Day 5 - Praesto to Nykobing - 9 1/2 Weeks - Copenhagen to Lecce 2019

September 23, 2019

Day 5 - Praesto to Nykobing

And Then Njord Spoke

With all the synchronized cycle lane lights and our personal train concierge cleaning out a train car for us, we were feeling pretty cocky yesterday.

Yeah... we're the Cycle Kings, Masters of the Universe, maybe even the Cycle Gods. mmmm, that one sounds good.

Good enough to annoy the real Gods. Sitting back, looking at these two aging numpties, Njord must have thought 'It's time to teach those two a little lesson in Respect'.

And so he did.

The wind started gaining intensity about the time I finished jotting down yesterday's blog as we were lying in our tent. By the time we were up and moving in the morning it was blowing a pretty steady 30-35 km/hr from the SE. Guess which way we were going to be travelling!

Sorry Njord. Really sorry.

Although we've been to Copenhagen several times this was our first time in Denmark outside of the capital. Praesto is a good size village with a bustling harbour full of sailboats and other pleasure craft.

However, notwithstanding that Denmark ranks #4 in the world for coffee consumption, there was not a single cafe, nor bakery open at 8 am. What gives? Is this France? I thought it was a little more Teutonic in its early rising work ethic. Oh well, my caffeine injection would have to wait a few hours until we stumbled through a town after 10 -11, when most cafe's seems to open.

So off we went, sans caffeine, cycling mostly east and south across pretty but flat farmland at a blistering pace of 11- 13 km/hr. We had a few stretches where the winding road would turn to the west and we would then effortlessly cruise along at 25-30 km/hr for a few fleeting minutes. However, most of the time it was a relentless all-day uphill into the wind.

Once again the countryside was perfectly tended farms, interspersed with many windmills, set out on several closely spaced islands (Mon and Bodo). We caught the Bodo ferry, a 68 year old wooden ferry that is in use now mostly to ferry bike travelers from Bodo to Stubbekobing. There's actually a fair bit of this traffic as this is part of the popular Berlin to Copenhagen cycleway.

Our plan for today was to stick fairly close to this cycle way after Stubbekobing all the way to Gedser, where we would catch the ferry to Rostock Germany (tomorrow). This plan was developing very slowly due to the wind.

When we were stopped for a late lunch / snack, and still about 30 km from Gedser, into the wind to the south, we had a look at the weather forecast for tomorrow. It showed light winds. Nykobing, a pleasent looking town about 15 km away to the SW (i.e with the wind at our back) seemed like a good option. We'd get up in the morning and have a 25 km (ish) ride to the ferry, hopefully with no wind, rather than a 30 km grind today. So that's what we did.

Turns out Nykobing is quite a nice place. Great 'city campground' set on the west edge of town and a good selection of restaurants. We had a v good Sushi feed washed down by a large Tubourg. All good!

Hopefully we've paid our penance to Njord and he's calmed things down for us tomorrow.

Song of the Day , Somewhere Down the Crazy River by Robbie Robertson...,

'Why do you always end up down at Nykobing? I said "I don't know, the wind just kind of pushed me this way" '

... and so it did

Heart

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