We realise this post is a bit late but we’ve been feeling blog lazy this week.

Wednesday we caught the train from our campsite to Copenhagen to spend the day there. It was the hottest day we’ve had so far, apparently it was about 25 but it felt much hotter!

We wandered through the city, trying to stay in the shade, up to the Amalienborg Palace which is the royal residence. We didn’t see Fredrick or Mary (I’m actually not sure if that’s where they live) but we did see the changing of the guard which although not spectacular was fun to watch. After that we set off in search of food and had a very expensive hamburger. We would have liked to go on a canal tour but the line was too long to wait in the heat.

We then walked in the direction of Rosenburg Castle but first stopped off in the park just in front of it. As previously mentioned it was boiling hot & the Danes seemed to have flocked to the park to sun bake and play in the fountains. Since it seemed an acceptable practice, we dangled our feet in one of the fountains for a little while. Once we’d cooled off a bit we went to the castle, which is more like a museum now although some of the rooms are preserved in the same way they were when the kings lived there. In the basement you can see some of the royal treasury and the wealth there is quite astounding. The castle was probably the highlight of my day, although I think Aaron’s was the fountain!

We took most of our pictures from the day on my actual camera so we don’t have any to post here. Despite the heat, we enjoyed visiting Copenhagen & it was a nice city.

Wednesday was our last day in Denmark but I’ll write about Sweden in the next blog.

Till then, Elky

When I was a kid, my brother & I loved Lego (he obviously loved it more than me, to the point that he still collects it) & we used to love getting the latest Lego catalogues & wishing we had all the money in the world to buy all the sets we wanted. In these catalogues there would also be one page advertising Legoland which was very far away but looked amazing. Yesterday Aaron & I got to go there & I have to admit that it was really the only thing I had on the agenda for Denmark. It’s basically a theme park for small children but also has lots of Lego models of all kinds of things but mostly landmarks in Europe & the US. A comment from Aaron was “Oh, so that’s what Amsterdam looks like!” (seeing as we actually haven’t been there yet).

We had read on another traveller’s blog that it’s actually free to get in half an hour before the rides shut but the park still stays open for another hour after that & seeing as we weren’t there for the rides we thought we’d give this a go. I was a bit worried that the information was incorrect or that we would be the only freeloaders there but this wasn’t the case at all & after lining up for 10 minutes or so with the other freeloaders we were allowed in, saving us around €80.

Denmark is a country that makes us want to be kids again. Every caravan park we have been to has these amazing playgrounds full of equipment that’s no longer legal in Australia. Legoland also made us want to be kids again or at least have some of our own so we didn’t look so out of place. We considered asking someone if we could just borrow their child for an hour or so but thought the language barrier might be an issue… or the lawsuit… Anyways we had a lot of fun!

Before I finish this blog which my husband desperately wants me to as we need to go to the shops I need to tell you about what happened on our way to the campsite yesterday afternoon. Apparently 1/4 left on our petrol gauge actually means empty so halfway through a roundabout in the Danish countryside the car stopped working… Neither Aaron or I have ever run out of petrol in Australia but of course it would happen in a foreign country! According to Serena the nearest petrol station was 5kms away. Aaron decided to door knock on a couple of nearby houses to see if anyone could help us. While no one had diesel on them, one man was able to tell us that there was a petrol station just 1km down the road. Aaron set off, while I got to stay & read my book. About 45 mins later a quad bike comes roaring up next to me… with Aaron sitting on the back! Aaron waved his new Danish friend goodbye & I begged him to explain. Unfortunately this petrol station was nothing more than 2 petrol pumps with automatic payment so there were no jerry cans for sale. Aaron again had to ask around for help and eventually one man said, “wait here, I’ll be back in 5 mins”. He comes back & said “this guy will help you” & our knight in shining armour filled up a jerry can & took Aaron back on his quad. I found the whole situation very amusing as Aaron thinks motorbikes are dangerous & here he was riding on the back of one, without a helmet, half on the highway & half on the bike path. We’re very thankful that the situation wasn’t worse though! Lesson learned: fill up the car earlier & carry a spare jerry can.

