Day 1, Monday, July 16th: Utrecht - Flensburg
Weather: very hot
Kilometres cycled: 20
Route:
Bike: Utrecht Zuilen, Utrecht Central Station
Train: Amersfoort, Enschede, Coesfeld, Münster, Hamburg, Neumünster, Flensburg
Bike: Flensburg, Harrislee, Flensburg
Monday morning, 7.15, by bike to the Central Station. My Great Adventure has begun. In contrast to the rest of the holiday, the first day has been planned, minute by minute. This is because, in the middle of the day, I have a reserved seat from Münster to Hamburg. I am completely dependent on public transport and in order to keep a grip on things, I leave home an hour earlier – you never know with the Dutch trains.
My suspicions are justified: the 8 o’clock train to Enschede is not running. Why? No idea. So I take one half an hour later, changing in Amersfoort. No problem, since I am still ahead of schedule, although the gain has been reduced by half an hour. In Münster, the reserved train is 20 minutes late, making me miss the connection in Hamburg. Now I am an hour behind schedule but decide not to mind. There is nothing else reserved for today and, after all, I am on holiday. In the end, I make myself another hour later: waiting on the wrong side of the platform in Neumünster for the train to Flensburg. Behind me, a train leaves and I realise I should have been on it …
A tribute to the German Railways! Apart from the narrow doors, the trains are very bike-friendly. The guard and once, even the driver, helps me to haul my bike in and out of the train. Big differences with the Dutch Railways: The guards are very helpful (someone was even allowed to borrow the guard’s mobile phone), they don’t snap one’s head off and the information is excellent: they even tell you which side of the train to get off when you reach the station. Very handy if you have to get off with a heavy, unwieldy bike.
By bike through Flensburg. A nice town. It looks very Scandinavian because of the coloured houses along the quayside. My plan is to cross the border into Denmark immediately after arrival and look for a camping spot near Padburg. But as it is already 9 p.m. when I reach the outskirts of Flensbug, I realise that it would be wiser to spend the night in Flensburg. I cycle back and after an enormous climb and a good hours’ cycling, I arrive at a Youth Hostel. What a pity! I had looked forward to being in Denmark tonight and I must now wait another night.
But, after all, where the plan fails, adventure begins…
Day 2, Tuesday, July 17th: Flensburg – Hovslund
Weather: sunny and windy
Kilometres cycled: 74
Route:
Jutland Route / National Route no. 3
Flensburg, Padborg, Vejbæk, Kliplev, Mellerup, Hjordkær, Rødekro,Øster Løgum, Hovslund.
Wow … I’m in Denmark. On my bike. What a wonderful feeling! Here I am, cycling in a country where I have never been, know nobody and hardly anything about it. This is adventure!
Coming into Denmark from Germany is rather like coming into Holland from Germany: there is a big difference. When you cross the border, you come into a clean, tidy country with well-kept roads.
The first few days make a deep impression on me. Not so much because of the landscape, nice but not really special. Even a bit monotonous. Rolling, many cornfields and wide views. I am more impressed by the fact that you’re cycling through a strange country, with new words and new sounds.
And the most striking thing is the quiet. Denmark is about the same size as Holland but only has 5 million inhabitants, 1.2 million of whom live in Copenhagen. Jutland is very sparsely populated. You can go a long way without meeting anyone, either in the villages or in the countryside. I sometimes wonder, “Is there any life here??” No sign of crime, no rubbish, hardly any traffic … It feels a bit weird. I was told that Denmark was fairly flat, but it’s not true. Well, it’s not so bad really: no high mountains, rather like the Veluwe, or Limburg.
Day 3, Wednesday, July 18th: Hovslund – Bække
Weather: sunny, windy
Kilometres cycled: 78
Route:
Jutland Route / National Route no. 3
Hovslund, Vojens, Jels, Vejen, Bække
Today the landscape is more varied.
Certain habits that I thought I couldn’t do without, were forgotten all of a sudden. At home, I drink coffee for breakfast. A must. And now? After three days without coffee, I suddenly see a café and realise I would like a cuppa.
This elevated white Dutch windmill from 1856 is open to the public and also an information centre.
I go inside to ask for information on the region and somebody at the desk asks me in English whether I come from Holland. She turns out to be Dutch and lives and works there.
