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Every evening as Hjalte and Nina has to find a place to sleep it is me that decides. When I am low on amps, they just have to take the first hotel turning up. In this way they get surprises every day, and if no hotel shows up they have to sleep in the forrest. Now this evening I drove them to a big old concrete hotel in the town Iz… something. The Soviet-style administration made it hard for Hjalte to find a socket to plug me in. Fuses could not take it, windows were forbidden to open. In the middle of the night Nina had to get up and un-hook me because the administrator found the wire was getting hot. This is normal, but all the time she said Nelsja! Forbidden! So Hjalte had to go down on the street and start up our generator. What a fuss…. No, by far I prefer the small truck-stop motels where I can spend the night talking with the big trucks while I charge. Add to that, that many more people stop to admire my beautiful body and electric parts. My picture is now on thousand mobile phones all over Russia. Green Car.

Naturally the sun was shinning and the temperature was a balmy 38 degrees at lunch-time. While Green Car was charging at a truck-repair shop we were sitting in an air-conditioned cafe next door and had a tasty dish of lasagna. One of the nice surprises you suddenly can enjoy. We are out east where there is far between hotels and cafes. So at the end of the day we thought ourselves lucky to find what on the map appeared to be a town. We drove for some time around skirting deep holes, mud and unforgiving heating-tubes crossing the road in the worn-down town domineered by a vast industrial block. It turned out to be a mountain-like grain elevator, fitting the endless wheat-fields. in this god-forsaken town we eventually found Hotel URAL with eight small rooms and a staff of friendly women. They did not think it a problem to let us use a socket for Green Car. After a couple of badly needed showers I dressed in my blue silken dress and high-heeled shoes. Hjalte put on a clean t-shirt and then we were ready to celebrate my birthday with a bottle of sparkling Russian champagne on the bed.

A lovely day. Only 23 degrees in the morning and 33 degrees at midday. We put up our folding table in the shadow of birch-trees on a parking lot while Green Car gobbled up healthy 380 volt power. Humps on the road kept us awake at the wheel. Heat and heavy trucks has disfigured the tarmac into deep ruts and dangerous ridges. We call them Killer-humps because Green Car has a battery-box down below, and much too close to the Russian ground. But all went well. At night when we had to find power there was none to be reached. Then quickly off the highway and down a dirt-track. Out of sight we pulled out the emergency generator. When we cannot find power from the grid we have to produce it ourselves, we cannot be picky. Heart of the matter is we are propelled 100% by electricity. So we spent the night under the stars, to lazy to put up our tent. The sun dropped and an orange half-moon rose on a sky dotted with stars. In the distance trucks roared by, every ten minutes drowned by the rumble of endless trans-sibirian trains.

This morning when we woke up it had rained! We believe we are past the worst heat, and it was a pleasant 27 degrees when we started climbing the Urals. Green Car faithfully and silently drove up kilometer-long hills and rolled down with 120 km/h, or as fast as we dared, our only worry knocking the battery-box against the humps on the road. Apart from that minor worry driving Green Car is a breeze. The last days we have been lucky finding good charging, perhaps we are getting better at explaining what we need? So Green Car has been fully charged in the mornings. At lunch-time we left the highway to look for charging in Satka. It turned out to be a good move. We found high-amp charging in car-repair shop and had plenty of time to look at Satka, one of the oldest towns in the Urals, a mining-town mixing Soviet concrete blocks and beautiful old log-cabins in the shadow of slag mountains. In the afternoon we stopped at a monument marking the border between Europe and Asia. To celebrate reaching Asia we bought a knife crafted in the nearby famous Zlatoust metalworks. Perhaps the knife can find a spot on the wall in our home, and wait a while to be deposited in our big cupboard with old memories.



Nina and Hjalte

Life on the Russian highways has been hot, dusty and dirty. You have to find the rough beauty and not expect comfort. That said things have improved vastly since we were here twenty years ago. All the new gas-stations with eatable things for sale, a choice in new supermarkets, the truck stops with motels of a sort. All that is new and then the important change:  no more GAI, no more police check-points at ALL towns, no more a country off-limits for foreigners. So now we can sleep in the same cheap hotels as the truckers. Here we can plug in power and sneak the wire

out a window, or get power from a tire-repair shop (our favorite). Traffic is heavy, fast and Hjalte

 Address at the Farewell Ceremony for the New Energy Car Team Your honor Minister Lykke Friis.
Distinguished guests, Dear friends, Good morning！

It is my pleasure to attend today’s ceremony and meet you all. First of all, on behalf of Chinese Embassy in Denmark, I would like to extend congratulations to Mr. Hjalte Tin and Mrs. Nina Rasmussen.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Denmark. On this occasion as well as the Shanghai EXPO, supported by Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy together with the Danish EXPO team, Danish writers and explorers Mr. Hjalte Tin and Mrs. Nina Rasmussen initiated an innovative campaign. That is to drive two new energy cars round the world from Denmark to China and attend the Shanghai EXPO. To me, it is a fantastic trip with far-reaching significance. On one hand, it is a showcase of new energy cars including its technology and concept. On the other hand, it will also strengthen the communication and friendship between our two countries.

China and Denmark are traditional trading partners. In the past 6 decades, the two sides have carried out successful cooperation in areas such as economy, trade, science and technology, culture, education and so on. China is the biggest developing country in the world with tremendous market and great potential. Now we are also trying to shift the growth pattern with more focus on energy-saving and efficiency in order to achieve sustainable development. Denmark is a leading country in clean energy and green development. Its energy solution has been widely applauded in the world. There are endless opportunities for the two countries to cooperate in this area. We hope the two sides could further draw from each other’s advantages and fully explore the potential.

Today’s campaign could act as a good example. The car team with members from our two countries will work together during 36,000 km journey round the world. They will tell the world an amazing story of green energy and electric cars.

At last, I wish them a successful trip and more fruitful results for China-Denmark new energy cooperation.

Thank you all.