Home » Germany Denmark » A bicycle tour from København to München

For the last few weeks before I returned to the US, I worked in Copenhagen (København). I flew there every Monday morning, and home to München every Friday afternoon.

A bicycle tour from København to München

Dave Hood
2004-02-19 20:21:47

Displayed times (last time: )

– all that messing around wasted a lot of time. 4:15 and only 130 km. Stopped at a gas station for water and a calorie fix, enough to keep me going for another hour or so. Decided to hammer on until I reached 140 km or until 4:30. Felt good!

The towns are far apart, but I was rather counting on finding a rural roadside hotel-restaurant somewhere. About the time the sun disappeared, and the day turned cold, I found one. Montag Ruhetag. Oh - oh! I was only a few kilometers from Schneverdingen, but only the crows could get there via the short route.

A few kilometers further on, a Zimmer Frei sign. Half a kilometer down a lane to a farm. Thousands of kittens, a girl and a horse. She thought my Deutsch was funny – well, she’s right of course. We’ll do this in English if you’d prefer… No?

Her mother showed me to an upstairs room, large and comfortable. I peeked into the WC: a bar of soap! Good.

Now, what to eat? No restaurants, and my hostess showed no enthusiasm when I asked if she could feed me tonight. Dropped off the panniers, went back out. On south, two kilometers, found a Gaststätte, hotel, closed at 2:30 on Mondays. That’s no help!

Rode a couple kilometers the other direction. Small grocery store. Good enough! Loaded up; headed back in a twilight as late as I would have wanted to ride in.

No silverware in my room, but there was a bottle opener, more-or-less spoon shaped. Washed it off, used it on the yogurt. Too clumsy to stir, so I just ate it like it was: yogurt first, then the fruit. If you care, you’re not hungry.

Then I opened the liter of milk, the munchie crackers and the nice stinky Tilsit cheese I’d bought. Apples for later, peanuts maybe for tomorrow… While I was eating, the hostess came in to make up the bed. She guessed I might be Engländer or Holländer (several people asked me if I was English – not sure why). “San Francisco!” she said, “High society!”

Hot shower – with soap – and I feel pretty spoiled yet once again. After all, if there were no hassles, you wouldn’t appreciate these little nice things as much.

How’m I doing? I’ve been afraid of falling behind the curve, having to spend next Sunday on the train, or getting home Monday – not that either of those outcomes would be a catastrophe. But it still looks as if Sunday is a reasonable estimate to finish.

Copyright Dave Hood.

All rights reserved.

click here