16. Malmö,
Sweden
We have time aplenty to get to Malmö today; it’s just across the bridge
from Copenhagen. We left Copenhagen late and still were early when we tried to
check into the Park Inn Hotel.
 |
| Long Tunnel |
I had made no plans to see anything in Malmö; this was to be a day of writing, reading, stretching out and doing nothing.
We are good at that, so we started off, after we found the hotel, to
just drive to the shopping mall located near the hotel. We did not even
check into the hotel yet, it is way too early. So I thought, let’s have
another cup of coffee and let’s see how their grocery shopping is in Sweden. I
kind of love visiting grocery stores, I always feel that is a place where you
cannot make it touristy, a place that real people go in order to just be
Swedish. Well, we are in Sweden now, so I will see, will hear, experience
Sweden as normal people live it.
 |
| Bridge Between Copenhagen and Sweden |
We kind of goofed off, just sitting at their ‘coffee bar’, having our
drink and then walked through the store and bought our lunch. We would have
this lunch later in the hotel room.
We idled away about an hour in the grocery store, it was close to lunch
and we walked slowly back to the car and... found we had a parking ticket! A
narrow, yellow strip asking me to pay 400 Swedish kronor (about US $45) was
slipped under the windshield wiper. What did we do?
I looked around; none of the other cars had a ticket. The parking lot
was huge, large enough to accommodate 100’s of cars but, as it usually is, the
cars are all bunched together. Our ‘group’ of cars was no more than a dozen cars;
it’s a Wednesday morning so the store was not busy. So what is the ticket for?
Puzzled, I put the ticket in the glove compartment and then drove to the hotel.
We checked in early, the hotel was very accommodating and while checking
in I asked them why I would get a ticket on the lot next to the grocery store.
Of course everything was printed in Swedish on the ticket, I could not read it.
I handed the women behind the counter the yellow strip and she read it. She
translated it as ‘Failed to Display Time Card’. Hmm. What time card? Well, Swedish cars have ‘electronic’ time
cards that, when the car stops, jump ahead and display a time. Usually 2 hours
going forward. One can adjust this clock or time-card. My car was a German rental
car, Germany does not have this gizmo in their cars so I would have to
‘manually’ display a card, showing the time I arrived plus advance a rotary
wheel inside the paper card 2 hours or 4 or 5 hours, depending how long I can
park at this spot for free. Ah, I get the idea but that is still a huge fee to
just park wrongly in an almost empty parking lot.
 |
| Coloured Glass Building on the Way Into Malmo |
Well I got a Swedish education from the lady behind the counter. She
told me do not pay the ticket, just rip it up, and forget about it. Hmm, that
is not in my nature, I do not like ‘unsolved’ things hanging over my head. So I
asked her why she would suggest this.
And she educated me as follows: firstly she said: “Sweden needs money”.
For all the social privileges Sweden has they need money. Money needs to be
collected and the people who are hired as ticket police need to at least earn
their monthly salary, so they write tickets; lots of them. They will try and
make it awkward for everybody. “There is too much traffic as it is in Sweden”:
she said.
(Hah, I thought, have you been on the 401 in Toronto?)
The grocery store hires ‘traffic controllers’ who are not legal police
folks, they just write tickets in the hope that people will pay. Swedish people
must pay because they can be pulled into court if they don’t pay, but foreigners,
especially in a rental car, do not have to worry. The grocery store has no way
of following my license plate, even electronically, back to the rental car
company in Germany. They have this system for Swedish cars, but not for all of
Europe. It would entail too much work, it would entail too much paper shuffling
and for the 400 Krona it is not worth it. The grocery store stands on thin
legal grounds but they will, of course, take your money if you are so foolish
as to pay it. Aha... I thought... is that right?
I tried to look this scenario up on line, under Swedish parking tickets?
 |
| More Swedish Architecture |
The results were mixed. Some reports say pay; some say don’t pay... I am
standing at the edge.
“So, rip up the ticket, don’t worry about it”: she said.
Hmm. Do I do this? What is your idea, would YOU pay?
Ah I must tell you about this one, too. Electronic living in Sweden:
They have an odd way of parking in the Hotel parking garage. You drive
up to a pole at the side of the driveway, facing a closed garage door. The pole
has a slot for a credit card on the bottom and a button. No signs, it is
self-explanatory, or so you think.
That’s it, you put your credit card in to the slot, pull it out and then
the door in front of you pops up and you drive in. Easy! Right?
Well I did that. I put my Visa credit card in the slot, withdrew my
credit card, the door opened up and I drove in and I got stuck after I passed
the first door (there were 2 doors). I had to make a U-turn in a small space
and drive back up the ramp. Carol jumped out to ask at the reception how to
park in this garage. We had to try again. You put your credit card in, then you
WAIT for a while until both doors open, then you drive in. OK, got that. I did
that and I waited, both doors opened and I drove in and parked.
No, you do not get a small ticket or receipt; you just drive in and
park. I asked the lady at the registration if I did that right, since I did not
get a parking receipt and she said, “Yes, you did that right. Tomorrow when you
check out, just put your credit card in to similar slot and then drive out,
it’s that simple”.
Well, wait until tomorrow’s report.
We just goofed off the rest of the day, I wanted to be in Sweden,
experience Sweden, and see for myself if there is a difference between Sweden
and Denmark.
No comments:
Post a Comment