Denmark

Dragged ourselves out of bed this morning, lovely weather again though, so we all had breakfast in the garden and played fetch with Max to avoid cerebral activity!

We said goodbye to Fleur as she went off to work at school and Jacob took us 60 miles or so up to the Northern tip of Denmark where the North sea meets the Baltic sea. It's around a km walk along the sand to the very tip which was okay, but on the way back we nearly got heat exhaustion with the midday sun in our faces and fully geared up!

After 10 minutes in the shade partially stripped we set off for a place to have lunch and top up on water before riding South.

An hour later we said thanks and farewell to Jacob and wound our way around to the beautiful West coast, water on both sides often and really vibrant green fields and blue skies.

At another short ferry crossing another helpful Dane let us know we had missed the last ferry by 30 minutes, so we turned around and took the long route. At a place called Lemvig at around 8pm we decided to call it a day as we were both exhausted, so we found a hotel and a pub for some food before hitting the sack.

259 miles today!

Beautiful weather again today as we packed up in Copenhagen. Our street was reminiscent of London with its faux Georgian terraces and was quite lively with fruit stalls and activity.

A few miles down the road we came across another impressive bridge crossing similar to the Malmo one with a 6 mile high suspension bridge and 4 miles of a lower arched bridge which took us onto the Jutland peninsula which makes up the bulk of Denmark.

After a few miles heading North on the motorway we turned off and took some nice small coastal roads. The countryside was very green and lush and there is an awful lot of farming and fields which might explain why everywhere smells of cowpats! We think it's muck spreading season!

Up the coast nearing Aalborg we boarded a ferry for the quick hop to the other side of a long inlet and got some petrol on the other side. There we met up with Jacob, another Fazer rider who I got in contact with on an online forum (not that sort of forum!). He had kindly offered a place for us to stay for the night, so we took him up on the offer. His Fazer looked factory-fresh next to Frazza! The three of us rode the last 10 miles or so to his place together and when we got there met his wife Fleur and Max their little 6month old Terrier.

We said the other day that we were impressed with the frendliness of the Danes, but Jacob and Fleur set a new standard. We spent the evening chatting about the bikes, the trip, how they met etc and they plied us with beers, cooked for us on the barbeque and then got out the wine, champagne and whiskey! We went to bed eventually!

275 miles today.

Beautiful weather for riding again today. 15 degrees and sunny, so we were in high spirits as we packed up to leave Göteburg. We'll definitely be back some time as well as we liked it a lot.

The main road made its way down the coast and we got some great views over the sea. We stopped for a quick look in a national park on the coast and walked up a sand dune (leaving our bikes in the car park this time!) to get an even better perspective and figured it was a good time for lunch at the nearby cafe.

Not long after that (and after passing through a small shower) we arrived at the border between Sweden and Denmark, separated by the Øresund Straight. There's now a bridge linking Malmo to Copenhagen and it's very impressive. We rode along it as a ferry passed underneath us and 6 miles after it started we plunged underground for 4 miles in a tunnel.

We popped up on the outskirts of the city and headed in. The traffic was slightly heavier here, but like most countries we've been in recently the towns and cities are much less car-centric than British ones and there were big, segregated joined-up cycle routes which were being used well.

We found a hotel in the centre of town easily and headed to the Tivoli theme park just around the corner. A big, colourful and well kept park right in the middle of the city that has been around for over 100 years. We had a lot of fun on the rollercoasters and got a great view from the top of a massively high spinning swing ride. We've found the Danes to be very friendly as well.

Local tucker tonight (wagamamas!) and back for bed.

205 miles today.