adrienne's Tour Diary

We were singled out by customs officers because of our missing front license plate. Nothing too serious. The customs officers were very tall. The busloads of retirees that had cut in front of us in the breakfast buffet caused a traffic jam but in thirty minutes we were on the highway, passing giant wind machines under the overcast skies.
One question keeps posing itself: do we follow the AAA map or the computer directions? Computer directions are iffy enough at home, and I value them as much as directions an indifferent stranger will offer up when pressed. However, not knowing Dutch or German or Danish or even how to pronounce town names I combined my information sources and we only had to turn around once, when Helborg and Alborg confused me, not so much the names but the highways they're on. Dan drove and drove north, as we had a 9 hour drive to get to Copenhagen and to meet Andreas. The cows of Holland and Germany were all lying down. Cars in the left lane on the autobahn go about 120 mph. Even minivans.
Chris G took over driving when we were nearing Denmark and I bought a Ritter Sport candy bar, kerspreckers or something like that--a very satisfying snack. We kept our fingers crossed that there would be a ferry that would carry our van or a bridge that we could drive over at Puttgarden and there was a ferry, a Scanline ship with shopping and coffee on board. It cost $150 to go on it, though, and we decided to devise a way to avoid that on the way south. There were many children on board full of energy and sugar snacks.
The sky cleared and the rain stopped when we began driving north in Denmark towards Copenhagen. I drifted in and out of consciousness and each time I woke I consulted the map to see where we were.
We arrived in Copenhagen around 7 pm and parked the van behind the train station. Andreas rode his bicycle to the station and then hopped in the car so he could direct us to his and Laura's apartment nearby, which was very lucky as I could not figure out how to spell his street name: Hiort lorentzensgade . The wind was brisk and it stayed light out until after 9 pm, as we walked to a falafel shop and ate dinner. After sitting in the van for 9 hours it felt great to get the blood flowing and feel the icy wind on my face, watch people riding their bicycles by as lights showed through the dusk. We talked about bands and music and state taxes and the 40 hour work week and shoplifting and singing from a basketball hoop like Guy from Fugazi. One of the best parts about touring is meeting new people, like Andreas and Laura, hanging out and hearing about their lives. So far it seems that everyone we've met in Europe enjoys Pimp My Ride.