June 7, 2024
The longest day
We slept okay in the shelters despite it being colder than it should be and some surprisingly loud snores coming from a two-year-old. We had breakfast at the shelters but were on the bikes early, for we had a long way to go. We were due to meet Dea’s family at 4pm and we had 47 kilometres to bike.
I hoped we could cycle the 16 kilometres to Kolding in one go but after 10 we passed a playground with some toys and a kiddy motorbike Kevin could ride on. He loves riding on those kiddy motorbikes almost as much as he loves cars, so we had to stop. To my surprise he didn’t just sit on the motorbike the whole time though, he also explored the climbing frame too, as we ate our first round of peanut butter and jam sandwiches.
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On we cycled to Kolding, Kevin still in his seat on Dea’s bike. We skipped the first playground I had planned to stop at and rode through the town and out the other side. There was a rest area with benches there where we had stopped many times before. This time when we got there the rest area was being renovated and the benches were awol. But lucky for us there were some other benches across the road next to a harbour with a view of the Kolding fjord. It was a much nicer place than the rest area - and it made me wonder how often during our travels around the world we had taken breaks in places without knowing there were much nicer options just across the road.
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We had cycled half of the day’s distance already and it was only mid morning, but Dea was feeling tired, so she lay down and took a nap on the grass while I walked Kevin around the harbour. I naively thought he might like to look at the boats but he insisted we head straight for the car park to look at cars. For the first time he was able to identify a Mazda by himself. I’m so proud. He then started to demand we go back to mummy and I had to loan a luggage trailer from by the boats and push him around in that for a while just so that Dea could get a 20 minute nap.
By the time we left the harbour it was midday and around time for Kevin’s nap, so we put him in the trailer behind my bike. I now had really a lot of weight to pull but it was good for Dea to have less. We hadn’t gone far before Kevin was already fast asleep. We had a nice bike path next to a road for while but it felt like it was climbing all the time. After about 8 kilometres we turned off on a smaller road and climbed some more just as it started to rain more heavily. We stopped in some trees and put on all our rain gear for the big descent to the coast. But this took us such a long time that by the time we continued the rain had passed and the sun was back. And the road turned uphill again, so we were cycling uphill in the sunshine with all our rain gear on. Eventually we had a short descent and then after 10 kilometres of climbing and one kilometre of descent we found ourselves back at sea level at Binderup Strand.
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We were now following the national cycle route number 5 and it was a bit of a surprise when it took us on some adventure cycling down by the beach that had Dea exclaiming “is this really a Danish cycle route?”
But it wasn’t bad for long and it was actually some really nice quiet roads we were following, albeit with quite a bit of climbing too.
Three kilometres from our destination the heavens opened again and we sought shelter behind a hotel and restaurant where there was a decent place to hide. The weather at the moment is very mixed, with these sudden downpours ready at any moment to interrupt our tour. But we avoided the worst of it again and were soon on our way.
It had been a long day, perhaps the most distance we have cycled with Kevin in one day. He had been brilliant, enjoying it all. Dea and I were the ones struggling! With some relief we reached the holiday home we had rented for the weekend just before four and met with Dea’s parents and siblings. It was a fantastic big house with a great view over the fields and a lovely evening was spent catching up with everyone. Well, until I fell asleep putting Kevin to bed and missed most of it, anyway. Well, it had been a long day!
Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 56 km (35 miles)
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