Today we drove across the three main islands of Denmark tojust outside Copenhagen where we will stay two nights. We had to drive across a very long bridge joining two of the islands which was quite an experience. Tomorrow we’ll catch the train into Copenhagen & explore.

Till then, Elky

Due to some issues with the blog client, we haven’t been able to upload anything since getting to Denmark, but it appears all good now! Thanks jbng!

Anywho, Denmark is amazing, we’ve been here for 4 nights now, generally just driving from one historical thing to another, with the exception of a wildlife park we went to on Saturday, which is far less lame than it sounds. There are basically just boardwalks barely keeping you above well…massive brown bears!

That was cool, much cooler than losing our car keys on the first night we got here!? We found them after 3 hours, don’t ask Elky where…

Annoyances like that aside, Denmark is gorgeous, I’ve been loving the scenery and can’t help but picture Vikings running everywhere yelling and carrying on.

We also went to a ‘Viking village’ which was basically a reconstructed village with costume actors walking around. It was actually really well done.

Today we are off to legoland so let’s see how that goes…then through Copenhagen on our way to Sweden, which is exciting!

Pumped iz brew!

Aaron.

As you may have guessed, Germany is totally different to Holland.

Everybody drives really fast here, Australian cops would love it!

We only stayed for one night in a place I think was called westerstede, about 25 km out of Oldenburg as we are simply on our way through to Denmark which we hope to arrive in today, although by the time this posts, we would have already gotten there and used the wifi to upload this blog. As I write, Elky is struggling to push our camper past 110 on a road where most people cruise at 160, it’s a great feeling. We just passed a sign cheerily saying ‘finger vom handy’ … I’m not sure what that means.

Camping was only €11 which was great until construction workers started digging up ground next to us at some silly hour, then when I showed my face they asked us to move…I think…his English wasn’t much better than my German.

Anyway, this is making me feel car sick…

We will visit Germany properly on our way out of Scandinavia.

Thanks for calling.

Aaron

Hello again,

We have been more or less under house arrest for the last few days because the fridge in camper doesn’t seem to be working. Well it is working when the engine is on, but doesn’t want to work just on the battery when the engine is switched off, which is a problem!

Why is this a problem? I’m glad you asked!

A fridge that only works while driving is only useful to travelers who never stop driving, because as soon as you stop, the food begins to warm up again…slowly and starts to go off…slowly.

We have been staying at Elkys uncles caravan park since saturday and are hopefully getting it fixed today so we can finally drive to Denmark. Exciting stuff.

On another note, a friend of mine who shall remain initialed only TB (not tuberculosis) has asked for an economic climate report of each country we visit, so I shall try to sum up holland based on the 3 shops I’ve been to since landing in this very flat country:

1. Insect repellant is not cheap

2. Petrol is not cheap.

3. Everything else is cheap.

Food prices are phenomenal here compared to Australia, even when you take the €/aus$ into account, it’s still great.

A packet of strawberries is around $5 in aus, but here they are €1! Which is $1.20 aus approx.

We went to an IKEAish camping store yesterday to buy supplies, such as iPad chargers. Luckily Elky can understand Dutch, because they told us to go turn our lights off after being there for 45 mins! Luckily the engine still worked.

Anyway, we are off to see if we can get our fridge working today…I guess I’ll mention it when/ if it gets fixed.

I’m Veronica Corningstone and thanks for stopping by.

Aaron.

Since arriving on Monday we have slept lots, been awake at odd hours, been hungry at even odder (yes, I know that’s not a word) hours, visited my relatives and bought a new home!

