CnC: Day 04 - All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt

20 Aug

Being Sunday and we were uncertain as to when or if places will open, we chose to have breakfast at the hotel.

Car parked, technology engaged, GPS set to fast, we're underway. We are having fun trying to interpret the various road signs.

We never did find the town called Ausfahrt.

After a short time we probably should have selected scenic as there was roadworks blocking our path. We duly turned around and tried an alternative track only to be thwarted by another road closure for a push bike event. With the GPS still in fast mode it tried to get us to come back around to where we were first stopped. We ignored the instructions and tried other roads in the hope that the GPS would find a way around.

After ending back where we were first turned around, we pulled over had a look at our maps program as well as the GPS to see where we might have more success. Again we set off this time without GPS, just reading maps.

Things were looking up until we came across another set of roadworks with no way through. The fellow telling us to turn around wasn't speaking English and we had forgotten the word autobahn. Finally with both Clint and the fellow pointing at the map, we were told back there, turn right in gestures.

Ok, off we go again, by this time we had done a lot of driving in the suburbs around Hamburg and were thinking we should have set the GPS to scenic. The way around all of the blockages took some time. We went past the Hamburg airport and we're starting to feel a little confident.

On approach to the freeway entrance there were police, and lots of traffic cones. Oh no! Not another one! We worked our way through the cones and finally, success!! We were on the freeway again.

If you look closely at our SPOT map south of Hamburg, our track zigzags all over the place.

On to the craziness of the autobahn to leave Germany for Denmark with windy rainy squalls making the drive even more interesting.

Roadworks make the lanes a little squeezy

Rain makes it even more exciting

Clint thought of refuelling in Germany as the diesel prices we'd been seeing in the suburbs were quite reasonable, €1.10. Out on the autobahn the price was €1.22. We crossed into Denmark through a border check which slowed the traffic down to 40kph and one lane. We were waved through and took the next turn off to find fuel.

With a bit of driving around we found a gas station. The signed price for diesel was closer to the earlier suburban price. We fuelled up, took on 40 litres for a bit over 700km. Thankfully this station was showing the WC sign which we didn't ignore.

In all our driving around we managed to cross back into Germany and then back into Denmark. This time the border guard signalled for us to stop and asked for our passports. No problem. Thank you! Out again onto the freeway. Since being in Denmark, there are advisory signs showing places to recharge electric vehicles.

We've arrived at Hirtshals early in the afternoon for the night. We have a room that overlooks the dunes.

They advertised all rooms have a sea view - well - yeah.

With being on the beachfront it was worth a walk down to check what the beach was like. Turns out cars are allowed on the beach. It was very windy and quite cool.

We didn't stay long and headed into Hirtshals proper to have a look around. We found a fish cafe (Hirtshals Fiskehus) and ordered a kiddies meal of one piece of plaice and chips each and a Coke, priced in Danish Krone (DKK) and paid for in Euro. The conversion rate seems to be 7 DKK to 1 Euro.

We then went for a walk around the inner harbour looking at the various styles of fishing vessels.