Naked and Legless.


Naked:
being without clothing or covering; nude.

Legless:
slang, means intoxicated, drunk. When people get drunk they loose their sense of balance, i.e. legless. Chiefly British

Fortunately, my friend Gert has no real complications from his injuries. Walking with a temporary limp is not a problem and the doctor has told him the fluid on his knee should fix itself within a month. Gert had really enjoyed the motorcycle trip until the accident and was sad that we couldn't continue.

After a short discussion, we found a compromise to continue our journey, and, a few days ago I locked my bike in his shed and we set off in Gert's car for the town of Groningen for a stay with his sister and brother-in-law. Our plans changed several times within a span of two days. The idea of going to the UK was dumped when I realised that the weather was not all that good and that we had to do the driving on the left hand side with a left hand drive car. Overtaking trucks etc would have been hazardous. After deciding to give Eastern Europe a miss as well, we decided to head north into Scandinavia.

Gert drives a Lexus with an electric dual drive. Driving a car is not all that much of a joy for me but, in this case, things were fine as Gert’s car is very comfortable. Furthermore, this car is fast and powerful and still returns an amazing 20 to 25 km per liter.

From the Dutch city of Groningen we headed in the direction of Hamburg - but left the hamburgers for what they were - and continued on to the town of Puttgarden (just past Lubeck) for the 1 hour ferry crossing to Denmark. The landscape in northern Germany does not differ much from Northern Holland with lots of green meadows with grass chewing black and white Frisian cows looking bored at the traffic going past - and damaging the ozone layer with their regular ***** joining the easterly breeze. We were running late due to the many traffic jams in Germany, but luckily eventually reached the ferry which departed just 10 minutes after driving onto the ramps.

Denmark was on the other side and, although part of the European Union, it has its own monetary system. Money has to be changed into Danish Kronor in the first instance, and then later again, into Swedish and Norwegian Kronor. All all of this is a bit of a pain and makes you appreciative of the change to Euros all the more. By 9.00 p.m. we finally reached the outskirts of Copenhagen and travelled the cobblestone streets towards the inner city to find our bed at the City Central Hostel situated near a bank, coffee shops and nice little restaurant full of Danish pastry and Fetta eating Copenhageners - if that’s what they are called.

The next day: As we had plenty of km’s to cover we left early and headed over the Eastern side of town near the harbour to visit the most famous lady in this city. We found her on the water's edge sitting on a rock, naked and legless. Here she was - the famous mermaid created by the story of Hans Christian Andersen. The statue has been there for over a 100 years but is not exactly in original condition. Over the years her head has been cut off several times and she has been blown up once. Recently she was dressed up in a Burka as a protest against Muslim intimidation of traditional Danish values.

Now it was on to Sweden which, nowadays, is reached via tunnel and bridge just south of the capital. The road dives underground and emerges after the 4.1 km tunnel on an artificial island and continues via a 7.8 km bridge to the other side and connects Denmark with Sweden near the city of Malmo. From here the road continues north through endless waves of golden stalks of wheat slowly moving in the wind. The country side looks ...aah .. Swedish, with its maroon-red coloured wooden barns and farm houses. Their white window and wall frames in the yellow landscape make it all look very picturesque. The countryside is beautiful and less traffic on the road makes driving a breeze. Around five o’clock we reached the city of Lidkoping.

Booking hostels has always turned out the surprise of the day, from basic to amazing. Again this time we ended up in a beautifully restored, rather large building which once was created to be the town post office. After restoration and being turned into a place of accommodation, it resembles a 3-4 star Hotel rather than an ordinary hostel. Decorating style in these countries is so different to what I am used to in Australia, I think the reason for this is that here, indoors is the place where people mostly spend their time. (Two days ago we stopped for a coffee in the town of Leer in Germany. We sat outside overlooking the river and small harbour which was very pleasant to the eye. However, when I walked inside to pay the bill I found a most beautiful and cosy interior. It was hard to believe it was a coffee shop, it looked more like we were visiting someones very tastefully decorated house. (See pictures).

Anyway back to Lidkoping. The receptionist pointed out that there was a concert in the park and showed us on the map where it was. The band "The Weeping Willows", “world famous" (but only in Sweden) pulled quite a crowd. Plenty of seats on benches in front of the stage for the over 50’s and the rest on the ground. Great songs and atmosphere. An interesting note was that the Swedes are a very calm lot - they clap a bit with the beat of the music but remain fairly straight faced and composed. Another interesting observation both Gert and I made is that reading the Swedish language is not that difficult, but understanding it is not that easy. The language has many German, English, Dutch, Friesian words in it. For example the towns name - we heard it being pronounced as "Leed Jewping" instead of Linkoping. I think that Swedish is very easy to learn if you have a feeling for it. (see some pics)

And now: Norway here we come.