Biking Archives - Page 60 of 99

North Sea Cycle tour – Fjaltring to Hanstholm

Posted on September 16, 2014September 12, 2016

I found this day really hard with the relentless easterly wind slowing progress down and making the riding unpleasant.

Maybe it was the poor breakfast of 4 bread rolls and garlic cheese, I didn’t see the local shop until after I had started, plus there was a complete scarcity of open cafes until 35 miles into the day & then only a simple place in a craft museum.

The marked route had quite a few changes from the gpx trail downloaded onto the phone which at times was confusing as some of the changes involved huge loops 🙁 and also at one point me getting into soft sand 🙁

The worst part however are the long spits of land on either side of the ferry at Thyboran dead straight and flat with no protection from the gale blasting at me. It was amusing to see the smoke from the factory chimneys barely getting out before been blasted horizontal by the wind.

I then developed a poorly stomach leading to more wind problems, probably not helped by munching my way through a packet of Nellie Dellies salty liquorice (On the packet I now read, Enjoy in Moderation!!).

The end of the day was a struggle getting into Hanstholm, fortunately as the name implies the previously booked Harbour Inn was on the coast not up the hill in the village!

In the evening I managed to get a decent meal at the Montra hotel with some of the whitest and delicious fish I have ever seen the dish was called Kogt Vesterhavstorsk.

Lets hope today brings better weather as the route now goes due east!

The Strava is here and pictures are here.

Denmark West Coast bike ride – Noerre Nebel to Fjaltring

Posted on September 15, 2014September 11, 2017

I awoke to the smell of fresh coffee and baking bread 🙂 Bodil had prepared a delicious breakfast, I’m totally sure if I invited a random stranger to my second home, or even my main home there wouldn’t be such a choice awaiting them next morning 🙁 Jens had contacted the Dans Hostel in Fjaltring which he assured me was 100km away plus he told me where to stay the following two nights all the way to Skagen, the Northern tip of Denmark so hopefully I’m all set now.

As I was leaving we caught sight of two red squirrels in their garden, they are far more attractive than the grey ones that have overrun the UK.

The Number 1 cycleway to Skagen would make an ideal track for mountain bike beginners as it traverses up & down the sand dunes on loose gravel and sandy paths my bike is not well suited with it’s narrow wheels, lack of suspension & top heavy saddlebag 🙁 Fortunately there were very few other cyclists so I only had one narrow escape as a couple nearly crashed into me as I skidded around the corner,

After two and half hours of biking I came across the first hotel in Hvide Sande so it was really, really good that I was rescued last night as all there was in between where I stayed and the hotel were endless holiday homes dotted around the landscape with no ‘real’ towns or villages.

Once again I had mainly headwinds coupled with the grey threatening sky meant I had my arm warmers and big yellow jacket on all day. I felt decidedly under dressed when I took a quick look around the outlet shopping village in SendervigLys and had a spot of lunch.

Jens had told me to get stocked up with food for dinner & breakfast as the hostel didn’t do food. Thank goodness this is Denmark and not Germany or France those deeply religious countries which don’t allow shops to open on Sunday so I was able to get some pasta, mackerel etc to make a quick dinner at the hostel.

I arrived at the Dan Hostel in Fjaltring at 5pm with 62.1 miles or 99.5km on the clock so kudos to Jens 🙂

The Strava for the day is here and the pictures here

Denmark West Coast Route 1 – Ribe to Noerre Nebel

Posted on September 13, 2014September 11, 2017

Once the kids in all the rooms went to sleep at 11pm I was away with the fairies. I made sure I was one of the first to breakfast and what an incredible spread the Dan Hostel had laid out, although I guess once 30 or so teenagers had attacked it would be a different story.

I biked back to the sea and continued my way along the coast, good paths & cattle grids with sunshine made it a very pleasant trip especially seeing the Kammerslusen flood gates that have prevented Ribe being flooded in modern times.

I swept through Esbjerg only stopping at the local Aldi and also to admire the Man meets the Sea sculpture by Svend Wiig Hansen. I had earlier booked a place to stay but one of the problems with trying to follow a track, when you are zoomed in so you can easily see the turns is that it is easy to ‘miss’ points of the screen. So eventually when I zoomed out I was horrified that the place I had booked was miles behind me 🙁 Neer mind I thought I will cancel it there must be somewhere else!

Several miles later nothing had materialised and all was woodlands and second homes 🙁 I eventually stopped to ask a lady where the nearest place was to stay – she pointed with a long arm back where I had come from 🙁 so after some thought & discussion she said I could stay the night with her husband and herself in their second home 🙂 Not only that she had some fresh Sole that we could have for dinner.

So a potential uncomfortable night in a hedgerow turned into a convivial evening discussing the bike route and being shown the excellent Danish bike route website , cyclistic.dk . They did the route it a few years ago and yes accommodation is difficult! We also discussed Scottish Independence. Apparently Greenland a dependency of Denmark isn’t in the EU.

I’ve now downloaded the Danhostel app which should show the distance to the next hostel and have an outline planned with my kind host.

The Strava for the day is here and pics here

North Sea Cycle tour – Niebull to Ribe

Posted on September 12, 2014November 12, 2017

The day started real cold & at breakfast I felt under dressed with my cycle shorts & shirt, especially with the galaxy of expensive metal in the car park 🙁 The breakfast was a waitress pre ordained affair, not sure if this system creates more waste than buffets or not.

I was soon on my way and the jacket soon came off as the day quickly warmed up. It didn;t take long to reach the border and surprise surprise I instanly had a 3G signal courtesy of 3.dk with their amazing Feel at Home deal – so no data charges, my bike instrument panel can now fully function again! although it has to be said Start of rant – the LUMOTEC IQ2 LUXOS U USB charging system is driving me nuts. When you stop, which is frequently with all the gates etc, the lights decide to come on, which means the USB output stops, when you get going again the lights stay on and so the USB output stays off until you notice and switch the lights of manually. In fact to charge the iPhone you need to be going more than 8mph, which can be hard with hills, gravel etc. Also the iPhone 5S disagrees with the charging quite a lot, reversing the lightning connector helps also not letting the iPhone battery get to full or empty. If there is any reason to dump Apple it’s going to be the wretched lightning connector, it even gives problems when in the Air, I must have gone through about 10 of them now . Rant over

Once in Denmark I was really pleased to have the new rear tyre as a lot of the time was on rough gravel tracks, I noticed a real weird thing with the tyre though, it continually feels on bumpy ground that you have a puncture 🙁 in fact it must be the internal foam compressing, as the tyre is still pumped up at high pressure. I guess I will get used to it 🙂 since I had no punctures today. Towards the end of the day the Danes had at last discovered cattle grids, let us hope thats the end of the stupid little gates!

The villages are all very pretty but have no open shops or cafes so I was pleased when Ribe loomed into view where I had booked the Dan Hostel with booking.com, it’s in a magnificent location with my bedroom having a glorious view over Ribe, I just hope the school party will get to sleep soon!

Checking out the North Sea Cycle Route & downloading the gpx route it looks as though the Denmark section is 478 miles from Ribe to the end in Grenaa. So if the weather stays half decent I think I will keep on pedalling and then get a train back to the ferry in Esbjerg.

The 57 mile Strava is here and the pics of the day are here