After a rest day in Albertslund, despite the temptation of another night’s sleep in comfortable beds, we took to the road again.

At the time, we thought Denmark was a cyclists’ paradise, but we hadn’t got to Germany yet. Denmark is a very bicycle-friendly country, but Germany was amazing. Let’s not jump the gun, though. I have time to gush over Germany’s cycle routes when the blog gets there.

When we first got to Copenhagen, despite the late hour, it was easy to follow the cycle lane out of the city and to the motel. It literally was just one straight road all the way out of the town. Makes navigating in London feel like cycling on a racetrack inside a maze in comparison.

To give London its due, things have been steadily improving. But it’s still a long way from making cycling as appealing as countries on mainland or the north of Europe.

However… Meanwhile, in cycle-friendly Denmark, we jumped straight back on the same cycle route we’d followed out of Copenhagen and towards Rodbyhavn. From there, we could get a little ferry over to Puttgarden in Germany.

From our motel, it was only 143 kilometers to the ferry. Since the roads were flat and straight – seriously, it was the same road until the port and it really was mostly ‘bend-free’ – we thought we might get to Rodbyhavn in a day. However, we had not considered the wind factor. You can hear the headwind in the short clip below.

We should have. After all, we had not had a single day of tailwind since we started.

But the headwind we had in Denmark was something else. Normally, on a flat roads like that we could easily do 25 km/h. There were times my watch told me we were doing barely 10 km/h. So frustrating.

And bloody hard work. We only managed 84 kilometers on the first day. The second day was even worse with only 68 kilometers. You can hear the wind in the video below.

Later, when we stayed with a host from Warmshowers in France, we discussed battling the elements over dinner. And all agreed that wind is the worst. Even heavy rain is preferable to wind.

But you have to take the windy days with the calm, just like you have to take the rain with the sunshine. It’s all part of the experience.

Not that it makes it any better when you are battling the strong winds.

No wonder they had wind farms everywhere. Although not as many as in Germany. I think Germany is like the United States of Europe. Everything is bigger there.

I should focus on our few days in Denmark, but keep getting sidetracked by Germany. Perhaps because it was our favourite country for cycling. Or maybe because Denmark wasn’t that exciting. Sorry Denmark!

Similarly to Sweden, I’m sure there are really beautiful routes along the coast. We were cutting straight across, and all we saw were more farmlands. It’s hard to get excited about farmlands especially after seeing nothing else for several days.

After battling the headwind for 84 kilometers, we called it a day. Wish we hadn’t as we ended up leaving something rather important behind. We didn’t notice it until our first morning in Germany. By which time it was definitely too late to turn back.

You would have thought we’d have learnt after the helmet mishap, me leaving my sunglasses and Justin one of his water bottles to check everything thoroughly. Most of the time we did. Especially after this one. We made sure to check the camping spot double carefully before heading off.

One highlight of our two days in Denmark was meeting two young Dutch cyclists. They had started their journey backpacking and then, somewhere in Sweden, swapped hitchhiking for pedal power when they purchased two knackered old bikes.

They were heading to Turkey. We’d love to cycle that way too and further. First, need to recoup some money.

We rode with them for a little while and parted company when they set off to find a camping spot by the sea. They were not on a tight schedule and had the luxury of cycling as little or as they fancied each day.

Another highlight was crossing the Storstrøm Bridge. It crosses the Storstrømmen between the islands of Falster and Masnedø and is 3,199 meters long.

It is also old. King Christian X opened it in 1937. A new bridge which will be longer and connect Zealand and Falster Island to Masnedø is under construction and this website says it will open in 2022. Might have to go back one day to ride the new bridge and then we can say we have done both.

Here is a link to a reel I created for IG of us crossing the bridge. The strong headwind made it a little precarious. But it’s the coolest and by far longest bridge we crossed on our ride.

At the end of the second day, battling even stronger winds, we reached Rodbyhavn. From there we took a ferry to Puttgarden.

It’s only a short ferry ride. When we planned our day in the morning, knowing we only had 64 kilometers to the ferry, we had hoped to carry on once we got to Germany. To get further into Germany before camping.

But the headwind played havoc with our plans for the second day running and we stayed the night at a campsite near the ferry port.

The headwind did not ease off when we reached Puttgarden. It also rained in the night, but at least we’d had a waterproof tent since Helsinki. Something our tent neighbour didn’t. Couldn’t resist taking a picture of the hole in his tent.

Maybe he’d patched it from the inside somehow. He must have. Otherwise everything inside his tent would have been soaking in the morning.

But that’s where we’ll leave it this time. Follow us on IG or order the newsletter (if you haven’t already) to ensure you don’t miss future posts.

That’s if you enjoyed the posts so far. I obviously hope you have! If you haven (or haven’t) leave a comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time, and as always, thank you for being here.

•