Yesterday was spent getting out from Stockholm to Malmö which is never easy as they don't take bikes on the train. However good old Swebus will take a bike as long as you do some surgery on it and take away all the bits that stick out. No problem :) 8.5 hours later, very sore legs and bored out of my mind I finally arrived. Put the bike together and took the train over to Copenhagen. That cost be almost half of what I had spent to get to Malmö on the bus, terrible really.
Stayed at the Urbanhouse which is a hostel we found last time Susie and I were in Copenhagen. They do a wicked veggie hotdog. I chose to stay in the 10 man room only to find it was mixed! So no wandering around in my undies. Had a restless night as I was keen to get going, woke at 0500 and lay in bed until 0600 which is when I got up. Went to the toilet and was very conscious that the room was completely quiet. Do you know hard it is not to make rather embarrassing noises when going to the loo?
My bike survived being hidden amongst all the bikes at the train station. Checked the rout maps and made a plan, looked to be rather optimistic but thought I would give it a go anyway. Have a long way to go if I am to make Rostock and the ferry back to Malmö without taking shortcuts.
As always getting out of as big city is never easy and Copenhagen was no exception. Once I was past the industrial area there were some very nice suburbs especially along the coast. The road I followed was a cyclists dream. The 151 was well paved, had a dedicated cycle lane which for long stretches was separate from the road, and was fairly flat. The countryside was very much like Herefordshire but without the hedges and traffic.
Lunch was perfectly timed as it rained very hard while I ate, then stopped when I was ready to leave
The afternoon ride was of course tougher. Legs were tired energy levels fluctuating and the wind was pretty much head on at times. No wonder the area is dotted with windmills, this is a very exposed, flat and windy country.
The 151 gave way to the 153 which was as good as its predecessor. Everything actually went very well even after I joined the slightly busier route 9 (though still with cycles paths). It all went bad just at the end where I took a wrong turn and stopped following 9 and instead followed a cycle path sign (which I had been avoiding as they wanted to take me on a 30km detour). No real harm done though as I was able to catch the ferry over to Spodsberg and arrived at my destination in good time.
Shower, food and cup of tea while watching Denmark under 21's play Serbia and doing my blog. A relaxing end to what has been an incredibly productive first day. Let's hope that tonight's sleep gets rid of this hayfever
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