Jels is a real Viking village. The ‘Open-air Viking Games’ take place here every year. Just missed them, unfortunately…
Just had a stiff climb up to here. I had to get off my bike and push it and myself up. Pff…aching muscles and back. A little further on, there is a memorial for all those who worked for the re-annexation of South-Jutland to Denmark. These photos are of the graves of those who fell.
And that is in Frode Rasmussen’s garden. I’ve just put up my tent when Mr. Rasmussen comes into the field in his electric wheelchair. He asks me in English if I would like some coffee. As you never need to ask me this twice, I go to the shed where he has already put everything out. Mr. Rasmussen has taught himself a few English phrases, but apart from this rather limited vocabulary, he understands no other English words and is also rather deaf. Altogether a difficult conversation. On the table in front of him is the guestbook, in which I must write something. In the course of my trip, this will be asked of me by nearly every host. (Both coffee and writing in the guestbook).
Day 4, Thursday, July 19th: Bække - Vrads
Weather: sunny, windy
Kilometres cycled: 81
Route:
Jultland Route / National Route no. 3
Bække, Fitting, Randbøl Mølvang, Jelling, Givskud, Kollemorten, Nørresnede, Vrads
I'm taking a little break, when, from the opposite direction, a man and a woman come cycling along. I can hear them talking to each other but am too far away to understand. We greet each other and I ask in English where they are from (the first two questions holiday cyclists ask each other are always: where have you come from and where are you going). ‘From Holland’. ‘Ah, me too’. They come from Middleburg and speak a broad Zeeland dialect. From afar, it sounds quite Danish (I think), which is why I didn’t immediately realise they spoke Dutch. It now appears that the female half is a librarian at a secondary school and he plays the trumpet in a brass band. He recently played with the band in K&W ( Utrecht Conservatoire, where I work in the library) for a student’s exam! Gosh... the world is even smaller than I thought.
Church in Jelling, taken from an enormous burial mound with rune stones in front of the church door
A thousand years ago, Jelling was the royal court and Viking capital of Denmark for several decades.
There are two large rune stones in front of the church door. On the smaller one (1.5 m. tall) it says, “Gorm, the King, put up this stone for his wife, Thyra, the pride of Denmark”. This is the first mention of the Danish nation on its own soil. The large stone (2.5 m.) was placed by one of their sons, Harald Blåtand, and reads: “King Harald had this gravestone made in memory of Gorm, his father, and Thyra, his mother. Harald, who conquered all Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians.” A striking stone, not only because the runes run horizontally instead of vertically, but also because of the figure of Christ, the first in Scandinavia. In Utrecht, at the foot of the Dom Cathedral, there is a faithful copy of the large rune stone, a gift from the Friends of Denmark.
In the writings of King Valdemar from 1231, the village of Vrads was already named as the centre of a judicial region, with its own Ting (country meeting-place). This is 1.5 km.north of Vrads, in the Tingdal, with the ring of stones still clearly visible. Justice was done there until 1592. Many bandits and suspected witches met their end on the galgenbakke (= gallows hill) next to it. The name Vrads derives from the old-Danish word, ‘wort’, which means a group of boars.
Day 5, Friday, July 20th: Vrads – Viborg
Weather: sunny, windy
Kilometres cycled: 71
Route:
Jutland Route / National Route no. 3
Vrads, Hjøllund, Sepstrup, Funder Kirkeby, Kragelund, Gråmose, Nørre Knudstrup, Skehøje, Hald Ege, Viborg
Took the wrong turning by accident, thus missing the Ting site. A pity, but it takes me into a beautiful nature reserve: the Vrads-Sande. It has alternating moorland, shifting dunes, bushes and pools. Here there is not yet so much pollution (and therefore grass taking over) and, amongst other things, juniper grows everywhere.
Day 6, Saturday, July 21st: Viborg – Aars
Weather: cloudy in the morning, then sunny
Kilometres cycled: 89
Route:
Jutland Route / National route no. 3 / my own route
Viborg, Vammen, Klejtrup, Roum, Møldrup, Troelstrup, Hvam, Aalestrup, Østrup, Aars, Blære, Troelstrup, Aars
I couldn’t find a campsite yesterday and, after four days’ cycling, I had aches in my back and legs, saddle-soreness and hay fever. I decided to spend the night in a youth hostel and that was very nice. Today I am quite rested and decide to explore Viborg. A pity I did not have the energy for it yesterday, when it was nice weather. Now it is very cloudy.
