Norway
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| Fredrikstad, |
After we picked up Vanni in Oslo, we turned south, heading homeward.
En-route, and still in Norway, we drove as far as Fredrikstad which is a pretty place with an amazing fortified town called Gamlebyen – the Old Town.
This was full of lovely old buildings and considered the best preserved fortified town in the Nordic Region.
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| Bronze Age drawings, Begby |
The camp ground there turned out to be closed for the season. As it was getting late in the day, we found a car park by the edge of the Glomma Estuary and settled in for the night.
The next morning we were up early and headed for Begby to several paintings that had been carved into rock during the Bronze Age over 3000 years ago.
The pictures tell ancient stories about the religion, culture and activities of people of the day. We had to negotiate very wet ground and slippery rocks to see them (including one where Leigh slipped nastily onto her rear-end), and were fascinated by them.
After leaving Begby, we headed south, out of Norway and into Sweden again.
Crossing into Sweden we paid a small toll which cleared us out of Norwegian cash – good – no bank transaction fees for turning this back into Euro!
Sweden
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| Smögen, |
In Sweden, we worked our way down the Bohusiän coast toward Göteborg. An interesting drive full of little fishing villages, rocky landscapes and beautiful autumn colours.
We stopped in places such as Strömstad, Grebbestad, Fjällbacka, Hamburgsund, Hunnebostrand, Smögen and Mollösund before, in the growing dark and cold, heading to Göteborg.
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| Göteborg, Sweden-Marg |
Our camping ground in G̦teborg was well placed and on the Saturday we caught the local tram into the city, along with the rest of the population of the area Рit was a very busy place!
We had committed the cardinal sin of running out of wine and in both Norway and Sweden, wine is an incredibly regulated business and you can only buy it in designated wine shops!
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| Göteborg bridge-Marg |
They shut very early and are not open on Sundays so we had a frantic rush to find the one shop in the centre of the city before it shut!
What a sight met our eyes! The place was absolutely packed with people also doing the last minute buy-up of wine!
There was a great selection and a huge range in prices but we managed to get ourselves cheapish (by Swedish standards) bottles of red and a white wine.
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| Helsingborg, Sweden-Marg |
Finally we got through the queue to pay our money and escape the throng!
As we were leaving there was couple who had just bought two bottles of NZ wine so we told them they had made a wonderful choice and they were amazed we were from New Zealand!
Supplies sorted until we reached a cheaper country, we had a lovely wander around Göteborg.
We went along the waterfront and past the maritime museum with its old boats, through the canal area lined with grand buildings and busy pedestrian-only cobbled streets, and past lots and lots of shops, before catching the tram back to the camp.
The next day we moved on, working our way down the coast until reaching Helsingborg which had some attractive buildings and gardens.
This was our last stop in Sweden.
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| Helsingør, |
From Helsingborg we had a very short but very expensive ferry ride across the water to Helsingør in Denmark.
We stopped for a quick walk around this attractive old town full of brightly coloured houses and lots more cobbled streets.
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| Autumn colours |
At this stage, because it was getting late in the day and was raining, we decided to head into nearby Copenhagen and stay the night at the campsite we had previously used on our first trip to Sweden.
This proved to be a good choice.
Continuing south, we drove across the very flat land of Denmark.
This is not anywhere as rocky as Sweden and Norway.
The sun out; lots of autumn colours; farms with fields being ploughed; new crops emerging from the soil, and smaller towns with attractive coloured houses.
A pretty drive.
Arriving in Nykøbing we found an attractive small town with lots of restored and eye-catching buildings.
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| Nykøbing tower, Marg |
We wandered around the cobbled pedestrian centre, looked at the nice public art work and thought they had a lovely modern marina development.
We had an enjoyable stroll around before heading on to Maribo, a lovely little town, then Rødbyhavn.
Here we caught another slightly longer, but just as expensive ferry across to Puttgarden in Germany.
The local ferry companies have a captive market as they are useful for a short trip with less driving between islands and countries, than the bridges.
However, the ferries are almost as expensive as the bridge tolls.
We were on limited time on our homeward journey, so bit the bullet and flashed the credit card - ouch!!
It was an easy trip across the water.
These ferries are very efficient.
