Bikes

So. Arrived in Copenhagen. 12 days riding, 12,998 feet climbed, 654 miles ridden, 63 hrs 10 mins ride time, 4 capitals.

Two weeks at work fly by in the blink of an eye, yet here we are looking back on less than two weeks on the road and it feels like months. In a good way. Our heads are full of experiences: a lot delightful and satisfying, some awkward and painful. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman tells us that our Remembering Self craves these experiences to stock up our mental scrap book. The Experiencing Self, who lives for the moment, has to put up with a lot to keep Remembering Self happy. It’s quite a fascinating subject!

Where next?

We expected Marielyst to Faxe Ladplats to be a challenging day (another Maynard “we’ll never make it” day). 120km whereas our normal rule is no more than 100km. A ferry which only runs hourly, hence an unpredictable time delay. And accommodation in a Conference Centre in Faxe which we expected might close early. Quite some stress then.

In the event, things went fine.

We set off by 8.15 with 30-odd km to the ferry at Stubbekobing. Early on abandoned the winding, gravelly coast path for the main road straight down the middle of Lolland island. Spotted the possibility of catching the 10am ferry, which would put us an hour ahead of schedule. Pushed on fast, running at about 15mph, not bad into a head wind, with the lead out man weighed down by about 3 litres of water (gifts from the Marielyst hotel) and two of the heaviest locks known to man. Racing turns through Stubbekobing and we rolled onto the boat with 2 minutes to spare.

I checked Strava and we were 15th of 15 for that segment, but I confidently predict we were 1st of 1 who stopped for a wee break en route.

Arrived on the island of Møn which was completely delightful. The day now leisurely, we meandered between coast and country. Even found a glorious deserted beach for the briefest possible skinny dip.

Stegge is the main town of Møn and is quite cool and stylish. In hot sun, we stopped for lunch on a bench in the square and watched bank workers relaxing on a balcony and glamorous young women at cafe tables.

Over an ugly Nazi-built bridge (1943) to Zealand. Bob came a cropper because workmen had left a hose lying across the cycle lane on a sandy surface, but no harm done.

No great excitement in Zeeland, we just plodded on to our destination in Faxe, keeping ahead of a dramatic weather front; we remained in sunshine while a few miles west, dark clouds rained down.

No time to write much now, we have a long day ahead (120km). Except to say yesterday’s shorter ride plus boat across the Baltic to Denmark were all good. Weather lovely, wish you were here, etc.

Breakfast in Waren was a feast! When I booked Hotel Amsee, I felt cheated that I was lured into paying 10 Euros a head for breakfast. But it was so good! Big bowl of muesli, cheese roll, smoked salmon and eggs, fruit salad and cake with coffee and orange juice. We were stuffed.

The hotel was annexed to an old people’s home and I thought some of the breakfast guests were geriatrics, being visited by their children for the day. But then one of the oldest and most doddery-looking got on a bike with panniers and cycled off into the sunset.

Progress was quick, quick, slow, with a mix of fast, smooth tarmac (we call baby’s bottom), and rough, gravelly forest roads. Sorry for the preoccupation with road surface; it makes such a difference to progress and comfort. We have strong legs now; fatigue is not really a problem. Still some hurty bits need a break from time-to-time.

There is a change in landscape, accent and culture up here. It’s distinctly Baltic, one could almost be in Denmark already.

Bützow, where we spent the night, is an interesting small town, with apparently mediaeval buildings, some derelict, an old church with twisted spire a la Chesterfield, and some nice reconstruction going on around the Library, Museum and civic buildings.

Cobbles. Every town and village has laid fiendish cobbles in its central area; not sure whether this is for aesthetic reasons or as a traffic calming measure. It doesn’t calm us, it enrages us every time. Caroline is convinced that she risks brain damage in riding over the cobbles, so we often get off and walk, even through the rather large town of Waren this evening.

We are on the shore of lake Tiefwaren, about 3km north of Waren town. The hotel is quite plush but slightly odd; it doesn’t seem to have any customers. There is renovation going on and they may have closed the hotel but forgotten to tell us. Anyhow the duvet’s nice and there is free WiFi. And the lake this evening looked ravishing as the evening sun fell on it.