Biking round Denmark - No stories to tell
Alexander
and I have an uneventful flight to Copenhagen. We use public transit to make it
downtown without trouble. We have a bit of a panic at the bicycle rental store
as their webpage said that they don’t take reservations but that there are
usually about 100 bicycles to choose from and when we get there are exactly TWO
left and we have to decide right now if we want them or they will rent them out
to the next people in the lengthening line. We take these, the last two, a very
pink woman’s bike and a very blue man’s one, which are, fortunately, about the
right sizes. Miraculously we manage to fit everything into our panniers, not
only the stuff we have brought for a week of biking round Denmark, clothes and
computers and camping gear, but also everything I brought for four months of
sailing, foul weather gear and books and snorkel gear including a wetsuit, and
we bike the 25 km to where my boat is currently docked and unload a whole
duffel bag of stuff off of the bikes and onto the boat.
We
like the bicycle trails here in Denmark. Both in cities and out there are
separated bike lanes, safe and well-marked, easy to navigate and going
everywhere. The bicycle culture is well established; even on roundabouts there
are separate bicycle lanes, wherever bicycles might want to cross a road they
have the right of way, routes from one city to another are well laid out and
signposted, and nowhere is it ambiguous wrt whether a bicycle lane or trail
exists or not.
We
also like the campgrounds here in Denmark. They are usually situated right in
town and come with free internet and large clean washrooms and comfortable
indoor common areas including kitchens and lounges and TV rooms. It is not a
hardship to stay in them at all. We arrive in mid-afternoon, set up our tent,
have a hot shower, then wander downtown to do some window shopping before finding
a curbside café where we sit to drink a cold beer, eat an evening meal, and
watch the people walk by.
During
the day we cycle from castle to castle stopping to visit other tourist
highlights along the way; picturesque little towns with thatched roof houses, a
cathedral where generation upon generation of Danish royals have been buried, a
modern art museum, a fantastic Viking display showcasing not only authentic
reconstructed relics but also modern replicas made using traditional methods
and used on current expeditions tracing the ancient routes…
The
bike routes often offer spectacular views over the ocean or wind through
surprisingly pastoral countryside. They detour past marinas, into villages, and
through historic forests with 2000 year old oaks. The temperature is perfect,
everyone speaks English, we seldom get lost and we find many good places to eat.
It
is all good - there will be no stories to tell from this week.
