July 6, 2023
Stege to Rodvig, Denmark (July 6, 2023)
And Happy to be on the Road
Hej! God Morgen! (That’s hi and good morning in Danish.)
After a full two days here are our impressions of Denmark:
1. It’s windy. About 13 years ago I rode in around the North Sea route in Denmark for a week. I had forgotten how windy it was and now I remember! Today it was sunny and pleasant and of the 70 km we rode about 67 km of it seemed to be into a headwind, notwithstanding we went in multiple directions! Good news: the bike electric motors really help with that.
2. Cycling infrastructure is great. Cycling is a priority and it shows. We have been traveling Danish Cycle Route 9 (equivalent to Eurovelo 10). A common tranportation technique is for the land use planners to take a two-lane road and paint a bike trail on either side, which results in leaving just one car-width lane in the center. Cars, rather than bikes, have to figure out how to go around each other. I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t fly in the States but it sure is nice for us.
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3. People are nice here but reserved. We are still in the country but you can see that people tend to keep to themselves more so than we gregarious Americans. Everyone has been pleasantly engaging and curious about our travels once we establish an opening, hower. We learned that in these rural areas the locals don’t see many travelers from the US.
4. True to stereotypes, the people are very handsome, but in an understated way that matches the aforementioned reserve.
5. Food has exceeded expectations, which admittedly were pretty low. We had a delightful breakfast while leaving Stege and another this morning in Rodvig (more later down below).
6. Things are expensive but not outrageously (another pre-travel assumption debunked) out of line. Clearly the lower valuation of the dollar compared to our trip last year along with Europe's inflation have caused prices to increase. Our biggest shock was that a small beer and a latte were 16 US dollars one afternoon. And we paid 7 USD for an ice cream bar in the hotel. Otherwise, we haven’t been too appalled.
7. Denmark has bees of all varieties. A famous bee here is is called the Small Blue and it’s a charming bee. There are lots of wildflowers which I’m sure that has something to do with all the bee action.
8. It’s very family-oriented and Danes bring their kids everywhere. We’ve never seen so many well-groomed, well- behaved kids in our life, as well as a lot of baby carriages.
9. We like it here!
Today we had a fairly long ride which generally headed north to reach a little town called Rodvig, on the east coast of South Zealand. Weather was quite improved. It’s hard to judge what to wear in these conditions, as it is not particularly cold, mid 60s, but the clouds and wind make it very changeable. After a good sleep in at Motel Stege we had a great brunch at a place called David’s cafe, which included our first waffle along with a tray of other Danish specialties. We rode 70 km but had a fun stop for ice cream in the coastal town of Faxe Ladepads. Rodvig exceeded expectations. It’s a charming, quiet coastal town and we stayed in an equally charming old inn called Rodvig Kro and Badehotel (kro means inn and badehotel means bathing house, which refers to the fact it’s across from the sea). If we had known it would be so lovely we would have planned to stay two nights.
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 343 km (213 miles)
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