Lou Ann's EuroBlog

"Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind."
- Seneca

Okay, so last night I sat in an internet cafe for quite a while, typing about the remainder of my time in London. All day long I had been driving the countryside of Denmark, and with the radio on, even. But all of the talking was in Danish, and of course, I don't speak or understand Danish. So I had no idea until this morning that there had been another "incident" in London yesterday morning. I don't know if you were wondering why I didn't mention it, but that's why. It's so strange (providential?) that I arrived in London (according to my original plan) about four days after the original 7/7 bombings, and then left again about four days before the most recent "incident".

Well ... on with my story...

Day Twenty-three (7/18/05) - London to Paris
Just typing that heading makes me shudder!! Transporting myself to/from Paris to anywhere has turned out to be quite the difficult task. Ugh!! Here's an idea of that day for me.

I woke up early and finished all of the last minute packing stuff. I was to leave too early to have breakfast at the hotel, but no problem, right ... I could find food at the rail station. So ... at 6:30 I stood out on the curb trying to hail a cab. Now, I had decided that taking the Tube to Waterloo station (reversing the trip that I made getting from Waterloo TO the hotel which was rather difficult!) would not be the best choice, so I wanted to take a cab. And, the previous day the concierge had talked me out of calling a cab ahead of time. He said that it would be a LOT more expensive than just hailing one of the black cabs, and that they come down that street all the time because of all of the hotels. Also, understand that I had made a point of getting rid of all of my pounds (down to only a few pence) the previous day so that I wouldn't have to change pounds to euros, losing money over and over again at the exchange places. SOOOooo ... I needed a cab that takes credit cards. They exist ... I saw them all over the city on my wanderings. Of course, of the four and a half cabs that came by the hotel in the half hour that I was standing there, only the very last one accepted credit. I was on the verge of going into the hotel to ask the concierge to call that other cab for me. But, no dice ... I got the cab, and got to Waterloo in a very short matter of time.

Arriving at the Waterloo station, I passed by a few food places because I wanted to check in first. But the check-in for the Eurostar at Waterloo happens to be combined with security and customs, and then there was only one very small food place near my platform, so I had a croissant and some coffee. That was breakfast. (Can you say HUNGRY!!) I also had a "Go Lean" bar with me, and ate that to keep me from being too hungry throughout the trip.

The Eurostar portion of the trip was entirely uneventful ... the train left on time and arrived in Paris Gare du Nord on time. I knew that I needed the Paris RER train to the airport, and found that very easily. Paris is an hour ahead of London, so it was mid-afternoon by the time I got on the RER train. I got to the airport by about 2:00, and found the place to stand and wait for the airport shuttles. (Remember that I was doing all of this dragging around a very heavy suitcase, and this time had two carry-on bags.) I waited for the hotel shuttle (I already had hotel reservations.) I waited. And I waited. I figured that I must have just missed the previous shuttle, as I remembered that they run every half hour. So I decided that I would exercize patience. But at about 3:00, I finally called the hotel. They reminded me (I ought to have known) that their shuttle only runs in the morning and evening, and wouldn't be running again until 5:30 that evening. No way I was waiting that late.

So ... I went to the cabs nearby, but they looked at me like I was insane when I asked if they took credit cards (still hadn't gotten any Euros because I knew I was headed to Denmark, and Denmark is not on the Euro). Okay ... so off to look for a cash machine. No cash machine in the train section of the airport. Nope. Go to your right, and walk about 10 minutes to the next terminal. (Heavy suitcase!!) So, walk I did. I found the cash machine. The only cash machine at that terminal. "Out of Order" (in French, of course). I burst into tears. (I'm not usually one for a lot of crying ... but this whole travelling around Paris thing is really getting to me!! So I finally realized that I could get cash from the exchange desk using my credit card. I got enough for the cab, for dinner, and for another cab back to the airport in the morning.

Took the cab to the hotel. I decided to walk to the little village near the hotel strip to ship some of the stuff I had been carrying home. I planned to eat dinner after my visit to the post office. The gal who waited on me at the Post Office, by the way, looked almost exactly like Amy Tyra! Amy, by the way, speaks French. It was fun, as I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't actually having a conversation with Amy ... yet she looked SO much like her!!