My dad, who is here for 2 months, arrived a week before us and had been looking for a campervan for us already. He found a great one on the way down from where he was staying to my Oma’s and we picked it up on Friday. It’s a red Mercedes- probably the only one we will ever own in our lives. Dad was very concerned with finding one that had a long enough bed, which is a common problem for tall people like my dad and Aaron. What he didn’t think about was that with our campervan Aaron is actually too tall for the driver’s seat due to the oversized steering wheel & that you can’t move the seat back very far because the kitchen bench is directly behind it. We thought about trying to sell this one & buying another one but everything else about this one is great & that meant delaying our trip until we found another good one so we’ve decided to keep it. Which means that I will be doing all the driving! Having never driven on the other side of the road before (well, Aaron hasn’t either but males are supposed to pick this sort of thing up quickly, aren’t they?) it was quite daunting at first. Dad gave me a quick driving lesson & it felt exactly like the first time I drove a car on the road when I was 17. I am starting to get the hang of it though, haven’t crashed it yet & even did some overtaking at 120kms so I think we’re going to be ok.

After picking it up it was already quite late so we found a caravan park nearby & stayed the night there. We had bought some things that we needed but still needed a few basics like an electricity cord so I think the park owner thought we were a bit crazy. Nevertheless we survived our first night quite well. The first thing we did the next morning after getting lost on the way to the shops is buy a GPS! Her name is Serena & she is my new best friend. After that we drove to my Opa’s, spent the afternoon with him & then drove to my uncle’s caravan park. His caravan park is in the north of Holland in a small town called Vierhuizen, which directly translates to Four Houses. While it does have more than that, it is a very small town with not much to do but we’ve been enjoying the small bits of sunshine & are looking forward to eating out in my uncle’s pub tonight. Today being Sunday all the shops are closed so we have to wait till tomorrow to stock up our camper with some more essentials (like the electricity cord that we still don’t have- stupid tourists that we are!) and then if everything is in order we will probably leave here on Tuesday.

Well, I think I’ve probably bored you enough with all those details but at least there were no obscure movie references :-p

Till next time, Elky

We have arrived! … Yesterday!

After a horribly long flight from Singapore to Germany, a connecting flight to Amsterdam and then almost 3 hours worth of navigating a somewhat confusing public transport system (not just confusing because it was all in Dutch) we finally arrived at Elkys grandmas house in Kapelle, a lovely little village in southern holland.

Being absolutely wasted after so much travel, we didn’t do much and really just ate then slept.
It’s weird here though, coming from an Australian winter, because it really doesn’t get dark here at all…at least not until around 11pm or so (apparently, we were in bed by 8pm), then is shining brightly as if it was lunchtime at freaking 5:30 in the morning! This is madness! This is HOLLAND!

We walked to the shops today, such a great little town, I keep feeling like we are walking through a purpose built tourist town, but no, this is what their houses actually look like everywhere. (see below for a photo I took from google images of a street down the road from me)

We got to our first european supermarket, and it is incredibly cheap here for food that kinda tastes better than ours back home. Awkward.

Tomorrow we are picking up our campervan, or the day after… Or something.

Anyway…I still seem to be the only one posting blogs…Elky might one day if we’re lucky :-p

Smiley.

Poking tongue.

Aaron.

Well today was our final day in Australia before going away for 6 months…so crazy!

We spent the day with Justin and Steph, my lovely brother and sister in laws. We got up to some super crazy stuff! Including but not limited to:

1. Riding the ferry

2. Walking through Lunar Park without buying anything

3. Buying overpriced macaroons

4. Arguing with the barman over the meaning of ‘2 for 1’

All in all it was a great day which we ended with a literal bang as we watched fireworks being fired off for several minutes over Darling Harbour.

I can’t believe how crazy the trains are in Sydney! They have like double decker trains and multi story stations! Small town Adelaide has never even heard of such wonders! Crazy!

Anyway, bed time for me, we have a massive flight tomorrow…can’t wait.

Auf weirdersen….?

Aaron

Aghh!

For those of you who don’t know, my darling wife and I are leaving on Sunday 8th of July to visit Europe and the USA and we shan’t mean to come back…at lest until January sometime.

We felt it was necessary and clever to chronicle our 6 month journey via the blog you are now reading.

Twas a cold and frosty morning at the Eschauzier Farm