Denmark – Europe'16

Another Folly

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Steven

My quick trip to Denmark is over. It doesn’t take long to cross the country. This morning before catching the ferry to Norway, I meandered around part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall.

This particular bit is at Hirstall in northern Denmark. It cost the Danes about 10 billion kroner at the time ( yes, the Germans paid for the construction but pulled the money from the Danish National Bank). There were about 70 bunkers, anti aircraft platforms etc with three and a half kilometres of tunnels. Field Marshal Rommel even came and inspected it. Along the Danish coast there were some 6,000 bunkers built.

For the most part the German troops here were “Dad’s Army” – being 45-60 years old. There’s a certain irony in that this area is a tourist destination for older Germans due to its beaches.

On more pleasant matters, how’s this for a wholesome breakfast?

The full sugar load

And it’s goodbye to Denmark.

A Road less travelled…

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Steven

the better. Once again, I woke to the soft sound of rain on my tent. Actually I woke several times during the night curtesy of drunk or snoring campers next to me.

I am now adept at packing up my tent from the inside so only the fly sheet looks like it just came out of the bathtub. The campsite kitchen was off limits til 8am, and I couldn’t be bothered cook outside in the rain so I headed off in search of a good bakery. 2 coffees, 2 chocolate fidled croissants and 2 almond swirls later I was on my way.

A Rain Dance – Aalborg

Today would have been another 100 plus day but, with the humidity and rain, I decided to take a more direct route to the coast. Now Denmark has really good bike paths and routes, but the direct ones are alongside the main roads so the trade off is that traffic is heavy and the scenery is wee bit monotonous.

Of course I could have hopped on board one of these but that would have been too easy…. Anyway the rain had stopped.

Tomorrow it’s back to Norway via ferry…

The Ups and Downs

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Steven

Every trip has its down moments and with bicycling, it generally is due to a combo of physical and mental fatigue. Today was that day. Having said that I really shouldn’t have had coffee at 9pm last night so a lack of sleep might just have played a part. Luckily my ride today was following a converted rail track just about the entire way to Aalborg, which meant it was flat. Perversely flat can be harder than hills, maybe the unchanged rhythm without the curse of a hill followed by the joy of a downhill. – whatever.

Once again, the friendship of bicycling prevailed as a guy who teaches history at the University of Aalborg guided me thru the bike paths toward the campgrounds.

As I go, I associate each country with mascots, sounds or sights. For Norway it is the mole, as they are forever tunnelling, Finland it was rain and wind ( sorry Finland), for Sweden ,it is potatoes- where else would you see programmes and ads ( that I couldn’t understand) devoted to potatoes but also the moose as I actually saw them on bike trails. For Denmark it is that particular metallic sound of a beer can tab being pulled. At this campground it is like the 1812 overture with beer can tabs instead of cannon.

The view from my tent – not much space here!

Lunch with the Bronze Age Folks

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Steven

For once my bike Dynamo was used to power lights instead of iPhones, camera et al, this was because I arrived off the ferry at 11:00pm. Grenå marks the start of the final leg of my tripping around Scandinavia. It being the furthest south I go and now I head north toward Oslo.

The weather is such a fickle thing, it started by promising fine sun and a gentle wind to push me along, but as the day and I wore on, it started chasing me with heavy showers that I tried to stay ahead of, unsuccessfully of course, and eventually I was completely soaked, but my bike is now clean(er).

Earlier in the day, I stopped by a Bronze Age Settlement – not that anyone still lives there – and ate lunch and made a cup of tea. It’s slightly strange to think that on the very same spot, some 5,200 years ago people went about their everyday business in a world so totally different than to today.

Top left is a the remains of a small round Neolithic barrow. Not much left now and the missing stones are probably part of a cow barn somewhere.

Top right is the remains of a house/temple used for rituals. How do I know? ‘Cos archeologists found 28 funeral clay pots and its structure resembles that of the tombs.

Bottom left is a burial mound, somewhat reconstructed, but it was the biggest one in East Jutland. The big cheeses were buried in the centre and the mere mortals in side chambers (bottom right) The entrance is 10 metres in length so it would have been pretty damm high.

This is my umpteenth ferry and I had it all to myself. The NZ$3.40 fare included a coffee and a chocolate – not bad. You may notice that the clouds had by now outflanked me and were getting ready to have fun.