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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

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dine. Clearly past the season.

Sunday, October 15, to Ratekau, Germany
134.9 km, 300 m vertical, average 21.6 kph, maximum 37

Set the alarm for 6:30. No point in getting up early, since breakfast is only available at 7:15. The day was like yesterday, gray and still. Host Arne Kristensen said it was supposed to clear up by afternoon.

It was forty km to the ferry. Not quite as still as yesterday – some of the wind turbines were turning. Yesterday, I found the bike route hard to follow; but one day of practice understanding the sign conventions made it easy, today, to follow the route. I didn’t even have to consciously look for the signs. Left the bike route at Maribo, since it wanders around.

At Rødbyhavn, a sign said Copenhagen was 151 km – by freeway. So my initial estimate wasn’t that bad; I just hadn’t allowed for forty km of messing around on side roads. Well, no one ever said that a bicycle tour was the most efficient way to get from point A to point B.

Thought I might make the 9:30 ferry, but the bike route in Rødbyhavn wasn’t well marked, the side road led to the wrong part of the harbor. Then there was an overcrossing, hard to walk the bike up and down, and I was in the ferry parking lot. I could see the boats, couldn’t see how to reach them.

There was an underpass marked Ferry. No ramp, had to carry the bike down the steps and back up – and I was at the train terminal. Moomph! Asked a railroad worker, who let me cross the tracks, pointed out where to go, ’way beyond the parking lot, onto the road, where I queued with the cars to buy a ticket. Cost 32 kroner for me, 20 more for the bike. That’s about $8.50, pretty reasonable. The ticket seller directed me to a lane of my own; when I reached the front of the lane, the traffic controller stopped the cars and waved me forward onto the boat.

A big boat, quite the largest ...