Not woken by birds this morning….. but let me tell you ,
they were around…. We just slept in.
Once up, over to the showers then off on the bikes to the
supermarket to get breakfast.
Yummy it was too, as it included croissants and pastries.
Katja and Stefan were leaving this morning….also for Sweden….. once they’ve
spoken to the police about their stolen bike.
Bought them pastries as well and we all had a farewell chat
at the table by their van over a drawn out breakfast. It was a cracking day today and starting to
get hot by the time they left at 9.30am but at least the flysheet was dry on
our tent. So we packed up and hit the
road for Copenhagen central where we planned to get on highway 152 north out of
Copenhagen and up the coast. My eye
seemed a lot better this morning so decided to see if it would heal on its own
and I’m happy to report that at the end of the day, it is definitely better
than it was. I have to wonder if it was
caused by the pollution of a big city which was really intensified at the
stadium by all the smokers around us.
Whatever, it seemed to appreciate being by the fresh sea air all
day. Only had about ten minutes of being
lost in the city centre before finding our way to the right road and from there
it was a breeze. Although it did take a
long time to clear the confines of Copenhagen and actually see the sea.
As we were leaving town, we spied a bike shop
and Pete decided to get a clicking noise looked at on his brakes as it had been
bothering him for a week. Went in and
saw a really nice guy called Brian who came out and inspected Pete’s bike on
the footpath straight away. He took the
front wheel off and did something to it and hey presto,
all done in about
fifteen minutes. When we went to pay he
said “No, just send me a postcard from Finland” and sent us on our way with a
smile and a wave and a non-clicking bike.
However…..he won’t be getting a postcard from Finland as an hour later
the bike started clicking again, useless git!
No, no, no ……only kidding. It was
really nice of him to have a look at it and it’s not his fault he’s useless at
his job….! No, no, no only kidding
again! We found this last time we
toured, people in bike shops when they find out you’re touring for a long time,
generally won’t charge you for repairs, which is bloody awesome!! So thanks Brian, we did appreciate your
efforts and an hour without the clicking.
Hopefully the clicking is nothing serious and if it is, maybe we’ll meet
another Formula One mechanic to help us out!
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| Waterfront Shopping centre on outskirts of Copenhagen |
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| Another cute thatched cottage |
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| A selection of impressive houses from our coastal ride today |
The ride up the coast was mostly flat, very scenic and we
had a tailwind, which was a good job as both of us felt very tired for some
reason. This was the Danish Riviera with
very plush homes all the way up the coast.
At one point the cycle path veered off to run parallel with the train
track, and even though it was in the shade of the trees, we went back on the
road so we could keep admiring the houses as we rode. The kms passed by and we barely noticed them
as we were so distracted with the houses.
One particular settlement of Humlebaek was especially picturesque with
lots of thatched cottages right down by the sea. However, it was difficult to get a photo that
did this area justice.
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| Humlebaek, Denmark |
On this highway, we were passed by a lot of speeding
cyclists and wondered if there was a big triathlon coming up and maybe these
were some of the elite competitors. As
it turned out, about halfway between Copenhagen and Helsingor, we passed by the
Mikkeldorn Triathlon Training school and we thought Aha! It did mean we had to cycle single file
however so these speedsters could get past us.
Stopped for an ice-cream just outside of Helsingor and both
had Magnums – I tried a licorice one just because I’d never get to try one in
NZ. It was salty licorice and the
ice-cream inside was a nice mix but would still prefer chocolate in
future.
Cycled into Helsingor and saw a
very impressive castle by the sea and several other spires in this town. Because we were both tired and had several
Danish kroner left and because Helsingor looked so inviting, we decided to
check into the campground for tonight.
The campground was right by a beautiful beach and even though the wind
had got up so it was not particularly inviting this afternoon, we thought it
would be nice to have a swim in the morning.
Unfortunately the campground had a notice up saying it was full. Decided to go and ask at the camp office if
they had room for a small tent – and they did!
So pitched that and then cycled over to the castle for a look
around.
Then we stopped in at the
library/café where we charged the camera and computer while downloading and
editing yesterday’s photos and uploading the blog as they had free wifi. We also had a drink and some dinner while we
were there. We left there about 8pm for
a cruise round town on the bikes which was a great idea as there was hardly
anyone around and we were able to have a good look without worrying about cars
and foot traffic.
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| Helsingor beach with Helsingborg, Sweden in background. |
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| You could walk the whole way round the castle free of charge. It had a double moat system, one outside the castle wall and one inside and therefore two drawbridges. |
Returned to the tent for a coffee and muffin and wrote up
today’s blog and downloaded the photos we’d just taken. It will definitely be an early night tonight
as we both need to recharge the batteries.
Having no sooner written that and a scooter whiiiinnnneeeed it’s
way down the road…..two trains passed by the campsite….I kid you not, it wasn’t
more than thirty feet from our tent to the railway line.
The Danes, Swedes, Germans, Dutch and Norwegians decided to
become really loud all of a sudden.
That and they all have dogs and kids who also thought it was
time to play up…… so maybe not such an early night for me……Ju will be
fine…..she’ll go into ‘sleep of the dead mode’.
Meanwhile… I’ll do my anti ….‘any friggin country I can slag
off mode’. Must say though, very impressed with Helsingor as a town.
Another train……. Hope these things don’t run all night.
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