In the old days to travel between two of the islands of Zealand and Funen that make up Denmark you would have lots of tedious waiting around for ferries, but now the journey is much easier thanks to the Great Belt Bridge.

This consists of two bridges and a railway tunnel, the west bridge which is a suspension bridge is currently the third largest suspension bridge in the world. Add to this the east bridge which is a 20km box girder bridge with a railway bridge running alongside and you have something very impressive.

It is on a toll road and currently the toll is 209kr each way which compares favourably with the French autoroutes, and the crossing time of around 10 minutes is miles away from the old days when times of 1hr were common. The toll booth is situated at the eastern end of the east bridge, and fortunately takes cards, so if like us you started the drive in Germany and didn't have a chance to get to a cashpoint for some local currency you won't be turned back.

If you can time it so the sun is setting as you cross it is truly breathtaking, and having crossed it twice during a trip to Copenhagen and back, even though my wallet is considerably lighter it is one of those journeys that have to be taken at least once. Of course if you take the train you still get to go across the west bridge, but instead of crossing the suspension bridge you disappear into a 8km tunnel for the final part of the crossing.

If you do a little background reading even the story of when they were building the crossing were amazing, of how it was going to be the longest bridge but got beaten by the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan because of delays during construction and the suspension section is now the worlds third largest suspension bridge, and how the railway tunnel flooded almost completely during construction and they had to freeze the water to get it back out.

I always thought the Severn River crossing between England and Wales was impressive, but this bridge is brilliant.