Lou Ann's EuroBlog

"The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing."
- Daniel J. Boorstin

Some random notes. First of all, the keyboards on the computers in London and Denmark are also different than those used in the United States, but not as much as in France. The basic letters of the alphabet are all in the same places, but the other characters, punctuation, etc., are in different spots. There are different symbols, like £ and € (obviously), as well as things like æ and ø and å (capitalized look like Æ and Ø and Å). There are some characters that I use for the html code that are in totally different spots, too ... and all of this makes typing just a bit slower than it would be at home.....

Secondly, any links in this post to images are NOT my photos. I have not yet downloaded any photos from my camera, and won't do so until after returning back to the U.S. Then we can talk about when you'll see them. ;-)

Thirdly, will someone please tell me why I chose three countries in Europe that happen to use three different currencies!!?? I thought that was why they went to the Euro! So that there weren't all of these countries using different currencies. Yet, England is still on the pound (£), and Denmark is still using their kroner (which is only abbreviated with "kr.") So ... France being on the Euro (€), I've now got coins and paper from three different financial markets. Why!!??

Day Twenty-five (7/20/05) - Tønder to Tornby
The car rental place in Copenhagen had given me a map of Demark that is fabulous. It doesn't have every single road, but any road that might possibly be of interest to me is included. As I was looking at that map, I noticed some routes marked with little green dots beside the roads. Looks a lot like the way that AAA marks "scenic routes" on their maps. Sure enough, after some closer looks at the map key, there is something called the Marguerite Route. (Marguerite is the current queen of Denmark.) Apparently, they chose the most aesthetically pleasing roads in Denmark, as well as taking a person past some of the main attractions in Denmark (castles, historic sites, Legoland, etc.) Well, much of the coastal areas of Denmark are marked as part of the Marguerite Route, and almost all these roads are off the main highways, so I decided to give these roads a try.

I started from Tønder at the southern part of the West Coast and decided to work my way north. I followed the signs (they look like flowers) that told me where to turn (with the help of the markings on the map). I passed by some wonderful countryside!! I also saw some fabulous coastal areas. It's nothing like the West Coast of the U.S. ... there are no haystacks or gorgeous rock formations or anything. But pretty beaches, and interesting sand dunes and seaside landscape. North of the villate of Esbjerg there are four huge statues of men ... called Man Meets the Sea. Weird statues ... and huge. But worth a look. The churches in the little villages are also very pretty. So, I've been taking lots of pictures. :-)

Another interesting thing worth pointing out is that Denmark is way ahead of the curve on many environmentally conscious things. The entire country, big cities as well as the rural areas, uses modern windmills for much of the power requirements. No ... don't picture the old fashioned windmills that you'd see in Holland (they have a few of those here ... and they're mainly just pretty landmarks). Take a look at this picture. These windmills are EVERYWHERE. You can't look across the countryside without seeing many of them. They are quite elegant and classy-looking, if you ask me. Another thing that I want to talk about in our International Baccalaureate discussions at work next year.

I made the mistake of not being able to find a nice sandwich shop for lunch and thought it would be a good idea to stop at the local McDonald's. The prices were outrageous, and the food didn't look too good. So, all I got was a McFlurry and a soda. Forget about McD's when you're at home or abroad. If you're in doubt about that previous statement, watch the movie "Super-size Me". That will convince you for sure!!

After having put many hours in on the road that day, I decided to find a hotel and call it a night. Now, you probably know that I've been doing "road trips" for a few years now. On my first road trip, I didn't make a single hotel reservation. I was able to walk into a place every single evening and find accommodations. Not to say that I didn't find hotels without vacancies ... but that there was always another place nearby that DID have one. On my second major road trip, to Alaska, we made reservations for some of the places, just to be sure, because Alaska has some very small and isolated towns, and it's always better to be safe than sorry. But, it wasn't everywhere ... just the smallest and most isolated towns. Again, never had a problem where we didn't have reservations. And ... on this trip, after driving around France and never having trouble finding a hotel, and finding a hotel easily in Tønder, I wasn't worried about this evening. I guess I should have been. I tried several places in the city where I was after dinner, and didn't find anything. Either the places were super expensive or were full. So I drove to several nearby towns. Again ... too pricey or no vacancies. For two hours I looked for a hotel. I have not ever been so concerned that I wouldn't find a place to stay. I have not ever been so worried that I'd have to sleep in my car. Oh, no ... I will NOT sleep in my car. If I had to drive all night, I'd do so ... but sleep in my car by myself in a strange place ... NO! But, FINALLY, I found a "room". It was like a B&B without the breakfast. It was very inexpensive, and was relatively clean and neat and was ... well, a room. It worked, and I slept and got clean and was ready for the next day.

Interestingly enough, the house where the "room" was happened to be next to train tracks, and since there was a road there, I could hear a bell ringing before a train came through, warning the cars coming that the security arms were coming down. (And, the bells on the gates were always much louder than the train coming by!!) Now, you may not think that this sounds ideal ... but I was actually fascinated by the whole situation. My room faced the tracks, and the final train for the day went past about 11:30 (and the next morning the trains started again about 4:30). This place (Tornby) is VERY rural. And trains were going by VERY often. The trains were always little tiny trains ... three cars including the engine. And sometimes there weren't more than one or two people on the entire train. The thing that really surprised me was that I realized after several had gone by was that there was a little platform on one side of the road. And people would park their cars or bikes near the platform and get on/off the train. It wasn't a regular stop or a station, but it was like flagging the train to stop for you if you needed it for commuting purposes. I thought this was very interesting, and watched as many of the trains go by as I possibly could (does this make me a nerd?)

Another thing that I want to make note of is that CSI (Las Vegas) seems to be a VERY popular television show here in Europe. A lot of the television that they watch consists of American shows with French/Danish voiced over or with subtitles. But CSI seems to be everywhere. So, I watched an episode of CSI before going to bed that night.

Okay ... enough for this evening. I'll write more tomorrow for sure! G'night!! :-)