Travelling
For many years travelling has been very dear to me. Just to take a seat, leave your troubles behind and experience something new, that’s the ticket;) It’s not that I do it that often but boarding an airplane or just going somewhere by car or train is so liberating and it’s somewhat of a thrill, albeit quite small, not knowing entirely what awaits you at the end of the journey.
In the mist
A photo of the bridge but perhaps from a slightly different angle? In order to take the picture I had to climb the hills just by the freeway. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. They are pretty steep:)
Sweden 2 Denmark
Here’s a view that I think is new for most people? A train is closing in on the border between Sweden and Denmark, nicely marked out with the flag of each country. If you get really close you see even more evidence of the border by looking at the markers placed in the bridge.
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Safety
Believe me when I say that safety is the keyword that you’re concerned about when standing on the top of a ladder on a small passage between the Øresund Bridge itself and one of its pillars with a drop of close to 70 meters down to the water on either side. Even so, climbing those steps takes guts with an additional dose of guts sprinkled on top of that:)
Geest
For those of you new to the blog, I worked a while at the Øresund Bridge a couple of years ago. Those memories came back to me last night as my girlfriend and I watched the first episode of a new Danish/Swedish series called Bron/Broen. It takes place in the near surroundings of the Bridge, Copenhagen and Malmö. Our impression of the first episode was really good so Wednesdays at 8 is from now on marked in our calendar. Anyway, that series made me think that it’s about time for some more pictures showing my very own adventures on the bridge:) We’ll start off with today’s picture which was taken at the high bridge just as a freight train passed me by.
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Vertigo
A while ago I worked at the Øresund bridge and had the opportunity to visit three out of the four pillars at the high bridge. I have shown quite a few pictures from that time but never this which shows the edge of the concrete wall in the foreground. In the background Malmö relaxes in the sunlight. Check out the dedicated category for more pictures from the bridge:)
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Fireworks
This photo was taken just before the one that I posted here a while ago. It shows the fireworks that was shot off in order to celebrate the tenth year of The Øresund Bridge.
A decade, and then some
Wow! Yesterday broke all records on this blog. I posted a comment at Sydsvenskan and attached a link to my homepage. This led to a whopping 398 unique visitors!:) I realize that this is a record that will be extremely hard, if not impossible, to beat so I’ve decided to stop here and now.
Just kidding;) Hopefully some of you will find your way back here sometime. Until then I bring you another shot from last night. It has a slightly different angle and shows the silhouette and citylights from Copenhagen. This was taken even later in the evening, at 5 to 1 so it’s the same routine as in the previous shot with a 30 second exposure time.
I forgot to wish you all a great weekend yesterday, hope it’s not to late;)
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A decade
This is a picture that I took the same night as the Øresund Link had its 10th birthday. The event itself was unfortunately just a bit disappointing with, at best, okish fireworks and an almost invisible lasershow. I was frankly expecting a bit more and, judging by their laughter, so did all the people standing close to where I was;)
Anyway, enough about that. Let’s return to the today’s photo. It is actually a rather spectacular shot in my book. I took it at 0.50 in the night and had the exposure time set to 30(!) seconds. With all that light hitting the ccd sensor even the dark nightsky gets a little bit lighter while the stars is still clearly visible. The beams of light emanating from the bridge is that of the laser show. I’m actually a tad proud of this picture:)
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Broloppet 2010
Exchange that lonesome car for 30000 people and you’ve got this years edition of Broloppet, the half marathon across the Øresund Bridge. Now, I have walked across it many times, this time I will try to run across it with my girlfriend and 29998 others. Yes, it’s certainly a very exciting day because neither of us have run longer than 10 kilometres before and I’m a bit nervous about more than twice the distance but perhaps running on asphalt is going to be the toughest challenge? Tune in tomorrow if you want the details:)
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Malmö
This is basically the same picture that I posted a few weeks ago but it has a more panoramic view over Malmoe. For example can the Turning Torso be seen on the far left. As a side note I can hear that the rain is back after a week of sunshine. I say hear because the repairs on my house continues for some weeks more and life behind the tarpaulin is far from over.
As always, please press the picture for a bigger version:)
Pylon
Another trip to the bridge, this time in black and white. We’re looking at one of the pylons and, in the background, Kastrup which is the airport of Copenhagen.
