TLDR: Denmark has a cool free shelter and camping infrastructure, check it out here and learn some Danish while you’re at it. There is also a ‘shelter’ app for it (I think it is called shelter), I just used osmand POI’s. Some of the shelters require registration, I’m not sure how that process works. The photo shows my shelter for tonight.
On Monday morning I took a ferry from Larvik in Norway to Hirtshals in Denmark. I had camped right by a beach at the harbour and only had to ride 600m through the pouring rain to the ferry terminal to buy a ticket. Weather report for Denmark looked even worse with kinda frightening wind speeds.
Since I was planning to ride along the east coast, I had the wind diagonally from the back. I had not followed any news and was not aware that storm ‘Hans’ was causing a scare in the whole area. I navigated towards some of the infamous Danish shelters and luckily nobody else was there. I was cold and wet and really happy to not have to test my tent in that wind. Actually I was 100% certain that it would not withstand it, if I was setting it up without cover from the wind.
Tuesday morning I cycled straight south, the plan was to ride to Aarhus. The wind was full on from the side and at times it felt quite sketchy. It was so bad that i actually found it funny again and was in a good mood. In Hals I wanted to take a ferry for the 500m bit to Egense. After I bought a ticket at the machine, I found out the ferry won’t be going since it was too windy. That meant that I’d have to cycle about 35 km west, right into the wind. This seemed impossible, I think that would have taken me two days so strong was the wind. So I decided to take a bus to Aalborg instead. Bus had charging for my phone, that was neat. Watching out of the window, i saw several fallen trees and thought that it would probably not be really safe to cycle in this wind. So I decided to catch a train to Aarhus instead and have a look around the city.
I have never before seen so many cycle tourers at a train station. Pretty much everybody who was in the area must have skipped their plans and tried to get somewhere by train. Most trains were cancelled due to the wind but not mine. Took a room in Aarhus and enjoyed the city. I had somehow forgotten how cool the danes are, i was really happy to be here now even though the weather was not optimal. Had a many pleasant encounters.
Today the wind was still strong but far from yesterdays levels. Took a ferry from Aarhus to Odden and cycled towards Copenhagen, will ride there tomorrow morning and have a look around, then later take a train over the Øresund bridge to Sweden. In the coming days I hope the summer will make a shy comeback. My plan is now to take a ferry from Sweden to the island Rügen, then cycle through eastern Germany to Czechia then ride the mountain range on the border westwards. After that I’ll decide what to do next. I scratched the idea that riding back home is super important, over a week ago I felt like my vacation were basically over and i was just riding home, even though I still had a month to go. It bummed me out. Really liking my new plan to go to Czechia now, I might ride home afterwards but maybe something else seems more interesting and I just take a train home. Does anybody read all this? I hope that me spamming this community is not more off putting for others than if I posted nothing.
Definitely reading the updates about your progress - no spam at all. Amazing work and glad you stayed safe despite Hans’ violence. Denmark sounds like a really cool bikepacking destination, I had never considered it. Are you cycling mainly on paved roads?
Also, good call on making a route plan that doesn’t bum you out - that’s the beauty and essence of the freedom cycling gives you. Stay safe out there and remember: money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a bike. And that’s pretty close
There were some really fun gravel and even single track sections today and also on monday. On monday it was quite soggy and muddy, unlike the crazy super hard packed gravel in norway, that was almost smoother than asphalt.
Distance wise most of it I cycled on asphalt.
money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a bike. And that’s pretty close
My local coffee roaster at home has this written on a chalk board, but with coffee, not bikes, haha
So you will ride eurovelo 13 Iron curtain?
I am from Czech Republic and want to ride it from near Znojmo to Finland or Estonia.
No, I will ride from Rügen to Berlin, then Dresden, then Decin, so I will at least in parts be on the ev7 but I won’t be planning my route with that in mind, I will just use brouter. At Decin I want to do a bit of a dayz lootrun, I just realised that this is the area that the og map of the game is based on, used to play it a lot. That will be funny i think. Wonder if i can navigate just based on map memory, haha.
Then I want to go up and probably follow a lot of the route ‘23’ but I will figure that out more when I’m closer to there, there seem to be a lot cool options.
Your plan sounds cool too, I feel like ev13 would be one of the more interesting EV’s. When are you planning to do that?
For now it is sometime in future.
I have a question. Is it popular to eat fries with fried cheese in the Czech republic? I think I have heard about that, and I always like to eat that in the Netherlands and Belgium.
If I have not dreamed that, what is it called and what type of establishments serve this?
