Vejle to Fredricia: Hills, steep curves and another flat tire

September 21, 2013

Denmark rewards us constantly with beauty and very friendly people. We have found that all we have to do is pull out our map and people come to us and offer their help. Just riding along, waves and smiles and conversation are the norm. We leave Denmark next week to take the ferry to Holland. We are so glad that we chose to stay a bit longer here than planned. The only challenge in Denmark is that the costs are higher than in Germany and Holland. We budget by cooking our food and camping as much as we can.
Once again we must applaud the high standard of service and accomodation provided by Vejle Dan Hostel. We are still marvelling at the generous and tasty offering of food last night.
After our ride last night on a busy narrow road looking for the hostel, we discovered that a bike path ran right behind the hostel all the way into town. If only we had known!
Our Apple computer cord died and we needed a replacement. Luckily Barry found a shop in Vejle that carried Apple products. We can use this at home with our adapter and also use it for future European trips. So it helps to justify spending more money on unexpected problems.

We had heard wonderful things about the scenery along the coast going to Fredricia, so we chose cycle route #5. It started out nicely, but within a few km. we had another flat on the trailer. A cyclist stopped and told us that Denmark (and Sweden and Norway) have small stones made of flint on the road that are sharp like a knife and cause punctures.

Tube patched and we were ready to go. The route soon rose to grades of over 20% with sharp curves and no shoulder. As well as tire problems, the Rohloff hub is not allowing us to use the lowest gears. This meant that we had to push our bike and this is something Barry never likes to do.

A young man who lived nearby, was also walking his bike and he gave us good advice that we should detour to the less aggressive route #57. With our diminished gear range, we struggled through the hills until we reached Fredricia and found the hostel. A tiring and frustrating day. Tomorrow, we need to find a bike shop to see if they can help us figure out what is wrong with the gears. We know that there are many hills ahead on this section of Jutland, so we need all of our gears.

We see such wonderful sculptures and statues in Denmark. In Vejle, these whimsical statues are in the town centre. So much character and humour are incorporated into these creatures.

School children and preschoolers are often seen out for a day trip. These kids were very interested in us and our bike.

A festival of historic living styles in the town square.

#*!##* another flat!! We're consoling ourselves that it is not such a big deal when it is on the trailer.

Barry is getting really fast at this. Flint on the wet roads is really dangerous this time of year. There could be worse locations than sitting by a fjord to have to sit and fix a flat.

We took the advice of this man who lives in the area. When the hill levelled out, he told us our best bet was to leave route 5 and try 57. It was still hilly but not so extreme.

Our advice, if you have a fully loaded bike, don't do this section - especially if you are missing the granny gear.

Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 2,604 km (1,617 miles)

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