a bit of a dilemma about the road. we need to get from Kalmar to Lübeck and there are two options: take a ferry (either from Sweden or Denmark) or drive around through the Danish peninsula. strangely enough there does not seem to be much difference in the estimated travel times, it might be faster by ferry if you have traffic jams, but slower if you have to wait long before boarding the ferry. we decide to take the cheapest option and drive around. from Kalmar to Malmö we have the usual Swedish roads: sometimes single lane at 100 km/h, sometimes two lanes, sometimes a road with crossroads and traffic lights. even so, traffic is pretty light so we make good progress. to stave off the boredom, the co-pilot looks up the details of all tourist attractions we pass (some castles and manor houses, some nature parks, ..) and tells the driver all the details.
to cross from Sweden to Denmark we take the 8 km long Öresund bridge. it’s expensive at 60 €, but still cheaper than the ferry and way cooler. the bridge is high enough to allow container and cruise vessels to pass below it on their way to the Baltic sea. the crossing through Denmark is much busier, we even take a small detour off the highway to avoid a major traffic jam, which is in fact a nice change from driving on the long, wide highway lanes. we stop at a roadside station for a quick lunch, not really tasty but fast and reasonably cheap.
our hotel is Lübeck looks out over the Trave river and the old town on the other side. it’s a big hotel, but what pleases us the most is the air conditioning in the room. the reception has a small info board, explaining that the aircondition is set up to lower the temp no more than 6° below the outside temperature, as advised by some health department somewhere, so we can only assume Lübeck has been suffering under the heat as much as the south of Sweden and Denmark. there is a food and music festival ongoing right next to the hotel, so after dinner on the terrace of one of the hotel restaurants we set off for a small constitutional. the stage is setup on a pontoon in the river, with the crowd looking out from the river bank, nicely done.
Febe writes 