It was like my childhood holidays. We packed the car, took the boat to Sweden and drove across Europe.
My dad had come up with the idea that he could drive me to Brussels. Mum was eager to join. This is what we used to do when me and my sisters were small, we would drive by car to Southern France or Italy from Finland. I have good recollection of those car trips across Germany; hardly making any pauses on the way, car fully packed, the views flashing by. Perhaps we spent a night in a guest house and enjoyed a great German breakfast in the morning.
I can't remember those long boat trips across the Baltic sea to Travemunde, and this time as well, we decided to rather drive across Sweden than take the approximately 36-hours long boat trip in a potential autumn storm (also more expensive than going via Sweden).
This time it was me planning the route. Well, Via Michelin planned the route for me. A total of 17 hours of drive from Stockholm to Brussels.
Here's our route:
1) Helsinki-Turku harbor: 2 hours (with a quick stop in Kaarina). Boat at 20h55.
2) Turku-Stockholm by Viking Line Grace (118 Euros for a car, three people in a cabin and breakfast buffet), arriving to Stockholm at 6h30 local time (just in time to avoid all the traffic jams).
3) Stockholm-Eskilstrup (Denmark): 10 hours with some traffic jam around Copenhagen and three breaks on the way (including lunch at a gas station: I had a veggie burger, but I'm still doubting if it wasn't meat after all). We took the route via Öresund bridge, the setting for the great Danish-Swedish crime series "The Bridge". Bridge toll: 40 Euros.
4) Night at a lovely Bakkegaarden Bed & Breakfast in Eskilstrup. The place was set in the Danish countryside and it would have most likely been really beautiful if we could have seen it in the thick fog. The B&B is totally recommendable even though it was a bit hard to find at first. The couple keeping the place is lovely and the lady insisted in speaking in Swedish to us. "Joo, joo, vi pratar svenska, så härlig här!"
5) Leaving Bakkegaarden at 8h40. Taking the Scandlines ferry from Rodby to Puttgarden in Germany at 9h40 (69 Euros). This is the ferry where we always ate Danish red sausages when I was a kid (always? once? I don't know if it even was this ferry or the one from Sweden to Denmark...). My parents kept on asking: "But don't you remember this?" Well, after all, it was more than 20 years ago... Mum was excited about the cheap dog food in the ferry shop, but I felt that the ferry was way too crowded and the smell of sausages disgusted me.
6) Arriving to Germany at 10h25. Scenery starts to be more diverse and even though it was the first day of November, the temperature was still +20C. Dad drove 160 km/h at some points; looking cars driving past when we had a pause at a gas station, the speed looked completely crazy.
7) Driving so fast in the German autobahns, we approached Brussels much earlier than planned. We arrived there at 18h30 after driving around 9,5 hours.
8) I managed to find a little shop and bought frozen pizza for supper. My parents thought it was delicious. Sometimes it's easy to travel with non-snobs.
And then in Brussels, of course, time for Manneken Pis.