Well ... I had intended to have dinner at the village after the visit to the post office. Unfortunately, it was 5:00, and all of the restaurants in the village open at 6:00. I was too tired to wait around, so I went to the hotel again, and tried to find food. No, there are no delivery places. Delivery? What is that, exactly? Ugh!! There were two vending machines at the hotel that had food that could be heated in the hotel microwave. Both machines stole my money and didn't deliver the food that I could SEE in the machine. Forget it! The vending machine DID deliver a chocolate waffle, and I had that for dinner (remember ... little breakfast, and no lunch. UGH!!) and went to bed early. What a day!!

Day Twenty-four (7/19/05) - Paris to Tønder, Denmark
I got up early that morning, really early. My flight was at 7:15, and I wanted to be rather early because it was an international flight. So I asked the hotel to call me a cab for 4:30. Now, the airport is literally about 2km away from the hotel. The day before, the cab fare from the airport to the hotel was about 7€. This morning, though, it turned out to be almost 20€!! I couldn't believe it! When I questioned the cab driver, he told me that it was because (1) it was night time, and there was a government-imposed night-time fee, and (2) I had a big bag. Yeah, right. UGH!!

As it turns out, the Air France check-in counters don't open until about 5:45, international flights or not. So I should have slept in and taken the hotel shuttle and saved myself the hassle. Well ... I got a good portion of my book ready anyway. (Oh - and no breakfast at the airport again ... there are no restaurants at that part of the Charles de Gaulle airport. What do they expect travellers to do for food!?)

Again, my flight to Copenhagen was without incident. I sat next to a young couple, and he was working on a Su Doku puzzle (in ink!!), so we talked about that a little bit, but otherwise, I read my book.

As soon as I got into the Copenhagen airport, I knew it would be much easier than Paris or London. The airport was very easy to navigate. I found my luggage easily, there was no stopping at customs (another thing that strikes me as weird!), and found the rental car place easily. The gal at the rental place was very nice. AND ... she gave me a free upgrade.

Well ... I had to laugh because my "free upgrade" gave me a really ugly car. It looks like a box, and is big, and very difficult for me to park in these teeny-weeny little European parking spaces. AND ... it's red. Bright red. LOL!! I have to laugh every time I look at it.

My original intent had been to spend that first half-day in Copenhagen, and then the following day to drive out to the rural areas and explore. But, as soon as I hit the rental car, I realized that I had absolutely no desire to do yet another BIG city a third day in a row, so I hit the expressway and decided to drive for as long as I had the energy. It was raining and cold, besides, so I didn't feel like I was wasting the time.

As it turns out, maps of Denmark are like maps of Rhode Island. They fill the whole page, and make the place look a lot bigger than it really is. I was at the west coast (the far coast) of Denmark within a few hours and only put 350km on the car.

Do you have a picture in your mind of the geography of Denmark? It's a peninsula, sticking north up from Europe (touching Germany to the South). To the east of the peninsula there are several big islands and a LOT of small islands. Copenhagen is on the biggest island (Zealand) and to get to the main peninsula you drive over a couple of bridges. One of those bridges is 18km (about 12 miles) long and is a newly engineered feat ... the "pride of Denmark" ... built only about 6 years ago. It is beautiful ... about half of it is a suspension bridge, and the rest is ... well, I don't know enough about bridges to be able to tell you. AND ... if you are from New York and think that $7 to cross the Verizano bridge is expensive, try 200kr (at 6 kroner on the dollar) to cross this bridge. I was absolutely sticker-shocked!! Especially knowing that I would certainly have to cross that bridge again!!

I stopped during the day in a town called Odense for lunch. It happens to be the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen (author of fairy tales) and it just happens to be the 200th anniversary of his birthday. So ... everything in the city is really decorated for him!!

Anyway ... I got to the west coast, and found a lovely little motel in Tønder (near the German border). The room was big and pretty and had a gorgeous little porch with outdoor chairs and a little table outside. You'd better believe that I found dinner and ate quickly, and got to the hotel to sit outside (it had stopped raining) and read and enjoy the lovely evening!

I'll save the country-side of Denmark for the next post. I'll probably post once a day for the next couple of days, seeing as I am staying with a friend for a few days, and have free access to the internet here.

Hope you're all well!! I'll be home in about a week!! :-)