Germany
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| Hamburg |
Thirty minutes later and in Germany, we drove straight to huge city of Hamburg for the night. We arrived as it was getting dark and wet.
Then, wending our way through a maze of streets as directed by our GPS, finally found our campsite.
We felt sure there must have been a quicker and more direct route but we got there eventually!
A blob for the first day as it was grey and overcast. Off to explore the city on day two.
Quite a long bus then metro trip got us into the centre of Hamburg, where we found lots of big shopping streets, some grand buildings, and canals leading down to the Elbe River.
It didn’t really spin our wheels as a city but as Germany’s second largest city with a huge port it is an important economic centre.
The port was a major point of exit for five million emigrants who made Hamburg their gateway to the ‘New World’ from 1840 until 1939.
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This included Marg’s Grandmother who on 10 May 1875 at age three, along with her mother, father, older sister and other extended family members left Hamburg on a ship for Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.
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| Hamburg dock by night |
We wanted to know more about this huge emigration and in particular find out as much as possible about Marg’s family story, so we made our way to the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum.
The Museum is made up of three large buildings that were the Emigration Halls at the time. The Halls depict emigrant’s stories and the emigration process.
There is a huge collection of artefacts on display, along with visual displays showing what it was like and some of the reasons why people left Germany or other European countries.
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| Hamburg Ballinstadt Emigration Centre-cabin |
The majority seem to have gone to the USA, then South America while New Zealand didn’t rate a mention.
The displays also focussed on what it was like to arrive at Ellis Island in USA and the processes there.
There was a reconstruction of living conditions for passengers on the sailing ships, and it is mind-boggling to picture what they must have endured during the long voyage to New Zealand.
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| Goslar, restored building |
You could search your ancestors on the Museum’s data base so we filled out a form seeking more information on Marg’s Grandmother. Now we wait to see what they can tell us.
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| Goslar, Leigh & Marg |
The Museum was really interesting. We wondered how it must have felt to sail out of that port leaving your country for a far off land and a whole new life style – sad; scary; exciting......how brave!
We had an important and relaxing break in Hamburg as we had a long way to drive to get back to the Czech Republic before flying home.
During the drive south, we passed through lots of lovely German small towns and villages.
One of these was the UNESCO World Heritage town of Goslar.
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| Weimar Town Hall-Leigh |
We had tried to visit this town earlier in the trip but were unable to stop due to a big event being held there.
We had a lovely walk around this ancient town full of gorgeous houses and cobbled streets - all restored and in pristine condition.
We then continued on as we wanted to reach a camping site near Weimar which is another UNESCO city.
It got steadily darker and our GPS lead us through some small back roads but we were unable to find the campsite – bother!
We had marked another one south of Weimar so moved on, deciding that if we couldn’t find that camp, it might have to be a car park or something similar.
By this time it was very late and raining as we drove through some incredibly narrow roads with trees leaning out at us in the dark.
We were getting pretty tired but finally saw a camping sign that took us along a dirt track, and there it was – open!
A lot of camps are closed at this time of the year so we were very relieved to be able to get in.
Although there was no one at reception, we parked up and settled in for the night.
It was right out in the countryside and incredibly quiet, in fact almost too quiet after Hamburg traffic noise!
We awoke to find ourselves in a very pretty spot surrounded by lovely autumn colours.
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| Weimar, statue of Goethe & Schiller -Leigh |
Weimar dates back to 899 and many famous people lived here such as Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche, Liszt, Bach, Cornelius and others.
It is still a very culturally focussed town and this shows in the town’s layout and lovely buildings. We found a parking spot easily and enjoyed a lovely walk around the town.
We wanted to get further south so we then headed on towards Plauen.
Here we camped for a night before crossing the border into the Czech Republic and on to our friend Klara’s place in Ceske Budejovice.
We spent a couple of days at Klara’s packing up Vanni then after saying farewell to Klara and her family, caught the train to Prague to fly home.
We had a few days at Dubai on the way home to recharge then flew on to Auckland. Landing over lovely green fields was a delight after all our travelling. We were happy to be back in New Zealand to catch up with family and friends before we head off again in 2014.
Now our only challenge is finding somewhere to live for the next six months!
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