Today we are setting off for a couple of weeks touring Denmark.
For this trip we are camping rather than using B&Bs/hostels, so more gear to take with us.
The logistics mean that we cannot see all the places we want to visit in 2 weeks solely with a cycling tour – we would need longer than we have just to get around everywhere.
We considered using trains. In the UK this is not possible with a tandem, but it is possible in Denmark if you book. However, we also have the trailer which is an added complication on trains. We very much wanted to keep flexible and avoid having to book anything in advance. With camp sites, we can just turn up as we are outside the peak season and only have a small tent.
Janina came up with a solution to this which was simple and elegant. Rather than drive the car to Harwich to take the ferry and leave the car there, we would take the car with us. We would identify areas where we want to tour on the bike, leave the car at a camp site for a few days, and do a circular route with the bike and trailer. We would then pick up the car again and drive to the next area and repeat the process. This avoids any hassle or booking with trains, and we can adapt our trip as we go in any way we please as we are in complete control of our own logistics. In Denmark it is also useful where there are places you cannot travel by bike. For example, the bridge from Zealand to Funen cannot be cycled, the only options are car or train. As this is our first trip which involves cycling with full camping kit, this also allows us the flexibility to experiment re how far we want to cycle in a day, pitch camp at the end, and still feel that we are enjoying ourselves. This is very much a first toe in the water.
In one sense this did not seem like real, pure cycle touring, but in the end we are doing this to enjoy ourselves and not to prove anything, and using a car for longer distance logistics is no different to using a train. In future we would like to make a trip of 3 or 4 weeks, which would give us much more flexibility, but for now we are working with the reality of the logistics and the geographical separation of what we want to see!
We took the ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg. We only found out on the ferry, thanks to a friendly Danish couple that we met, that this ferry closes down completely for good at the end of September 2014, so by chance we had booked our trip to end only 2 weeks before the ferry closes! When we return next time the only option will be the ferry to the hook or holland and a long drive. We enjoyed the ferry , which was a comfortable 20 hour journey arriving after lunch.
Sunset from the Harwich to Esbjerg Ferry
