense city for the night.

29th July We made the short journey into Odense city this morning. It’s a nice town but not much in the way of historical buildings. While walking along the main street, I heard a familiar tune. A street busker was playing Galway Bay and singing it in Danish. I gave him a big cheer but got a blank look back. I think he just wanted money. We soon headed off to Copenhagen. We went into the city centre but couldn’t get accommodation so before we headed out onto the motorway for a service station, we went to a place called Christiana. It’s a famous hippy commune in the city that the Government want to close down and there is a lot of resistence to it. Deciding to see for ourselves, I reckoned Christiana was a low life drug den and the whole hippy thing was a cover up.

30th July Back to Copenhagen and we checked into the Cabinn hotel where I had booked for myself and dad. We checked in for 2 nights before going on a self guided tour of the city visiting the National Museum, royal palace, parks and Hans Christian Andersons Little Mermaid statue. Copenhagen is a fabulous city and we walked around for 6 hours before returning to our room completely knackered.

31st July We went to Tivoli Gardens (an amusement park in the city centre) and hung out there for most of the day. I went on the roller coaster which was great but was over in less than a minute. It cost €8 and had to queue for 40 mins to get on, don’t think I’ll be going on it again. The Tivoli complex is a great spot with restaurants, free concerts, man made lake with a galleon complete with fish and ducks. It’s a great place for children with all kinds of sweets, chocolates and ice cream available. That evening we went back to Tivoli to see a concert by this Danish lad who is very popular in Denmark. It was shite but still hung around for a few drinks and soaked up the atmosphere anyway as Tivoli is totally different at night when all the lights are on.

01st August Up at 6am this morning and the end of a short era, Eilis was leaving for home and we both checked out of the hotel. I walked her to the train and thanked her for her company, wished her well and she was gone. I met up with a guy called Rene later in the day. Me and Frog had met Rene in the Gallapagos in March. He showed me around some amazing buildings and gave me a locals viewpoint of the town. We decided to have a beer by the Opera house and 2 small beers cam the hotel e to €17, I nearly choked. He had to leave early and we arranged to meet tomorrow. I went back to the huge National Museum for another look. There is a Gay Pride festival ongoing in Copenhagen and there are no shortage of eccentric characters knocking about. There was a huge open air concert in the city centre which I went for a look tonight. Johnnie Logan was playing too.

02nd August I slept in the van last night in the car park across the road from the hotel. I was popping in and out of the hotel to my hearts content using the bathroom, TV lounge and wifi. I supposed they recognised me from staying there and didn’t realise I’d checked out that morning. I went to Rene’s apartment this morning for breakfast and a shower. He had laid on a lovely Danish breakfast complete with Danish pastries with little red and white Danish flags. I met with Brigette his girlfriend, whom Id met on the Gallapagos aswell and was great to meet her again too. Fair play to Rene, he had taken my sleeping bag and washed it too. We headed off sightseeing to the lakes around Copenhagen where the Danish Olympic rowers train and even met one of them (well, I actually just walked by her) and walked around the royal gardens that overlook the lake. We later visited one of the most upmarket areas of Copenhagen and saw the Swiss and Polish embassies.
For the afternoon we went to the supermarket and bought a whole load of Danish food and Rene made lunch for the two of us. It was fantastic except I didn’t like the Pork Pate. On a full belly we went to the Carlsberg museum which was extremely impressive. Mr Carl Jacobsen started the brewery in the 1850’s and currently produce an equivalent of over 15 billion bottles per year worldwide. That evening we went to Rene’s fathers place and his other sons girlfriend (who is Moroccan) put on an amazing Moroccan meal. The family were very friendly and hospitable and I had a great evening. I left a couple of hours later and headed to the airport to collect Dad. He was late coming through due to a huge number of arrivals but we were in the hotel by 11.30pm when Dad discovered he had locked his suitcase and taken the wrong key. With a lend of a Pliers from reception we soon had that problem out of the way.

03rd August Up and out at 8am for breakfast in the hotel. It was a lovely buffet and we stuffed ourselves. Due to the high prices in Denmark we made our lunch from the buffet too and off we went to city hall to get the sightseeing tour bus around the city. It rained all day which hampered proceedings and most government run museums are closed on a Monday which didn’t help but we still managed to see the city, the Hans Christian Anderson Little Mermaid Statue, Rosenburg palace, St Pauls church (Dads favourite) and went around on the bus for a second time just to make sure we got all the info. That afternoon we went off to a town called Roskilde, 30km from C’hagen to see a Viking museum. It was a very impressive complex with indoor and outdoor exhibits, Replica Viking ships, salvaged ships, ships under construction, workshops for kids who want to make their own Viking shield and the Glendalough; a replica Viking ship that sailed from Denmark to Ireland return a few years ago. It was a great day out and good craic, despite the rain.