Chapter Summaries

PART III

Scandinavian Serenity

Chapter 14

NORWEGIAN HIGHS AND LOWS

After arranging an informational exchange in Bergen,   "The Fjord Capital" of Norway, Melawend and I head inland, going up, and up, beyond the tree line.  I discover that the heavy-laden scooter with the little engine could take on the awesome heights of Norway’s hinterlands.

This chapter deals mainly with people-less travel – splendid, solitary sightseeing – until I reach the town or Porsgrunn, southeast of Oslo.   Here I contend with a delay common anywhere – a flat tire, in the rain, of course.  I am ripped off for $65 for a repair that should have cost $5. As I hitchhike with Melawend’s rear tire back to camp, a couple takes me in out of the rain.  But the place to which I was directed to camp is on the edge of war games.

In soggy Kragerø a penfriend and her fiancé translate a news article that has just been published about the odyssey, and tell me of their life in Norway.   Then Melawend and I set off for Oslo and Sweden.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 15

FALLOUT IN NOSTALGIC SWEDEN

After an unnerving night camped in a Swedish forest, Melawend and I ride to Stockholm where I do my best to meet people I believed were expecting me.

Sweden’s prime minister had been assassinated just six months earlier but it is Chernobyl that is on the minds of Swedes – they had been the first to detect the fallout.  At a rest stop, a man who drives a Chevrolet Caprice (which cost him the price of two Volvos) talks about Laplanders forced to slaughter their reindeer. After meeting officials in Stockholm, I meet a Swedish motorcycle officer who helps me get the broken platform back onto Melawend (I was concerned he’d ticket me for the huge load).  He talks about the time he had to go to Poland to help in the conscription of old men to help in the Chernobyl cleanup.

I recall thinking about Chernobyl back in Ontario partly because Sweden reminds me so much of my home province of Ontario – the landscape, the houses, the many American-made cars (late models and classics seem to be everywhere, including an immaculate 1957 Chevy which brings on a bit of personal nostalgia).

Yes, I do encounter several of the beautiful blond girls Sweden is famous for, but their smiles for me are only polite in my brief passing.  And the land reminds me too much of home.  I throttle up Melawend and head for Denmark where a girl is waiting for me.

 

 

Chapter 16

DANISH DELIGHTS

 

Because I am able to stay with a penfriend for a few days in Copenhagen, I discover more of the Scandinavian atmosphere (despite omnipresent Japanese tourists - like the group filming themselves clutching the Little Mermaid in the harbour).   Marie shows me some of the sights of the city Hans Christian Anderson called home.   She almost keels over with  laughter as we discover whether I am a man or a mouse.  

This segment is about relaxed tourism;  taking in the sights and local character, including the wedding reception on a ship in the harbour.  It's also about couples - people you see just about anywhere,  those who are couples and those who want to be - as seen here in affectionate couples around Copenhagen.

Then Melawend and I are off to spend a night on a Danish farm where language is problem but friendship is not.  The chapter also deals with communication between foreigners and overcoming the language barrier – which becomes an enjoyable challenge rather than a limiting obstacle.  I take in the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde and look at Danish folklore.

Finally, Melawend and I head south for the continent that inspires in me both a sense of fantastic historical ambiance and of dread – neo-Nazism combined with newsreel and Hollywood images of war-ravaged Europe, here, as we ride toward its north German door.

PART IV

Along European Lines

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