Day 1 - travel to CPH - 9 1/2 Weeks - Copenhagen to Lecce 2019 - CycleBlaze

September 18, 2019

Day 1 - travel to CPH

Date Night With Cuisine by Gate Gourmet (and other oxymorons)

And so it begins ....

A few years back, Kirsten and I were having dinner at our 'local' Japanese restaurant and were eavesdropping on the young 20 ish couple  sitting at the table next to us who looked like they were on a 'first date'. Not creepy eavesdropping, just the I can't but help hearing this 'cause the tables are so close eavesdropping.

'I just love the dynamite rolls here .... I hiked Old Goat Glacier yesterday, what's your favorite hike? ...Yeah, that one's great. Where are you living in town? .. Oh, me too. Which garbage can do you go to?"

Say what? Laughing and nearly choking on the nigiri rolls we were eating, K and I thought 'that first dates' going well', and we now had a new code for 'take out the garbage'.

You may be sitting there right now, coffee cup in hand, scratching you head and thinking 'ok, I know he's jet lagged, but what the hell does this have to do with anything?'

Well, even though this whole bike tour thing from the chocolate box perfect Scandinavian coast down through the heart of western Europe to the sun drenched ancient white stone villages and beaches of Puliga sounds romantic and exotic, and it is..., every one of these tours starts out in the same pedestrian fashion.

Pack up the bikes, make arrangements to get to the airport, clean up and lock  down the house. And last but not least ,take out the garbage so it's not greeting you when you get home!

That's what K proposed to me after we had the car loaded and ready to go ...." Do you want to go on a date honey? Our special spot!"  And so it was.

First stop on this grand adventure ... 300 m down the road ... 'our' garbage can. Sweet! (note: In Canmore you have to take your garbage to centrally located bear proof garbage cans, else you may well wake up one morning to find smokey the bear and a few of his friends on your front porch chowing down on your refuse )

The hot date over with, we headed off to Calgary for a short rendezvous with our daughter and her boyfriend, and then early Wednesday morning started the slow grind to Copenhagen.

Overall, everything went as planned: hassle free check-in, flights on time, transfer in Toronto  painless, bikes and bags arrived in CPH !!!! However, these days are sill a necessary evil. Even though you're flying at 1000 km/hr, everything else associated with the process just slowley grinds along.

Once in CPH we got the bikes rebuilt in short order and were on the train over the Oresund Bridge to Malmo where we met up with K's cousin Andres and his family (Arcelly, Magnus and Elin).

We're hanging out here for a few days to visit and get over some of the jet lag. Nice!

Song of the Day:

September Fields by Frazey Ford

You better get up for your mama

You better grab the best of your life

I know you're ready

To get older

Anyhow

Well all you have to do is wander

Over fields of dark time

Yeah, all we have to do is wander......

Packed up and heading out of Canmore. Our neighbour is sure happy to see us go!
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Our ‘regular’ date spot!
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Wednesday AM Calgary- Dave G shuttling us to the airport
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Last bit of Canadiana- there’s Parks Canada Red chairs at the Calgary airport
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Whoever came up with this name also coined the phrase Jumbo Shrimp! Overall a nice Date - shame about the food though. We never gain weight on airplanes!
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Always a relief! Bags and boxes arrived in Copenhagen in good shape
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Kim BorhenThe best feeling!
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5 years ago
Very nice and quiet area in the CPH airport to rebuild the bikes. The oversized bag guys even took our boxes away for recycling! I’m referring to the guys working in the oversized bag area, I’m not body-shaming them. It will take me a few days to descend into my normal politically incorrect travel mode
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Almost done!
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Built up, loaded and buying tickets for the train across the Oresund bridge to Malmo. Gruelling 2.3 km cycle awaits from Malmo station to Andres & Arcelly’s place. Planes Trains and Automobiles section of the trip is almost over! Let the biking begin!
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Windmills from the train going over the Orsund bridge
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Rate this entry's writing Heart 12
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Glenna JefferiesDang, I should have put a I heart Cdn O&G sticker on your bike....
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5 years ago
Sharon SmithHi Kirsten/Lyle, I'm a bit late to the party, but trying to catch up.

Are you ridding the same bikes you road cross Canada on or did you upgrade your kit?

Safe travel.
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5 years ago
Lyle McLeodStill the same bikes Sharon! Can’t really ‘upgrade’ what we have. They are the bike equivalent of an AMG Mercedes G-wagon! If we decided we would sooner have a more blinging Range Rover, we could get Van Nicholas titanium bikes, but that’s not really an upgrade, just flash!
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5 years ago