Bike Odyssey
Europe 2007
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| Journal for 10-06-2007 : Vordingborg, Denmark |
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Another beautiful morning. Woken with the light at 4:00am, but managed to go back to sleep till 6:30. Campground guy fantastic. I tried to pay when i first arrived and he refused. I tried to pay on the rest day and he refused again. So i rode up to the office to wait for it to open at 8:00am. He was already there (and was there when i checked in at 9pm 2 days earlier), and he still refused to accept payment. He said "you don't have a van, don't worry about it!" And it had been such a fantastic place to stay too. Great Sunday morning riding on deserted roads. Beautiful sunny day already. No breakfast. I'd eaten all my food bar a few biscuits, and *everything* is shut in Germany on Sundays. Got incredibly lost in Eutin. It's more touristy up here in the north, so i tried to follow the signs to the tourist office. I never did find it, but someone I asked for help worked at a hotel a ducked and got me a town map which allowed me to find my out (which turned out to be the way I came in). In some tiny small town got some grief from someone offering to "help" me by telling me to ride on the footpath. I dismissed that one with a "pffff" which fortunately brought a laugh and not a call to the cops. Found an open supermarket (yes!!!) at the entrance to the island of Fehmarn, poking into the Baltic Sea. Bought too much food to fit in my panniers. Bought a pastry called an "Americana", which looked and tasted nothing like I've ever seen in America, or anywhere else for that matter. Sort of an iced gingerbread man in the shape of a pie. The main town on the island of Fehmarn is simply called "Burg" (Town). Massive massive tourist trap, selling every possible T shirt you could imagine. This is one place in Germany definitely *not* shut on Sundays. I had to walk past all the stalls thanks to the all too common centre town cobbles. Got to Puttgarden and found it a miniscuel dot of a town. Barely more than a ferry terminal. Decided if I could get some Danish currency I'd risk going to Denmark today. The ferry terminal has a thing called the "border store", the closest thing I'd seen to a Walmart anywhere in Europe. It was a floating barge with a monstrous building 5 stories high on it. Inside was in fact *bigger* than any Walmart I've ever seen. I had to have a look. Inside were mountains and mountains of tax exempt alcohol for sale. 5 stories of it. No maps, phrase books, currency exchange, or anything else I wanted but I could have bought a Toblerone bar that could have fed me for the rest of the trip. Back outside there were throngs of mostly Danish "tourists" removing the alcohol by the shopping trolley load, and a large team of fork lift trucks trying to restock the barge by the pallet load just as quickly. 20% buy/sell spread at train station money changer, so I only bought ~1.5 days worth of Danish currency. I could see Denmark on the other side of the Baltic Sea, and it looked like a giant wind farm covered with a brown smog. Beautifully clean and sunny in Germany. Uneventful ferry ride, still no phrasebook, but bought an expensive ADAC map. Once in Denmark I could see Germany on the other side of the Baltic Sea, and it looked like a giant wind farm covered with a brown smog. Beautifully clean and sunny in Denmark. I always imagined Denmark to be a green but flat and windswept place. I don't think I was far wrong, though the wind was sweeping in the right direction at last! Roads in Denmark similar to those in Germany, but there are (so far) fewer towns, fewer intersections and fewer things to go wrong. They are also straighter than those in Germany, and lead pretty directly to where they are going. A bit more exposed to the wind, but on a day like today, that's not a problem! As I was making great time, and unlike Germany things were closer than they seemed. Bridge crossing interesting. Warned of "the bridge", but suspect this isn't it. It was built in 1932 and now looks distinctly cancerous. Nice wide bike lane, and narrow carriage way for cars separated by decaying hand rails. I would definitely not want to rely I those. Part of the reason for pushing on today was to do "the bridge" on a quiet Sunday evening rather than a busy Monday morning. Campground guy spoke English (thank heavens), far better than anyone I met in Germany. << Prev - Next >> |