Saturday 18/06/2011 Jonkoping to Hamburg 168564-169112 = 548 miles

Early session

I slept well and woke about 06:30. In the daylight I noticed a sign saying you had to pay to park. I only had SEK26, which is about £2.50, so I decided to do a runner. About 08:30 I find a McDonalds with a slope so I stop to buy a coffee and have it with some muesli. Not a bad breakfast. Only about 70 miles of Sweden left now.

Morning session

I arrive Denmark about 11:00. I'm still impressed with the bridge and tunnel at Oresund. South of Copenhagen I pick up the E20, which goes all the way to Esjberg. Although I'm still in the middle of Denmark, I really feel like I'm getting close to home now. Another couple of hundred miles and a ferry and I'm back in England. I stop for some lunch at 12:15. It's a bit rainy but I cook some tomato soup and some spaghetti and I really enjoy it. I text Trina for details of the Esjberg to Harwich ferry and find out that it's very expensive (£240) and that the next one is not until Sunday at 18:30. At the rate I'm going I'll be in Esjberg by 18:30 today. It seems a bit silly to wait around for 24 hours to catch an expensive ferry, so I change my plan and decide to drive through Germany etc. and catch the cheaper ferry at Dunkirk. So all of a sudden I don't feel quite so close to home.

Afternoon Session

I set off at 14:00 heading for Hamburg (not Esjberg). There's another toll bridge (DKK220 about £30) that connects the Danish islands to the Danish mainland. This would have been quite spectacular had I not just been across the Oresund bridge. I need to use up my Danish currency now so I stop at the next appropriate filling station and spend DKK150 (£20) on diesel, which will be enough to get me into Germany.

I'm now on a route that I haven't planned. Looking at the maps it seems straightforward. Drive along the E20 until I see signs for the E45 to Hamburg, which will put me back on the planned route. As I approach the junction the heavens open. So I'm squinting through the windscreen praying for a nice clear sign for E45 Hamburg. Maybe the Danes don't get on with the Germans because Hamburg and Germany are just not worth a road sign. If you imagine coming down the M69 (as a stranger) and seeing signs for M6 Rugby to the left and M6 Nuneaton to the right and all you know is you want to get to London. Anyway I went the wrong way and it's 15 miles to the next exit to turn round. There are 3 sets of roadworks and the traffic is crawling along because of the rain. Then 15 miles back again. The same 3 sets of roadworks (It's a contra-flow so it affects both sides). Then there's a nasty accident on the other carriageway, which brings us to a standstill for 10 minutes (rubber necking). All in all it took me 40 minutes to get to where I would have been if the Danes had been kind enough to put up a decent "E45 Hamburg" roadsign!

I cross the border into Germany and I need to fill up with diesel. The first petrol station is a definite no-no. Not even a decent straight line let alone a slope. At the second one it's pretty flat but I decide I'm not going to risk running out before, what I'm hoping is going to be, my last fuel stop. So I switch off and fill up. The bloke at the till speaks enough English for me to get some help and his assistant gives me a push and off I go.

Hamburg takes a lot of concentration in the rain. It's a big industrial city and there are plenty of 4 or 5 lane stretches of road and quite a bit of manoeuvring between lanes. However the Germans seem to be a lot more organised than the Danes and I get through the other side and I'm on the A1 heading for Bremen. I pull into a good service station at about 19:30. Great slope and a Burger King! My rations are pretty much depleted by now, so it's either muesli and tuna or a Burger King meal for EUR5.99. No contest!

I decide not to do an evening session. Although this service station is in a built up area and they're not my favourites, it has got a good slope and there's already someone asleep in the car next to me. So I ask in the restaurant about payment and they say there's none required. I spend an hour writing down a more detailed route for tomorrows drive. It is the most complicated route, involving the A1, A43, A40, A67, E34, E17, E40 and A16.

I get to sleep about 23:00.