July 21, 2023
Day 18: Næstved to Fredericia
Kevin was no happier in the morning and it was time to go home. We had hoped to cycle 25 kilometres to Ringsted to get on a direct train home, but changed our mind after we accidentally managed to block Johs's toilet. I would say I blocked it, but apparantly Dea had filled it up with too many snotty tissues. Johs was at work and had trusted us to be left alone in his house, and, well, he probably shouldn't have. We couldn't very well leave him with a blocked toilet and so quite a bit of time was spent by me unblocking it, the details of which I will spare you, but if you're reading this Johs at least you now know where your baking soda and vinegar and wire coat hanger went. You didn't want that back, trust me.
During all this lost time Kevin was being impatient and moody and we decided to just cycle three kilometres into Næstved station and take the train from there. This would mean a connection in Ringsted which would be a hassle with the heavy bikes and the trailer, but it still seemed like a better option now. And it turned out to be a good choice as the local train stopped a long time in Næstved and was at a low level so it was really easy to roll everything on and off.
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It only took 15 minutes and we were in Ringsted at 12:30. The train home we had booked the previous night didn't leave until 15:01 and those tickets were refundable, so we tried to get tickets on an earlier train. Unfortunately DSB, the Danish train operator, doesn't let you book a pushchair and a bike with the same ticket, so I had to buy two tickets, one for me and the bikes, and one for Dea and Kevin with the pushchair (as our trailer had become). I ordered the one for me and the bikes first, but when I went to book the second ticket I was told there was no space for pushchairs and it wasn't possible. The first ticket was non-refundable so I had wasted £40 on absolutely nothing as we would still have to wait until 15:01 for a train we could all get on. This was really annoying. This day wasn't going well and it didn't look like getting better any time soon.
Dea took Kevin for a walk in the pushchair trailer to get some sleep while I sat and watched the trains. I watched the 13:01 that was the one I'd tried to get tickets for come into the station at 12:59. It was absolutely packed with people, also standing out in space by the doors. It would have been impossible to get our fully loaded bikes and the trailer in there. I began to get worried. When the 14:01 train came I looked out for the carriages with our number on. The train was basically the same each hour so it paid to be prepared. Again, completely packed and not looking possible to get all our stuff on. I was especially worried as I'd had to buy the tickets separately, so Dea was in wagon 62 and I was in 63 with the two bikes, so we would have to get on separately, and I would have to hop on and off twice to get the bikes on a train where there was unlikely to be any space, in a maximum of two minutes. It was all too easy to imagine a scenario where we couldn't get on, or Dea got on and I was left behind with one of the bikes.
Things got worse when the screen on the platform came up with the layout of our train, showing where all the carriages were situated. There was no carriage 63 anywhere. Now I was really fretting. Not only did I have to get two loaded bikes on a packed train, the place supposedly reserved for the bikes didn't even exist! This was awful.
We made a plan to try and get everything on in wagon 62 and if it wasn't possible to dash down the platform to the next part of the train which was going to another final destination and might be less busy. The train came in and we lept into action. Luckily a conductor got off 62 and stood on the platform while some passengers got off so Dea was able to ask if there was space for all our stuff in 62. Not a chance. He said we could try the next carriage. I ran down with one bike and lifted it with great difficulty up the steps of the train. There were some seats where I could lean it but there was a person sitting there, a person who quite quickly got the message that I needed her to get the hell out of the way. I dropped the bike and dashed back for the second. Another woman was also trying to get a bike and a trailer in this space. Somebody was at least helping Dea get our trailer in. And there was just space for the second bike, I hauled it on board just in time, me holding Dea's bike in the doorwell as the train pulled away. The hall was carnage, a mess of bikes and trailers, Kevin screaming, but somehow we were on the train.
We managed to get things sorted out in the end, moved things around, shifted some people out of seats, and the bikes were tidy enough. We were even able to get some seats for ourselves, initially opposite a man who was busy typing away on a laptop. Kevin was not so happy to be on the train. He used to love going on trains, now he just cried and screamed, which must have been quite disturbing for the man trying to do his work opposite. We eventually calmed Kevin down by giving him some bread with mackerel and mayonaise which he loves. But the man opposite got up and moved away. "He was trying to work, Kevin," I said. "Actually, I think it was probably the mackerel," Dea said.
The train took us back across Fyn. Halfway across, in Odense, the carriages we were in separated from the ones we were supposed to be in. Our train now was not going to Fredericia, but it was going to make a stop in Middlefart, the town across the water from Fredericia we had cycled through on the first morning of the trip. This was not much further to cycle home than Fredericia station and so we were happy to get off in Middlefart. It was just a relief to have survived the train journey and to be in a position to cycle home. We thought we would have to put Kevin in the trailer for this last cycle, but he actually wanted to sit in his seat this time.
We rode back past the park with the goats where we had taken our first break, past the deer park where Lukas had had his first mechanical, and over the Little Belt bridge which had been so windy the first time. Now it was calm and still, and Kevin was also calm. It was so nice to have this little ride together where he was just happy and enjoying looking at things from his seat to end the trip with.
With our total trip distance just passing the 400 kilometre mark we rolled down to the front door of our community and we were home. It was actually really nice to be back in our little house and I certainly wasn't the only one to think so. Kevin was a boy transformed. He looked so happy and we knew we had made the right choice to bring him home. It had been a great trip, a tremendous adventure in which we had made a lot of memories. I am sure that Kevin enjoyed most of it and he really got a lot out of it. But in the end it was a bit too much for him and we always said if he didn't want to do it we wouldn't do it. Seeing how happy he was to be home absolutely confirmed that we did the right thing.
Kevin's favourite book is about a teddy bear who travels around the world. The ending of the book never felt more appropriate, so appropriate that it should maybe be the ending of this blog too:
Today's ride: 11 km (7 miles)
Total: 397 km (247 miles)
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