Day 31 - Kristiansand, Norway to Göteborg, Sweden

Our journey today involved two ferries and was the shortest day's driving of the whole tour, at just over 100kms.

We left Norway, taking the 8am ferry to Hirtshals, Denmark, our twelfth country of the tour, albeit very briefly, before we took our second ferry to Göteborg in Sweden. Hirtshals is on the northern coast of the Jutland Peninsular.  Jutland is famous for the largest naval battle in history that took place off its western coast on May 31st 1916 in the First World War. It was between the Royal Navy and the German Imperial Fleet. Both sides claimed victory and, although the British lost more ships and twice as many sailors as the Germans, the Germans failed to destroy the Royal Navy as a fighting force.

Leaving Norway.

 

The journey took just over three hours and when we were about an hour away from Denmark, the Seacat of Stenaline overtook us.

We arrived at Hirsthals in Denmark at 11.30am. Here we are driving down the ramp from the ship into Denmark.

 

We had just over two hours before our next ferry, the 2pm sailing from Frederikshavn, which is on the eastern side of Jutland, about 50kms away from Hirtshals. We decided to take the 'scenic' route, which took us along the northern shoreline and then headed for Skagen at the very tip of Jutland. It was a lovely drive across flat country. with sand dunes between the road and the sea.

Alongside the road were row after row of beautiful wild flowers

One of the many typical Danish houses we saw, painted in yellow with a red tile roof.

The straight road to Skagen.

We reached Skagen and only had time for a brief stop at the sea and then a quick drive through the town, before heading due south for the 40km drive to the ferry.

At Skagen's waterfront.

We caught sight of this windmill, the only one we saw today in our drive through Denmark. It was just visible, in the distance, above the roofs of the houses of Skagen.

It seemed every single house in Skagen was yellow!

 

The drive to the ferry was uneventful, except for the fact that I think I got 'flashed' by a speed camera. The Danish have this strange way of marking their speed limits. As you leave a 60kph zone going to an 80kph zone, you have a sign with the 60 crossed out. Unfortunately for me, they use the same 60 crossed out sign when you go from 60kph to 50kph in a town. They do not appear to have a 50km sign. Within a couple of hundred metres, the speed camera flashed. Let's hope that, as I am from the UK, nothing will happen.

We boarded the ferry for the three hour journey to Sweden. The weather was absolutely perfect and the sea beautifully calm. We could all enjoy the sunshine on the outside decks. The arrival into Goteborg is a wonderful sail up a wide estuary. We saw this huge flotilla of small yachts racing around marker buoys. There must have been a couple of hundred yachts of different sizes.

As we approached the ferry terminal, we went past what looked like an old fort in the middle of the estuary.

We came up to a suspension bridge and assumed we would berth before it - incorrectly, as it turned out!
I estimated we had only about six feet clearance between the top of the funnel and the underside of the bridge.

 

 

Some views of Göteborg as we approached the terminal.

 

 

Göteborg's equivalent of the London Eye.

We quickly disembarked and drove the couple of kilometres to our hotel, The Elite Plaza.

Bob's car parked outside the hotel with one of the city's blue trams passing.

In the evening, we went to a local Mexican restaurant where we ate outside. It was a great meal and a perfect way to end the day with everyone enjoying themselves. I took a few photos with my iPhone but, for reasons beyond me, I cannot rotate the photos to show them on the blog. I'll have another go tomorrow and, with a bit of luck, you will see how the group spent the evening!!