Traffic
The traffic on the bridge is quite heavy and loud when you work beside it. Flying rocks is also something you have to take into consideration when some of the trains pass by at higher speed. Here’s a picture of one of the vehicles in full action. I guess the photo is ok, especially considering I didn’t have time to train 
Markers
The metal markers that show the border between Sweden and Denmark have been posted here before. Today’s picture was taken with my own life at stake;) Some of the trains pass us by at 180km/h and they create a wall of air in front of them with pressure enough to grab rocks from the bottom of the tracks and throw them at random places. It can be quite scary although I still haven’t witnessed one of these occasions.
Rails
Here is a different angle of the bridge, here seen from beneath, standing at one of the pillars. The roof is, of course, the bottom o the bridge and the rails that runs under it is for the gantry, the vehicle that is being used for repairs and maintenance.
Have a nice weekend:)
Special edition
Peter is hereby launching a new initiative on his blog. As a devoted fan I’ve been given the opportunity to choose a favourite photo and to write a bit about it.
Here is one more of Peter’s pictures of the majestic bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark. However, I requested a special edition of it in shades of grey. I like the way that new details appear when there are no ‘distracting’ colours.
Rikke
Denmark
Yesterday I showed you the view towards Sweden from the southeastern pylon of the Øresund Bridge. Today I’m posting a picture that I took after a 180 degree turn. That means we’re looking at the equally beautiful Danish coastline for all you not familiar with the geography around here;) Apart from that Peberholm, the artificial island where the bridge turns into a tunnel, is also shown. I’ve written about that island before and you find it here.
The view was spectacular up there and everything sure looked tiny and fragile down there on the bridge and the mainland on each side. Just wonderful and peaceful to be there:)
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Wuthering heights
If I may say so myself todays picture shows a pretty amazing view from the southwestern pylon of The Øresund Bridge. In the far distance, under the numerous vapor trails from the airplanes, Sweden stretches out in the haze.
Poetic title courtesy of Anders:)
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Waterway
Lighthouses mark the safe waterway for the big ships underneath The Øresund Bridge. Closer to Sweden is a second marked waterway but this one can only be used by smaller sailing ships etc. Just visible in the background haze is the Turning Torso far out on the right side. The Northwestern pylon that is visible in the picture was visited by me last week which means two down, two to go;)
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Pylons
The weather is, at least for the moment, very good this Sunday morning and It’s quite possible that today’s view by the sea is as good as the one from the other week when I visited a pylon of The Øresund Bridge. What you’re looking at is the Danish coastline in the background and the small island where the bridge turns into a tunnel that runs under Drogden is called Peberholm and is entirely handmade. I wonder how many lorries of rocks and sand it took to build it from the bottom of the sea and up. Afterall it’s over 4 kilometers long. Pretty impressive:)
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The freeway
The first pylon I visited on The Øresund Bridge was the one in the southeast corner. Here’s the view from the top looking down at the freeway and the northeastern pylon. Do I have to tell you that I had an extra tight grip of the camera as I held it out over the brink?:) The water is some 210 meters below and it did feel rather high although we had nice weather with just a small breeze. It felt like I could have stayed there forever, enjoying the view over big parts of Scania and Zealand and I was saddened to begin the descend after a while and a couple of more pictures.
Stay tuned;)
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Up the hill
Another shot of the railway underneath the car lanes. On both sides of the high bridge the railway tracks go uphill for quite a big distance. In this photo we’re looking towards the Swedish side of the bridge.
Kingdoms
In the middle of the metal plate is a thin line and that line shows the exact border between Sweden and Denmark. Altogether there are three markers that run through the bridge roughly in the middle of the painted flags showed in this previous post.
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Tiny people
We’re still on the bridge. This time we’re looking towards Sweden. I’m standing at one end of the high bridge and at the other end you can see three tiny specks of orange. Those are the working force of the gantry, the people who tend to the bridge from below. They operate via a small vehicle (gantry) that rides on some rails underneath the bridge. At the moment they are working a few decimeters away from a 50 meter drop. Is that called crazy or brave?:)
Perhaps they can help you understand the size of the bridge? To me it helps anyway. Everything here is so out of scale from everything I’ve ever been used to see before and I constantly find that my eyes have yet again betrayed me.
As always, please press the picture for a bigger version.
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