ROOTS - not the movie - 4

      As mentioned in the previous post day 2 in Denmark started out awfully early with a sunrise about 4:25 AM (GMT+1). After the usual hygiene duties and a nice Danish breakfast of more "real" bread, cold cuts, cheeses and coffee it was time to organize the day;

• Transportation - my sister in law Lone was then the owner of a nice small Toyota Land Cruiser, stick shift, 4 cylinder diesel engine and she offered it for our use while we were there. This is a little "jeep" type looking thing that would serve our purpose well. 
• Currency - we have US Dollars in the form of cash and traveler checks. Some of the traveler checks will have to be converted or cashed and turned into Danish Kroner so we need to go to a bank. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_krone )
• As a matter of urgency and therefore very important, I have not had a proper Rød pølse since 1989 or 18 years ago, so this is a must on this day. A Rød pølse (Red Sausage) is a hot dog, but the casing of the hot dog is distinctively red and crisp, served on a bun with mustard, dill, pickled cucumber, and other goodies.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B8d_p%C3%B8lse (PS - I haven't had one since that day and it was over 7  years ago, so have a certain amount of empathy for me.) Those of you who have enjoyed a real Chicago Hot Dog will have some idea of what this is all about.

  

  This is not a Rød pølse but the famous Chicago Hot Dog, this
  one enjoyed at a Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros Game
  at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

      Of we go, first to the gas station to fill this little Toyota up - and we are in for one "hell" of a shock. We knew that things were going to be expensive, but we had no idea.

      We pull right up the diesel pump, I insert my American Visa Card which the machine swallows and then on the display it says, in Danish of course "indtast pin kode", in other words, "enter pin number". We don't have pin numbers on our Credit Cards in the US, only on the Debit Cards.

      Now the &%$#*@ pump will not release my credit card, but my language will not add anything of value to this post. So off I go into the station and explain my dilemma to the attendant, a nice lady who happened to be Norwegian. She releases the card and informs me that she will override the pin code requirement, good news.

     Back to the pump, which has now released my card, and I begin pumping diesel into my sister in laws little bitty Toyota, surely this thing won't hold much past 10 gallons (37.84 liters). Well, if memory serves my correctly it held a couple of gallons more but of course the pump is not dispensing gallons but liters while the on the display the amount of kroner is rolling by at a fantastic speed.

      I am mentally trying to convert from Danish Kroner to US Dollars as we are pumping. At home, Houston Texas, gas prices were at that time about  $2.98 per gallon / $0.79 per liter and diesel about 12 to 15 cents per gallon more. It takes about, again at that time, about $37.00 to fill my little Subaru Forester up with gasoline. Being conditioned by that I note that my heart rate and blood pressure is rapidly increasing as we go $5.00, $10.00, $15.00, $20.00, $25.00, $30.00, $35.00, $40.00, $45.00, $50.00, $55.00, $60.00, $65.00, $70.00, $75.00, $80.00, $85.00, $90.00 - finally $92.00 - GET THE SMELLING SALTS OUT, please, we have to revive this man.

      Then off to the  bank to convert traveler checks into hard currency. Then off for the Røde pølse.

      My brother Frank and his wife live on the island of Moen (Møn) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B8n near the "big" town of Stege http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stege,_Denmark, the city in which we purchased the gas, exchanged the currency and ate the Røde pølser (plural).

      For some odd reason we didn't take any pictures this particular day most likely because I was in a state of chock after the gas station, or if we did they have been deleted.

       With the essentials out of the way, let us see what we can find of local attractions; there is Stege Vold, the old city wall made for protection against invaders. Most of the links I have been able to find are in Danish so I recommend copying the text into google translate to see what they say. This link has a nice photo of one of the old towers on the wall; http://www.geolocation.ws/v/P/44005765/road-to-stege/en 
and this link shows a good section of the wall and the moat; http://www.geolocation.ws/v/P/77182153/stege-vold-juli-2012/en
There is also the old commercial harbor which is now mostly a marina and being a former seafarer (Ship Captain) and a former sailboat owner I have a natural inclination to gravitate to all things marina and ports and boats.
http://www.vordingborg.dk/cms/site.aspx?p=23547
  
      Attached, if you will, to the island of Møn by a very narrow land bridge is the very small and old town of Nyord (New Word). This is a rather picturesque community (what did we do with the pictures), which is reached by a road along the beach. As with all small communities in Denmark, if you are on the coast, you have a small harbor basin and at one time Nyord was a busy fishing port. http://www.geolocation.ws/v/P/77184135/nyord-bygade-juli-2012/en

     After bumming around for awhile we headed back to my brothers house for dinner and an evening of great conversation about the "old days". It is important to remember that when I left home to go to sea in 1961 Frank had not yet started first grade in school so much of what I remembered he didn't remember at all.

 More to follow in the next post.