When I am ready to start, I find I have loaded the bike wrong; the rear bags are the wrong way round. I must alter that if I don’t want to hit the bags with my heels all the time. A somewhat elderly man comes along and offers to help and that is very welcome, as I now don’t have to reload the entire bike. He is an expert: just back last week from a cycling holiday in India. Unfortunately, not in good health; he landed in hospital with intestinal complaints and that is something you definitely shouldn’t do in India, he says. He flew back to Denmark as soon as possible and is now waiting for the results of the tests he had here in Viborg. India is a wonderful country for cycling, a nice climate and little rain. I notice that he is disappointed to be back in his chilly country. “What about a woman travelling alone?” “Hmm… I wouldn’t do that.” Pity.
We muse on the advantages of cycling on your own. People are inclined to think that you get lonely because you are alone. Not al all, in my case. But maybe that's odd, otherwise why would everybody suppose it's true? I think travelling with someone else can create loneliness because you are an unapproachable entity as a couple. It makes it more difficult to make contact with others. If you continually have someone contacts and the unknown.
The old man and I understand each other. I wish him good health and he wishes me a safe journey.
It is a cultural day today: Viborg this morning and this afternoon I make a special detour to visit “Verdenskort” and the Bicycle Museum in Aalestrup. In a corner of the Klejtrup Sø near Klejtrup is the “Verdenskort”, a world map, made of earth, stones and water on a scale of ca. 1:400.000.
The first shelter I make use of
Day 7, Sunday July 22nd: Aars – Aalborg
“Day of rest”
Weather: cloudy in the morning, then rain
Kilometres cycled: 45
Route:
Jutland Route / Regional routes 29 and 23
Aars, Blære, Vegger, Djørup, Nibe, Nørholm, Aalborg
This morning, I’m already on my bike at 7.30. It is a bit misty, but it smells nice and fresh and is incredibly quiet. That is, of course, nothing unusual in Denmark, whatever the time of day. But…at this time, the wild animals are more active than during the rest of the day. Pheasants and hares cross my path and I am a strange sight to the cows.
Around ten o’clock, I stop at the church, a nice place for a rest on Sunday morning. In a way, I hope someone will ask me to come in. I would like to take part in a Danish service and feel the atmosphere. I see all sorts of stately men and women pass and go into the church, look at my own clothes, and realise that I would cause quite a stir if I went in.
When I get near Aalborg, I decide on the spur of the moment to make today a day of rest; after all, it is Sunday and I have been on the go for a week. I hardly dare to confess that I am really tired today and still have all my aches and pains. Another reason is that, while it is still dry at the moment, it looks as if that won’t last long. Bad weather has been forecast (occasionally I ask what the forecast is when I talk to someone).
There is no campsite in the vicinity and I so long for a proper bed that I check into a youth hostel at two o’clock, near the harbour. The last one, in Viborg, was good and the price reasonable. But this one is dearer and gives me a shock. I tell myself that this is the last youth hostel I shall use: three already and only a week under way!
This afternoon I get to know Denmark’s public transport for the first time: I go by bus to the centre of Aalborg.
Aalborg is on the Limfjord and originated in the Viking period. Now it is a busy industrial, trade and university city with a pedestrian precinct in the centre.
One drink has made Aalborg famous: akvavit. In Denmark itself, Aalborg is best known for the famous entertainment street, Jomfru Ane Gade (Street of the Maiden Ane).
Jens Bangs Stenhus with the decoration on the side
This merchant’s house was built in stone in 1624 by the architect, Jens Bang.
At that time, bricks were used for churches and palaces. The fact that Jens Bang was able to build a ‘stenhus’ reveals his status.
In spite of this, he was not elected to the town council or any other post appropriate to his riches. In revenge, he used caricatures of the jealous city dignitaries for the decoration of the frontage. One of the figures, hardly recognisable, sticks his tongue out towards the city hall (yellow building on the left): Jens Bang himself!
