CRUISE VIGNETTES 57, Ferry Boats

FROM SWEDEN TO DENMARK
We bought a ticket for the ferryboat from Helsingor, Denmark to Helsingborg, Sweden, (half hour ride) and the return from Goteborg, Sweden to Fredrikshaven, Denmark, (three hours) for the grand cost of $36. This must be the lowest ferryboat fares, and the best ferryboats in the world. (We’ve ridden both of these ferry boats in two different years.)

There was quite a difference between the boat for the return from Sweden to Denmark, and the one across the Adriatic from Italy to Yugoslavia, a couple of years earlier. This was on a Sunday morning, and on this Swedish ferryboat they had a 15 piece band to entertain the passengers. There was another four or five piece band and a group of young girls singing beautiful familiar hymns.

There were very nice public rooms, and the ferryboat had an excellent buffet brunch for about $4 each. A better buffet than the far more expensive smorgasbord at Stockholm’s Grand Hotel. Emmy especially liked a creamed potato anchovy casserole dish — delicious, she said. On the Italian ship there was little selection and the food was not very good, and it was expensive. The Italian ship was crowded and hot, while on this Swedish ship all is plush and as nice as a big cruise ship. There is a difference.

Our seat mate at lunch was a Vice President of the Lego Toy Company, an interesting man (and his wife) to talk with. He told us about an amusement park called Legoland, that his company had recently built in Billund, Denmark. They have small versions of the Acropolis from Athens, the Presidents from Mt. Rushmore, monuments from the Nile river in Egypt, and many other things, all built from Lego blocks. Yes we did visit, and it was well done, and a lot of fun.

OVERNIGHT FROM SARDINIA TO SICILY
In 1980 we, and the RV, had taken a morning ferry from Livorno, Italy to Bastia, Corsica, France, then a few days later, a 30 minute trip from Bonifacio, Corsica to St. Teresa Gallura, Sardinia, Italy. We planned to spend a few days on Sardinia, and since the ferry to Trapani, Sicily only ran every once in a while, we had to make a reservation. For a day or two the computer that was used to make reservations was not working, but then we bought a one night first-class ticket for us, and a space for the RV, at a cost of $144. Our usual rule was: (almost) never a reservation, (almost) never a problem.

We had asked if it was possible to spend the night in the RV, but when we found a truck filled with smelly sheep parked right next to our RV, we were just as happy that we had paid for a room. The next morning when we unloaded at Trapani, Sicily, the sheep were even more smelly.

On the ship, I was reading a fiction book where one of the characters had been in Sicily during WW II, and talked about some Greek ruins at a town called Agrigento, Sicily. I said we will look on the map, and if Agrigento exists, we must go there and see what there is to see. (It was and we did! A fantastic place to visit.)