First off: Yeehay!! Connected! Not quite sure what to, for how long, the costs, and the consequences, but our MiFi is up and running. So, a bit more time to write, opportunity to research more about our environs, and, best of all, opportunity to use Google Maps to correct our SatNav – hopefully not on a regular basis 🙂
Thanks to Brian and Alex for hosting us for the last three days, breakfast, lunch & dinner. I knew that Denmark had a close relationship with beer, but I had no understanding of the depth and breadth of that relationship, and my thanks to Brian for, in a limited period of time, trying to get us through a different beer every hour. The only reason we were able to hold the course is because Alex fed us regularly.
So, Data. Hmmm. It seems that the UK is not alone in limiting the purchase of data cards. Brian was kind enough to take a whole Saturday afternoon to cart us off to the 3 Dealer in Helsingor, site of Hamlet’s Elsinore. To cut a long story short: No, we can’t buy a card for more than 2 months, no we can’t even buy that card as we don’t have Danish ID, no Brian can’t get the card on our behalf because permanent residence is required, no, there are no other options. So, I’m adding Data to my list of ‘no world peace until we can sort out those simple things that allow us to live together in the first place: 1 world electric socket, 1 world power supply, 1 world gas tank adapter, and 1 bloody data card that transcends borders! Ended up getting a Libara card with 4 Gb for around €5, and a 60Gb data top up for around €12. BUT – only 4 GB can be used in the EU – seriously, why have an EU if data cards stump you? I’m momentarily on the Brexit side, although I understand that sanity will return tomorrow – and I don’t have to engage in a vote on this issue – Ah, true independence!
We are currently camped in a lovely marina that offers free dumping facilities, free water, and free electricity – or it would if a swarm of other campers had not descended before us. Clearly, we need to be more observant of arrival times. We did feel a little smug when campers even later than us have had to circle the block, eventually taking up car park spaces. Anyone observing vultures circling over the savannah will have a good visual of what this looks like.
The trip over was a very simple ferry trip from Helsingor (Denmark) to Helsinborg (Sweden). It was great to see Scandinavia agree to limiting passengers to a single vice at a time. Leaving Denmark you are able to buy alcohol for 10 minutes, the outlets close, and then on the Swedish side you can buy cigarettes. You can’t buy the two together. There were fidgety passagers chewing fingernails, and it was then easy to guess their particular addiction. Having loaded the van to the gills with alcohol, and having given up smoking, we were feeling pretty smug.
On a more serious note: Today feels like the start of our trip. No more hand holding from friends, and family, more uncertainty regarding the local laws and camping regulations etc etc. This has generated a little angst for both of us, but we are also looking forward to more fully letting go. It’s a bit odd, after more than 3 weeks and 3000km that we feel this way, but, on the other hand, we are not going back to work next week, and so we’ll have some time to adjust. Like, 11 months 🙂
Contented-Campers.com 