I Bloody LOVE Denmark

 

(Thanks Phil for this live action cuteness)

How can you not love a country that's so freaking cute that they put signposts like that, above, on the start of your first cycle path (second pic and Phil the Drone footage)?  I have very fond memories of Denmark, and on my third visit to this beautiful country I'm equally as enchanted.  I was soooooooo excited to get here, and as soon as we were off the ferry from Puttgarden my whole system seemed to relax into a delicious contentment.  And my system was right.  We are in our fourth day now - two days of magnificent cycling, the best for me so far, and we 're now happily ensconced in that little red cabin in a camping ground in a small place called Nykøbing Falster.  We originally came for one night in the tent, but discovered all the cute trekking huts - so we grabbed one of those, added an extra night, and it now looks like we're going to hang here for another few days.  Woohooo!

So, just to back track a little, we had a seamless Baltic Sea crossing on the ferry - we packed up our tent and just headed off, the ferries go every 30 mins, we were lucky to arrive just before the ferry left, so we grabbed our tickets and were the last people on.  We had to secure the bikes for the 45 min crossing, then relaxed our way over to a new country and a new adventure.

Buying our tickets

Romeo and Iris are all strapped in for the journey

Getting off the ferry wasn't this dramatic!

Mike living the ferry dream

We cycled off the ferry and into our new country for the next couple of weeks.  Originally we had planned a week of riding up through Copenhagen to the north to catch a ferry over to Sweden, but after our chat with the two great German women we met a few days ago in the supermarket carpark, and they told us how great the cycling was here, that they had followed Route 8 and loved it, we changed our plans to do just that and are hoping to spend a few weeks here on Route 8.  

So, like I said, we rode off the ferry...and found a supermarket for a snack (of course), and FOUND POLLYS!  Pollys are a lolly, well chocolate covered caramel thingys, that I was introduced to in Sweden by the Tunas (long story) - and they are AMAZINGLY FANTASTICALLY WILLY WONKA GOOD - so we grabbed some of those for our snack en route...

How tough is this? - we took a break where the road crosses our beautiful bike path...

We cycled on to a place called Maribo, which we'd chosen because we were having a chat with the old guy painting the window frames of the place we stopped for coffee and pastries, and he's from Maribo and was extolling its virtues.  So we booked a cabin at the hostel there, and headed that way.  Oh the cycling.  So beautiful. A mix of road and forest pathways.  On the road the cars are so patient and safe with us, and the forest pathways are like riding through a fairy tale.  We reached our cool cabin, which is at a sport and rec place - we explored the town, so freaking cute, got the bike chains cleaned at the local bike shop, grabbed some groceries, and were able to cook our own dinner in the common room which was a luxury - fish and salad - a great first day.

Our cool hostel cabin

The famous Maribo Cathdral - all dark and mysterious on the outside...

Incredibly light and startlingly white on the inside...like heaven

Cool Maribo

Cute Maribo

We leapt out of bed the next morning for Denmark Day 2.  Our cabin, being at a sport and rec facility, faced onto the athletics field (random, I know), and I watched an older guy shuffle around the running track - we waved.  He finished his run and came over to chat.  His name is Erik and he's 85 years old - he told he was from a place a few km away and we should visit, which we'd actually already planned to do.  Erik told us some great history about his hometown, and also that he is the Danish Masters champion  in running many distances - hence his workout that morning.  He was brilliant. 

Brilliant Erik

The statue in Erik's town, Sakskobing - commemorating the Polish women who used to come and harvest the sugar beets from the late 1800s to 1915, they were knows as the "beet girls", and many stayed to live there, with 40% of the local population now having Polish roots.

Mike in the sweetest cafe in Sakskobing - for FANTASTIC pastries.  Yum Yum.

We knew we were needing a rest day - this would be our fifth day on the bike, and we knew our bodies were a bit sore and very tired.  We were thinking of stopping here for a few days, but the day was glorious, the riding conditions of warmth and no wind, extraordinary, and we were in great Danish spirits, so we decided to keep going.  And what a day it was.  My best day on the bike so far.  I actually didn't want to stop riding when we reached our campground - we ended up doing almost 40km (we were planning to do 10) - the paths were magical, the roads were smooth, safe, and incredibly scenic.  We were just cycling along and came across a bloody princess castle with swans in the water, and the swans had a baby swan just gliding along beside them - WHAT COUNTRY IS THIS?!?!?

I can't get enough of the poppies - they are so beautiful when we ride past them - we tried to capture them on Phil the Drone, but it didn't work out very well, so you have this pic..

We're not sure what this is warning us of - otter? Marmot? Beaver with a skinny tail? Meerkat?  Mini-alligator? Anyone?

Hello!

We hit our destination, Nykøbing Falster, and had some lunch in the old town

Followed by some Danish ice cream - I warned Mike that the food in Denmark is well, a bit bland, but we're going to eat great ice cream!  The cute ice cream man, insisted I had soft serve on top of my scoop of banana choc chip, then dipped it in crushed chocolate - sooooo funny!

Our wonderful campsite where we are now - quiet, calm, friendly (the owner cooked our marinated chicken wings in her oven for us the first night because she'd run out of tokens for the oven in the common kitchen), and a supermarket only 500m away.

Our home for now - we're loving it here so much, and we've been wanting to have a long stop for a while now, so we've decided to hang here for a few more days - do our washing, get our second tick vaccine, cook our own food, relax (I read my first book yesterday) and rest. 

So, you're up to date Sportsfans.  It's been a wonderful welcome from Denmark, and we're planning to continue with sightseeing and exploring cycling, rather than destination cycling, on Route 8 while we're here.  It's a slower pace, the weather at the moment is just perfect, and our energies are chilled.

If you've read all the way here, we have some more excitement from Phil the Drone, who captured our cabin while we were having breakfast yesterday (to test out more features) - enjoy (our cabin is in the background with the door open and bikes out the front):