I knew the ferry company from a previous visit to Iceland. Then the ship called at Lervick in the Shetland Islands, meaning it was possible to sail with a connecting ferry from mainland Scotland. So I planned on taking a week cycling either to Aberdeen or the Orkney Isles and sailing north. But just to make sure of the schedule, I googled ferriestoiceland, the said ferry company was there; I clicked-on and opened their website, then clicked on routes. Straightaway I found that they sailed directly from Denmark and no longer call at Lerwick, though the ship does call at Torshavn in the Faroe Isles which is the ferry company's home port.

Then I saw on my Michelin map for Scotland, a dotted ferry-line with Torshavn printed alongside from Aberdeen. It's possible to sail from Scotland to Iceland after all I thought. I googled again. This time I found a website called Shetland. The type of site where people post messages, the first message from a young Icelander living in Glasgow interested in returning home by sea, couldn't find a ferry connect from Scotland. He had thought to go on a container ship but said the shipping companies weren't interested in taking passengers. There was a message commiserating, telling him how until recently it was possible to sail from Scotland and now it's only possible to sail from Denmark, so couldn't he get himself to Denmark. He replied Denmark was a long way to go to catch a ferry.

The shortest way for me to get to Denmark is a ferry to Gothenburg in Sweden, then a ferry to Denmark. I could alternatively cycle down the east of England as I know there's a connection from Harwich in Suffolk to Esbjerg on the west coast of Denmark. This is the way I'll go. Looks like I'll see the county of Norfolk which I've never been to before. Furthermore I've just been on the "North Sea Cycle Route" website, so I can follow the part which'll take me to my ferry connections.