RoadTrip #37.11-13: Eurotrip Day 11-13/13 – From Wolfsburg, DE to Kolding, DK, to Ullared, SE and HOME (ft. Autostadt, Old Town Kolding, the Great Belt Bridge, Middelalderlandsbyen, the Øresund Bridge, and welcoming Maxx to the family)

Denmark, EUROPE, Germany, ROADTRIPS w/ Carl & Maerose, Romantic Escapades ❤, Sweden

RoadTrip #37.11-13: Eurotrip Day 11-13/13 – From Wolfsburg, DE to Kolding, DK, to Ullared, SE and HOME (ft. Autostadt, Old Town Kolding, the Great Belt Bridge, Middelalderlandsbyen, the Øresund Bridge, and welcoming Maxx to the family)

02/06/2023

4–6 minutes

Here comes the final entry from last year’s roadtrip! I’m including all from Day 10 to Day 13, since there wasn’t really any big activity during the drive back home. From Wolfsburg, where the Volkswagen HQ and the world’s biggest car plant is located, we drove northwards to Kolding, Denmark. We spent a night there, and then crossed the Great Belt Bridge (Storebæltet) which connects the Danish islands of Jutland and Zealand. We had a brief stop at a “medieval open air museum” in Zealand before crossing the Øresund Bridge to Sweden. The last night during the trip was spent in Ullared, home to Sweden’s biggest department store. We contemplated about getting a second cat all the way home, and so, we did it! We picked up Maxx on the drive to Norway.

Here’s the entire route for the trip, c/o Google Maps:

In general, we were satisfied with the hotel in Wolfsburg, gave it a 10 with this review: “Spacious and well-ventilated room, easy check in instructions, free parking. Friendly staff. Supermarkert across the road. Good restaurant serving nice dinner. The only downside would be the check in times.”

Before finally leaving the city, we made sure to check out Autostadt, although it was still closed so early in the morning. In Autostadt, one can visit the glass car towers, the Zeithaus museum, pavilions and playgrounds. It was all about Volkswagen. 🙂 https://www.autostadt.de/en/explore

We reached Kolding, Denmark at around 1:30pm. Kolding is a coastal town on the Danish island of Jutland, known for its industrial companies focusing on shipbuilding. However, when we were there, instead of checking out the port, we visited the Old Town, with its shops and little canals.

We stayed in an Bed&Breakfast for the night. It was a cozy building, with a tiny room, called Villa Gertrud. As expected, accommodation in Denmark was a bit expensive than mainland Europe. But what stood out about the place was that they only accepted cash and/or local mobile payment, which we obviously didn’t have. The room was not noiseproof, and in addition, they only had 3 parking spaces. We had a “fun” time trying to find out how to get to the public parking building. haha

Anyways, everything went well. The next day, we were on the road again and decided to take the bridges thru Sweden, instead of the boat from Hirtshals to Larvik, Norway. The first time I crossed the Storebæltet, or the Great Belt Bridge, was via train way back in 2014. It’s an 18 kilometer suspension bridge with a railway tunnel, which was in operation since 1997-1998.

At the eastern foot of the bridge, there was the small Isbådsmuseet, exhibiting ice ships and ferry crossings in the Great Belt. As for the toll fee, we paid thru the toll gates. No hassle 🙂

As I’ve lived in Denmark for 2,5 years (Carl for a part of his childhood), we had not come up with a special attraction to visit on the way home. Well, we stopped by the Middelalderlandsbyen, an open air museum, which left the impression of being more of a local favorite. There were children on excursion during that time, and I guess, it was too late for the activities (no longer summer). There was a nice pond and traditional houses in the area.

Before lunchtime, we were crossing the Øresund Bridge to Sweden. This time, we paid the toll fee online. Usually, I crossed the bridge by bus when I visit my sister in Denmark, and once by train. Since, we were driving, we managed to stop by the foot of the bridge on the Swedish side and take some beautiful photos.

We also saw a crow. He seemed to be monitoring us. Or we monitored him. 🙂

It was a bit sad that the roadtrip was nearing its end, and basically, summer as well. We had a great time!

In Ullared, we went shopping, enjoyed some Swedish pizza, and stayed in Ameriden Bed&Breakfast. We were both satisfied with the accommodation: “A charming house by the meadows, near a church, and a few minutes drive to Gekås Ullared. Friendly host, spacious enough room, extra amenities like living rooms and common kitchen. Free parking space. Peaceful and quiet. Good breakfast.”

As mentioned in the heading, we contemplated a lot about getting a second cat. So we did 🙂 Missy has been a spoiled cat; now, we have two to spoil. We got a male one, an orange one, from a rural place somewhere in Aremark, Norway. The couple was okay, and they were keeping one of the kittens. Maxximilian was the full name of our new cat, or Maxx for short. He was a shy one, awkward, and he puked on the way home. But he was very easy to fall in love with!

Now, introducing Maxx to Missy was not easy at first. She was hissing a lot at him on the first 3 days. Carl’s theory was that Missy really believed she was a human. Lol. And now, here comes a strange cat. Well, my theory was that she was easily jealous. We tried several things for them to get along and accept each other.

And on Day 5, things turned for the best. We didn’t have to give one of them away! I guess it helped that they have different personalities: Missy is playful, fast, jealous, communicative WHILE Maxx is shy, patient, quirky.. and just doesn’t give a darn about Missy’s hissing. He kept on being nice to her.