Category: Biking

A glorious day for a bike ride; bright sunshine and a cool eastern breeze with lovely smooth paved surfaces. I fair zoomed along with the wind definitely helping, the countryside like my breakfast at the sports hall was a bit uninspired but pleasant enough. In Hals just before the ferry I found a pleasant bakery cafe which did divine Danish pastries 🙂 After the ferry I was going so well I missed a small section of the 5 cycleway, I only spotted the mistake when I saw the route crossing the road I was on, this led onto a bit of dirt track before the smooth tarmac reappeared around the corner.

At the slick looking Lille Vildmose centre (of the same ilk as Welney swan visitor centre) I stopped for more coffee and cake to relax in the quiet (once the school party had left). After this Route 5 descended into grass & gravel tracks up the chalky hills (reminiscent of the Suffolk walks we have done with Cambridge Rambling Club) the poor Dawes Galaxy wasn’t built for these tracks, as you can see from my Strava when the speed plummets!

After Ostkystruten the route turns smooth again obviously running on an old railway line as you enter Hadsund there is a bike counter identical to the one recently installed on Parkers Piece in Cambridge, except this works of cause! Each side of the display shows the count of the bikes going each way, it uses four embedded sensor wires in the tarmac (just like I developed in the original Scandrive). The Cambridge one was connected up so that each bike is counted twice each way!

The Danhostel Hadsund is actually huts in a camping ground, by the school, so the showers & toilet are in a block that need a hike to get too 🙁 not so good for an old man in the night 🙁 plus the MAJOR disadvantage of no WiFi 🙁 although the Three 3G signal is good and the ground does have excellent views over the estuary.

In the evening I had an email from my trip advisor, Jens, 🙂 so I hot footed it to the da Vinci restaurant by the waters edge. Excellent food although it is turning rapidly chilly as I type this sat on the terrace.

A relatively effortless 60+ miles the Strava is here and a few pics here
Friday 19th September 2014

After an excellent nights sleep I awoke to a calm sunny day. I went to find the guy to pay – eventually I located him having a coffee in the enormous sports hall, swimming pool next door. They didn’t seem to do real breakfast so I went to hunt for a cafe in  the out of season ghost town that is Lokken. No wonder I had the hostel to myself last night! Eventually I found the bakery was open with a breakfast option, so a coffee, orange juice a couple of bread rolls with cheese and a Danish pastry later I was on my way. First port of call was across the road to the huge SPAR and the usual days refreshments..

The route was a total mixture of surfaces from smooth pathways to sharp descent/ascent of a sandy path (not good at all). I even came across some other cyclists, the first for several days. Plus a whole school of desultory kids obviously out for some nature walks in  another part of the forest a whole load of little kids were out on their mountain bikes. I particularly liked the cow with its zebra crossing markings.

At lunch time I found myself in the big ferry town of Hirtshals with open cafes!  I went into Cafe2 to have a coffee and some apple pie – I came out reeling at the price £10.18p at the current exchange rate 🙁 I think they must cater for the Norwegians from the ferries. On I progressed through forest tracks, paved towards the end with racing cyclists bombing along on their evening workout.

In Skagen I went to the Ferie På Toppen Hotel which fully deserves it’s low rating on booking.com especially as the guy charges an additional 100 crowns for the linen & towels 🙁 I rang booking.com to complain but apparently it’s in the small print somewhere that they charge. But no mention of 100 crowns extra on a 350 crown room 🙁

It was such a lovely evening I decided to bike, leaving my saddlebag, to the end of Route 1 in Grenen and walk to the tip of the peninsular & celebrate my doing another little video.

Today I biked 67 miles, which means since leaving Cambridge 23 days ago I’ve biked 1,261miles (2016km) Now to bike part of the way down the East coast on Route 5 and then across to Esbjerg for the ferry home.

Todays Strava’s are here and here with some pictures here

With yet another bonus video here: