Departure:  Sassnitz, Germany
Time: 07:15

Arrival: Helsingor, Denmark
Time: 16:15

(in progress)

Big event this morning:  my first time taking a motorcycle on a ferry…. the trust issues involved!!!!  i was SO worried.  The ferry from Sassnitz to Trelleborg left at 8am, and arrived at noon.  We spent ages tying the bikes into place against the wall of the ferry.  There was one other motorcycle already there, and we tried to match what he had done.  None of the employees would give us any pointers, and i think we all had a sick feeling about it.  We barely left them in time to get out of the parking area.

Upstairs we found a big boothy section that was free except for a guy sleeping in it, so we moved in.  there weren’t very many comfortable choices, and this was the best we could do.  After about 20 minutes, he left, actually.  I saw him sharing a smaller space with another sleeper later, and we had plenty of space to stretch out in.  Matt sewed on his tank bag, Dick wrote in his journal, and I mostly slept. 

—
Trelleborg, when we got there, was very misty.  We could barely see the Swedish country side through the fog, but it was flat and spacious, from what I could see.  We headed for the tollbridge into Copenhagen and therefore Denmark, and about halfway across the bridge the weather just simply cleared up.  All of a sudden it was sunny and a beautiful day.  Apparently the sun shines on Denmark.  🙂 

Copenhagen was my first time using my new TomTom Rider v2 in an unfamiliar city, rather than semi-familiar and/or highways.  It was the most amazing thing not to be worried about missing turns or hitting cars while trying to understand the one-way roads marked on a map taped to the gas tank.  I was amazed to discover that not only did i know where and when a turn would come, i could see that i would cross a bridge and a funny pedestrian street before the turn.  wow.  Of course, it helped that the traffic was light on this particular day, and that Danish drivers are pretty relaxed. 

We drove into a neighborhood recommended by our friend Annemette, and parked without paying the parking fee because we couldn’t figure out how to do it.  There were terrace restaurants all over along a river or canal, and we tried to go to one because the place recommended by Annemette was too crowded and noisy for Dick, and had a big fight about who wanted to eat what, but then sat for ages with no service, so we got up again and went to an open-faced sandwich shop across from the recommended place.  It was lovely, service was lovely, food was fine.  Argument over.

After lunch we took the coast road up to Helsingor, which is where Elsinore (Hamlet’s castle) is located.  The coastal road was populated by limos, pleasure-drivers and other bikers.  The houses looked expensive.

After checking into our (awful) hotel, we went joyriding around that part of Denmark.  It was gorgeous, with little windy roads and more relaxed drivers.  Such small roads! 

We saw the castle, and Matt and Dick posed as Hamlet and Yorick’s skull.  Then we spent about an hour as it got colder and colder while Matt tried to fix his malfunctioning tail light.

A little grumpy from too active a day, we parked in the center and looked for food.  Everywhere that looked good was full with a long waiting list, so we ended up in this horrible-looking and empty "Italian" place.  The food was terrible, didn’t match its descriptions very well, and so overpriced that we were actually shocked when we got our bill and did the math.  The waiter/only employee we saw there was a horrible, grumpy old man. 

We noted, while eating, that all the men we saw around town were very effeminate looking in style.  Pink shirts, overly clean and blow-dried hair, ironed jeans, etc.  I had to text Annemette to congratulate her for apparently snagging the last real man in Denmark!  🙂

After dinner, it was back to the hotel and SLEEP – much needed, long awaited.

Hotel Sleep2Night

This is the worst hotel we stayed at in the whole trip.  The receptionist was extremely rude, no breakfast was included, the room was uninteresting, and the place was paved with THICK gravel – absolutely a huge ick for bikers.  About the only good thing about it was that it was completely empty.  Only some truck drivers.