August 8, 2012
A very hard first day: We Make it to Koge
Today was the day it really started. I felt a bit nervous. Thanks to the continuing jet lag we were awake and rearing to go shortly after five, breakfast was at 6.30 and then the loading of the bikes and we were off about 7.30.
As always getting out of a big city is never easy but we didn't do too badly though the route we followed didn’t seem to correspond with the map but we blundered along and eventually we were clear of Copenhagen. Then after about 15km we seemed to hit the real route and signs began to appear. After that route finding was straightforward and it was in fact well signed the whole way.
The wind was amazingly strong, the flags and the windsocks we saw were pointing straight out. Had it been blowing the way we were going our progress would have been fast. It did however take us a very long time to get here.
The way is lovely. After leaving the city the first part is along the shore with wonderful little harbours and what looked today like very wild looking beaches. People were walking their dogs and mucking around in the moored boats but certainly no one was venturing into the water either to swim or take their craft to sea. All along the way there were lots of wild flowers, in particular bank after bank of wild roses
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We then left the shoreline and went into the countryside. This is a land of grain farming and we saw huge areas of wheat and barley all looking ready to harvest. The crops were in magnificent condition and the only weeds were small patches of scarlet poppies at the field edges. What surprised me was what a different colour those two crops are, ripe barley is really a shiny gold. This was horse country too and we passed a number of arenas and saw some horses being broken in. The houses scattered around looked like children’s drawings and were painted either white or a dull mustard.
We had done a very hard 65km when we reached this charming old town of Koge. Both of us were feeling tired and Ken is developing the cold that has plagued me since leaving home so I am ashamed to say we have booked into a B and B rather than fight the gale to put up our tent.
Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 95 km (59 miles)
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