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Published: September 16th 2022
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What is it about a bridge that makes you either love it or hate it ? Perhaps like us you have stood in front of a bridge or driven over it and thought to yourself what an achievement that bridge was and still is . Ironbridge - the first iron bridge in the world . Telfords Menai Suspension Bridge . The Millau bridge . The Forth Road Bridge . We continue to build them and they are often both functional and beautiful . Shame I can not say the same for the book I am currently reading . Hailed as a recent classic - The Twyford Code sounded interesting . In reality I have found it hard going . It is written as a series of tapes and is not the most riveting book I have taken on holiday . I keep wanting to get to the end or to put it down but I keep with it . The characters are in Wrexham so that is a novelty and they visit the Bank . A wine bar that still stands on the High Street and was once a Bank . Perhaps by the end of the holiday I will get
to the end .
The driver is still finding the roads long and hard going and his knee is not holding up. Conversation does move towards perhaps selling the motorhome and moving on to some other form of transport and holiday . Maybe the time has come to reassess all this travelling and to find a more comfortable way to see the world .
We are travelling across from the island of Zealand to Funen and this is the only bridge we will be crossing as we have knocked Copenhagen and Malmo on the head as the travel times are too great and the cost too much to bear. We are crossing what is known in English as the Great Belt bridge and in Danish Storebaeltsbroen. It consists of a suspension bridge and a tunnel for trains to cross . There is a small island in the middle of the Great Belt called Sprogo. The length of the bridge is 11 miles . Half the Channel Tunnel distance . Two Danish companies built the bridge and we could see it as we approached it slowly . Seeing it through the morning mist was surreal .
Apparently it
took over 50 years of debate before the Danish government decided in 1986 to construct the link . Before that we would have been reliant on ferries to cross the Great Belt. It was said to be the largest construction project in history at the time although I guess now the Oresund between Denmark and Sweden beats that hands down . In the past it took one hour to cross the Great Belt by ferry and now it can be crossed in 10 minutes . I have no idea what the ferry cost would have been but it cost us 45 euros to use the bridge .
As we approached it was hard not to admire the structure . It was busy but we did get the opportunity to see all around us and take in the views . At the time it seems that the cost of constructing the bridge was 2.8 billion euros and it seemed worth every cent.
When we reached the other side we had to make a choice . Pay by credit card. Hate that one as always worry the machines will gobble up the card and refuse to spurt it back out again . So we picked the yellow manual lane which displayed a cash sign. All well and good until we stopped at the booth . No man to take our money . These machines were mechanised too and I could see no place to put cash into the machine . I had to hurredly find the credit card , push it into the machine and keep my fingers corssed that it would take the payment, lift the barrier and let us through .
The barrier did indeed lift , the card spewed back at me and I climbed back into Gabby and off we sped . The Great Belt Bridge traversed and we were on our way to see five Viking boats and the burial place of the Danish royal family .
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