No matter where one goes red tape is a pain at best and Germany is no exception. It took me an entire week of running around to accomplish all of this and I kept having to remind myself that it is JUST as difficult in our own country. By and large we have found the locals to be more than kind, more than helpful and everything is done with a smile and more than a little good humor.
So VERY nice.
Bathing suits…check
Art pads…check
Food…check
Viking books…check
Guide books and maps…check…
Ferry tickets check…
Passports check…
Off we go!!!
The first leg of our journey took us 3 hours overland north from Hannover towards the sea and a little town called Rostock, indicated by the orange arrow at the BOTTOM the map. At Rostock we planned to catch a ferry which would carry us across the sea to the south coast of Sweden and a port town called Trellebourg, the orange arrow at the TOP of the map, where we would begin our journey through Sweden.
We spun along the autobahn passing rolling hills, rows of large red tipped windmills marching along and the occasional immense half timbered farmhouses while Porches and Audis zoomed past us at unnerving speeds. With the aid of our maps, the GPS system and by staying tucked tightly in the right lane we reached the Scandlines ferry terminal without incident.
We arrived early in time to line up and then have lunch in the caravan where the kids could do some activities and play a bit. Suddenly we realized that we needed to board the ferry shortly and scrambled to pack ourselves up, as the ferry had already docked and was ready to receive passengers.
We initially mistook the ferry for a building it was so gi-normous!!!
Into the belly we go…whoa!!!
For a 125E ticket for the entire family, car and living room on wheels included, we found the ferry to be quite posh with a decent restaurant, a casino, and a play place. With a deep rumble and a shudder that startled all of us, we were off, winding our way slowly out of the harbor pushing a wave of hungry seagulls in front.
As we passed through the harbor the ferry made the cars sitting on the wharf next to us look like dinky toys, it was so large and we were so high up. We had fun watching all the interesting industrial stuff that shipyards are made of pass by; loading cranes like salivating praying mantii poised to disembowel fully loaded logging barges, chew into gigantic windmill bits lying immobile side by side, and a digest a crowd of brightly colored marker buoys awaiting placement in the water like a bunch of frightened dwarfs.
During the crossing we had some stormy weather which afforded this photograph of the sky over the Dover-like coast of Denmark.
The kids enjoyed some popsicles, and we settled in to enjoy the first leg of our journey!!
1 comment:
How come they get ice cweem? Where's MY ice cweem?
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