European Adventures - 17. Oskarshamn

17. Oskarshamn

We had an absolutely great breakfast; really, really one of the best. Yummy! 

After breakfast the parking problems started.

We loaded up the car, I got into the driver’s seat and backed up, drove to the pole, put a Visa card in and out and as before the doors opened up and I was ready to drive out but when I pulled forward a car cut me off and drove in. The car beeped the horn slightly to warn me, and after the car passed me I drove out. I am out, so let’s go, get on the highway. But something nagged at me. Why was the car driving in when I wanted to drive out? And why did he beep, thinking he had the right of way? Something is not right. Carol, please go and ask if we did this right!

I pulled up to the reception and Carol got out of the car to ask.

Carol had to wait at the reception until 2 people checking out were finished before she could ask if we did something wrong. Yes, the lady said, you did it wrong. Please go down, put the credit card back in the pole slot downstairs, wait for the green light and then its ok, then you paid. 

So, Carol came back to the car, asked me for my credit card and then disappeared back into the Hotel to get into the garage via the elevator. I sat and waited in the car, in front of the Hotel. After a while Carol came back all frustrated and told me that I have to drive back into the garage. She handed me back my credit card. I am confused. Go down again? I want to leave; I am out already, what is all of this? 

When Carol asked the receptionist for help she was told, no, you have to put the car back down, you have to WAIT downstairs for the green light before you can drive out. You cannot just do it in person standing there, you must be in a car, and the sensors in the pole must notice a metal hunk, a car. Something big must be next to the pole.

Okay, now how do I get back down there? I put my credit card in to get to go down again?  I was confused, but Carol is patient, and both of us got into the car again and drove around to the garage entrance. We were met by a Hotel employee, who spoke in Swedish using the button below the credit card slot, to a man who runs the garage. She was making sure we were not charged for re-entering the garage. I drove in.

In the garage was the receptionist, who told me to turn around and give her the credit card. I did that. She pushed the card into the slot and she again talked to the guy via pushing the button on the pole and then handed me the card back, I drove out.

Ah, the electronic age, the whole shebang did not work as far as I was concerned. It was way too complicated, way too selective, way too easy to make mistakes like this.

I thanked the 2 Hotel ladies, because... it was not the Hotel’s parking lot, it was another business all together that had nothing to do with the hotel. Parking was not part of the Hotel; it was just a courtesy that the ladies gave me. Thank you Park Inn, you have good employees in Malmö.

I am still a bit confused about parking in Sweden. What a stupid way to set it up.

Just imagine if I had driven off, the parking meter would still be running, because my Visa card had checked in but not out. As far as the computer knew, I was still in the garage when I first drove out. The car driving in triggered the doors, I was just there at the wrong (right?) time to drive out. 

And what would have happened if I had used another credit card, not the card I used to drive in? Would it work? Would it work with a Master Card, Amex?

The set up is silly, confusing, and stupid and yet... Sweden is very proud of their electronic acumen.

Old Style Windmill

And that is how the day started. By now I had forgotten about the nice breakfast the hotel had served.  I was confused leaving Malmö. 

First I get a ticket in an empty parking lot and then....

I am dealing with a computerized system that is totally dysfunctional, a beta version that needs fine tuning. 

Not a good impression of my first city in Sweden. So far, Sweden, I am not impressed.

The ladies at the hotel were great though, very helpful.

Modern Windmill

One lady told me to not speed in Sweden. Speeding tickets are very expensive she said.

I listened, but it was difficult to obey, I am not Swedish.

The landscape, once you leave a town is.... I am trying to think of a polite word.

Not exited?    Farm land?      Some woods?   All of the above?

Farmland

Ho hums! I purposely picked local roads, not the highway that goes north along the Baltic Sea, hoping to be able to get peeks of the ocean; Hoping to see Swedish life along the way. No such luck, trees are in the way or the road was not even close to the water. And the villages we did pass through were set back, not visible. I was very disappointed with driving through rural Sweden. The speed limits alone change at, what seems to me, random. On a perfectly lonely road the speed limit is 80 km only to drop down to 50 km for just a short stretch, then goes to 80 again. I could not perceive a reason for the lower limit. Some spots allow a whopping 110 km but only for a very short distance, then the limit goes down to 30. I am sure there is a reason for all of this, but I don’t get it. It was a boring, frustrating drive going north towards Stockholm, our final destination. 

Forest But No Views of the Baltic Sea

After battling these roads for close to 5 hours I had had it. We stopped in a medium sized town named Oskarshamn. From the map we knew it was a ferry town and yes, they had a hotel, a Best Western of all things. But it was a Best Western in name only. It was neither Best, nor Western. We made do with what we got; the coffee and the cookie we received when we checked in did nothing for us. The restaurant that was recommended by the front desk of this place was also nothing to write about. So far, this trip in Sweden is a dud. Let’s see what tomorrow will bring. The parking in Oskarshamn was easy, though, we parked under an old tree, right in front of the hotel. I liked the parking. We did not have to do anything electronic.

Oskarshamn

European Adventures - 16. Malmö, Sweden

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

The GPS led us through a long tunnel, over a huge bride and then we were in Sweden. Once you are on the Swedish side there is a Passport control. We had to show our passports but then were free to go. 

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.