I would say that it is popular only because it is easy to make. Lots of pubs have it, but lately some started saying something like “Don’t eat cheese get schnitzel instead”.
When I am in pub I will get “utopenec” or " naskládáný hermelín" instead.
Also you will ride through some surface mines and this part is little bit infamous for its moon like surface. It may be good idea to ride more inland.
Thanks. Surface mines, you mean on that ‘23’ route bit?
Little bit south Chomutov, Sokolov, Most, Teplice. There are lots of mines you can look them up on the map you send. EV 4 goes through them.
Alright. So the name ore mountains actually makes sense I guess, I checked and it’s the same name in Czech.
I am kind of keen to stay in the mountains though. Close to where I live in Germany are also surface mines. But who knows maybe I’ll have a look. Thanks for the tip.
TIL they have Finnish laavu’s in the rest of the Nordics/Fennoscandia as well. I wouldn’t have thought they have them all the way in Denmark, for some reason.
What makes them infamous in Denmark?
Well… Everybody touring Denmark seems to be singing the praises of the shelters. So when i thought of cycling in denmark, i was thinking ‘shelters’. Maybe infamous is the wrong word? Famous? Not a native English speaker.
Ah ok, I thought there was like a problem with people being bothered staying at the shelters or something. They have the same (at least by the looks of it) kind of shelters throughout Finland, Sweden and Norway, but they’re kind of more for hiking and such as they’re most often deep in the woods. There are lots along bike routes as well, though. Didn’t realize they were popular among cyclists, but that makes sense.
Infamous means famous for something bad. Inflammable means flammable.
English is very inconsistent.
Edit: Corrected infamous meaning
No it’s doesnt. Infamous is the “opposite” of famous (unknown is the opposite of famous).
Merriam-Webster:
infamous
adjective in·fa·mous ˈin-fə-məs
1 : having a reputation of the worst kind : notoriously evil
2 : causing or bringing infamy : disgraceful
3 : convicted of an offense bringing infamy
You’re correct about flammable/inflammable though. Famous vs. infamous is different. English is indeed very inconsistent.
In German the translation for ‘infamous’ is ‘berüchtigt’, it is not totally negative in the way people use it, but it does have some shady connotation.
I don’t know German, but that might be kind of similar to “notorious” in English. Infamous and notorious are kind of synonymous and can be used synonymously, notorious just has a less negative connotation. Like both kind of refer to a similar/negative reputation, but notoriety can be sort of seen as more respectable in a way. Like a rapist would be infamous, but Robin Hood would be notorious. Kind of like that I guess.
Thanks for the correction. So it still means that someone or something is famous, just for something bad. That’s even more confusing.
Yeah eaxctly. It’s kind of synonymous with notorious. Unless you’re thinking really technically about language rules, it isn’t. English is just a crazy language, but to me all languages kind of are, just a crazy mishmash of influences and loandwords from other languages. You just learn a ton of words case-by-case.
I find etymology (with any language) often helps understand “what’s under the hood” of a word. Like with infamous:
infamous (adj.)
a 16c. merger of two Middle English words, with the form of infamous “not well-known” (early 15c.) and the sense of infamis (late 14c.), “of ill repute, famous for badness.” Infamous is from Medieval Latin infamosus, from in- “not, opposite of” (see in- (1)) + Latin famosus “celebrated” (see famous). Infamis is from Latin infamis “of ill fame” (see infamy).
Where the latin origin of famous helps me understand in-famous:
Latin famosus, “celebrated”
So the in- prefix now makes sense: “not celebrated”/“the opposite of celebrated”.
This looks super comfy and wholesome 🥰
Yeah, it is. Other perspective:
The ones on monday were not as nice, but still awesome to be in there in this wind, those even had a door
Good night :)
Norwegian Juice Water Go To House
Haha, yes. This juice seemed strangely one of the cheaper options in the north, while in the south this was the most expensive juice. Double the price. I think the price border was somewhere around Namsos, couldn’t afford anymore from then on. Was nice juice though, I’ll take the bottle home.
Wow that post somehow got a lot of attention. What happened.
So I spent the day in cph yesterday, then took the train over the øresund bridge to Sweden. Camped out at this beautiful spot at Sibbarp.
You can see cph at the horizon, at least on my photo. Bunch of people walked past me yesterday and in the morning, everybody just greeting friendly and I got multiple thumbs up too. Had a swim and a cold shower, then cycled to Trelleborg where I am now waiting for the ferry to Rügen.
Very brief stay in Sweden, but looking forward to what’s to come, including warmer temperatures.
