I took the car in for its first major service the week before last. The trip home after dropping off the car required a ride on the metro, followed by trams 12 and 2. I don’t take public transport very often, preferring to either bike or walk whenever possible. The long walk to the metro station in the rain reminded me how lucky I am that everything I need on a daily basis is so close to home.
I almost missed the car’s service window that day (due to oversleeping — it was the day after returning from Providence), which I’d booked back in early December. If I had missed it, I’d have had to wait until the end of February for a new slot, which wouldn’t have worked, because we’re planning our next trip around the same time.
With Sarah getting ever closer to B-day, we’d prefer not to fly now; the airlines will soon disallow it, anyway. Instead, we’re going to hit the road again for our first serious road trip since 2006.
With Eloïse in peuterspeelzaal and a birth on the horizon, we can’t go away for two months as we did in the summer of 2006, so this trip will be just a couple of weeks long.
This time, we’re heading to Scandinavia, specifically to Copenhagen and Stockholm. If there’s time, we’ll also spend a couple of days in Gothenburg.
Sweden will be a first for me, but I’ve been to Denmark before, solo when I was 16. I took the ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg, if I remember correctly, and then went south and stayed somewhere near a small town called Bevtoft; Toftlund, perhaps. I went there to meet someone I’d established contact with on sideband radio, which you might now view, I suppose, as an early form of recreational on-line chat. At the time, I ran a very popular sideband club from my bedroom.
Anyway, I can’t remember where I went or what I did whilst in Denmark, except for a trip to a beach somewhere. I certainly didn’t go anywhere near Copenhagen, so this will be an entirely different trip.
I think we’ll head north-east from Hamburg and take the Puttgarden to Rødby ferry to cross over to Denmark.
The alternative is to drive north from Hamburg, through southern Denmark to Kolding and then over the Storebæltsbroen (Great Belt Bridge) at Nyborg.
The travel time is more or less the same for both routes, but taking the ferry cuts out about 130 km of driving and breaks up the journey somewhat, allowing us the chance to stretch our legs, eat a snack, etc. Both the Danish and the German offices of the ferry line say that there’s no need to buy a ticket in advance for a particular crossing, so we’ll purchase our ticket when we arrive at the port.
One way or another, it will take us about 8.5 hours to get from Amsterdam to Copenhagen. We could also break up the trip by spending a night in Hamburg, but since we’re short on time, we’ve rejected that option and opted for a full day’s driving.
After six nights in Copenhagen, we’ll cross the Oresund Bridge to Malmö in Sweden and drive north-east to Stockholm. This will be another full day’s driving, so it will be interesting to see how tolerant Eloïse proves. We’ll stay a further six nights in Stockholm.
The hotels in Copenhagen and Stockholm are already booked, so now we just have to read up on daily activities for the two capitals.
If we can spare any more time, we’ll try to squeeze in a couple of days in Gothenburg at the end, but it’s a 1500 km drive back from Stockholm, so we’ll lose a couple of days at least, just getting home.
Needless to say, as with all of our trips, I’m looking forward to this one, the last we’ll take as a family of three.