Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

In Denmark on our summer holiday

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  I will try to keep up my blog, as I enjoy thinking and writing—but… regular service will be irregular!
After much debate, we bought a motorhome. Or, rather, Roy bought it. When it came to it, I couldn’t bring myself to go car-shopping, and Roy has quite successfully bought all our previous cars and mini-vans, so he bought this, and we got a professional to check it out.
We love it, and far prefer the adventure of motor home travel to regular hotel and rental car travel. You can keep going till you find an idyllic spot. In Norway (where there is a law called allemansreit) Switzerland, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand etc. motor-home camping or wild, free camping is legal in wild areas, in the mountains, by rivers, or by the sea.
We’ve been renting motor homes for over ten years, and some of our favourite travel experiences have been camping in the Alps, doing our washing up in streams; camping on beaches in Ireland; facing fjords and waterfalls and the tarns of the Hardangervida plateau in Norway, or the vast inland lakes Vannern and Vattern in Sweden. To step out into sheer beauty, but still have a good night’s sleep with books, a laptop, and creature comforts is the best of both worlds for me. Our new (to us) motor home has a kitchen, a shower, a loo, huge picture windows, and a little family sitting area. Love it.
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I love Scandinavia in summer. We flew to Norway and Sweden for the last two summers and rented a motorhome there. This year, since we bought our own, we decided to drive from Oxford to Denmark.
It was an epic drive, but we have listened to some of the Narnia books which I last read to the kids over 10 years ago, and which were enchanting and have a travel feel–The Horse and His Boy and Prince Caspian. And slept a lot (well, not the driver) catching up with our sleep lag.
So Oxford—Dover—Dunkirk, where we slept by a canal, through France, Belgium, Holland, where we slept in farm country, through massive Germany, and then into Jutland, which is the only point that Denmark connects to mainland Europe. Slept by a lake, last night. This sort of holiday is cheaper than flying and renting a camper—but it takes a day longer—but you listen to more books on the way, and arrive rested and in a holiday mood. Yeah, I think we will do it again.
As one drives through Europe–I guess we’ve driven through 6 countries in the last couple of days–globalisation, or rather Americanization is evident. KFC, Pizza Hut Burger King and McDonalds’ everywhere!!  I know everyone hates globalisation, but I must confess I do stop into McDonald’s on the way, for the free WiFi, and a mocha caramel Frappe
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The American business model is generosity. McDonald’s throws in free WiFi, and clean loos, and sells many accidental coffees and Big Macs in the bargain.
In Germany, I was struck by the fact that, though it was a great big successful economy, nothing was free. To get “free” WiFi at McDonald’s, you enter your German mobile phone number, and they send a text to your phone with a code. In other countries, like France and Holland, you just enter and use it!! No German phone, no luck. (In fact, a friendly employee logged us in!!). And in Germany, you are automatically logged out after an hour!! No nursing your latte for hours!
To refill water in the camper at rest areas, you put in a 50 c. coin. To use the loo at gas stations, you go through a turnstile with a 70 c. coin. Etc.
And Germany is the most prosperous European country.
I wonder which model is more profitable. Free loos in petrol stations, and the grateful customer might pick up a coffee.  Or a paid loo and you don’t feel you need to buy anything. If the very American story of Wall Drug is universally applicable, the former should be better. Generosity is good for business as well as for personal relationships. But no doubt, number-crunchers in business schools have analysed all this.
Denmark is a very small country. You can drive from one end to another in 3 hours, so we are hoping to see a lot of it.
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Scandinavia, in particular, and Northern Europe in general, is so pleasant. Polite, considerate people, clean surroundings, a high degree of honesty, and everything so efficient, well-organised, and highly innovative. For instance, parking spots in Haderslev were marked 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 3 hours. Danes have a little clock in their cars, and punch in their time of arrival. And if you are a visitor. “Oh, just leave a note saying when you came.”
Cleanliness, tidiness, order, hard work, efficiency, punctuality, consideration, decency, honesty: All these traits have are integral to the ethical system called Christianity.
Jesus, of course, didn’t directly stress the first six virtues, but Northern European Christianity today, as percolated through the Reformation, Luther and Calvin, is a construct which does not closely resemble the simple , revolutionary and wonderful faith Jesus taught.  

Not that I am criticizing the Protestant work ethic, and “cleanliness is next to Godliness”– Reformed Northern Europeans distinctives which have become synonymous with their brand of Christianity. The world might well be a better place if run on the Scandinavian and Northern European model—but with a smile.
Scandinavian and Northern European countries consistently rate among the happiest in the world. The high emphasis on fitness probably plays a part–physical fitness keeps endorphins high, and gives you a positive outlook on life, increased self-confidence, and disease resistance. And increases productivity. Perhaps their is a connection between their love of outdoors sports and the high wealth.

I see the wealth in Scandinavia, generated by hard work, innovation, discipline, honesty, and inherited income. And feel sad for Africans who probably put in as many hours as the Northern Europeans, but who still struggle for subsistence.

Roy reminded me that Jesus said it’s perhaps harder for those who are rich in this world to wriggle  into the Kingdom of Heaven. And that is some comfort for me. I don’t want these strapping Vikings to be out, but I would rather like the smiley cheerful Africans to be in!!

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  1. Yes, I have heard of Rick Steves'! I also have a dear friend that lives in France, whom I met in Zimbabwe years and years ago! I have been dying to go to Europe for some time! Maybe when my kids are older. 🙂 For now, I'll live through you!