First Flight and the Sexy Bridge
Part of the trip -
Sweden - the Very South
An attempt to conquer a fear of flying leads to an interesting trip to Sweden
“How much do you reckon it'll cost to cross the Öresund Toll Bridge?” I wondered
“Why don't you Google it?” said Ann.
We had booked seats on an SAS flight to Copenhagen. From there we planned to hire a car and drive across the Öresund to Sweden. You used to have to cross the 16 kilometre wide Öresund strait by ferry but, a few years ago they opened a new tunnel and road bridge, and now you could drive across.
The first part is a tunnel under the sea from Copenhagen to an artificial island out in the strait. And then from there a long and slender bridge snakes up and over the remaining stretch of water, and then finally down into Sweden. It is an impressive piece of engineering and the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe.
Ann, my wife, had never flown before – she had a fear of flying. But she was determined to beat her phobia, and had finally agreed to give flying a go. To lessen the ordeal we chose a short flight on a decent airline and, to provide some incentive to go through with it, we chose a place she particularly wanted to go to.
That place was Ystad, an old mediaeval town on the southern coast of Sweden, which is the setting for the Wallander detective stories written by Swedish author, Henning Mankell. We hadn't read the books but we had seen both the Swedish tv series and the award-winning BBC tv series, starring Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. Wallander is a crusty, middle-aged detective from Ystad who has his own way of doing things, but is a bit vulnerable.
The programmes had been filmed on location in and around Ystad and gave tantalizing glimpses of the picturesque town and the strikingly tranquil countryside around it. We both thought that, one day, we would like to go there, not because we were particularly Wallander 'anoraks', but because the place looked so appealing.
Copenhagen was the nearest airport which, since the building of the Öresund Toll Bridge, was only an hour's drive away from Ystad.
I Googled 'Öresund Toll Bridge' to find out what the toll would be and read the first entry:-
“Öresund Toll Bridge – the famous new sex position in Sweden” Oops!
Apparently the bridge's undulating logo was the inspiration for this “new sex position”! And it was being used to promote a well known chain of clothes shops in Sweden. Trust those Swedes!
Surprisingly the website also gave information about the tolls – for an ordinary car it was about £32, which I suppose is about what you might expect to pay for a ferry crossing.
Unfortunately, when the day finally came, things didn't go too smoothly for Ann's first flight. It was a stiflingly hot day in Manchester and, after boarding the plane, our flight was delayed on the runway for ¾ hour. The upside to this was that it was a relief when we finally took-off. With steely determination Ann remained calm. She looked out of the window only once - for a split second - and spent the rest of the flight staring at her knees and clasping my hand. It reminded me of the times when she was in labour and practically broke every bone in my hand.
Then, unfortunately, half way through the flight the captain announced that parts of Copenhagen Airport had been shut down due to a severe storm over Denmark. However, he was still going to attempt to land in a remote part of the airport - to enable people to catch their connecting flights. Ann continued to look at her knees and grasped my hand even harder.
After a bumpy landing in a very wet and windy Copenhagen (role reversal with Manchester!) we stumbled out of the plane, down the steps, and into the buses waiting for us on the tarmac. This was followed by a minor panic in the baggage reclaim hall when it looked like my bag had gone astray. But it eventually turned up and we picked up our car, drove across the very sexy Öresund Toll Bridge in a howling gale, and an hour later we were in Ystad.
I was proud of Ann but she was quite shaken by the flight and really needed time to get over it. Even though she loved Ystad and the return flight was uneventful, flying wasn't a happy experience for her and she has not flown since.
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