Sol, strand og vand

We got up early for a lovely spread and got ready for today’s ride. My
old man gave us a lift to the start around 40 miles to the north of
Aalborg. We set of 500m from the beach around 3km from Hirsals, in
glorious sunshine and the wind in our backs.

We followed the national cycle route 1 also known as the north-sea cycle
route.

It took us through the area where I have spend many a day
running/jumping around in the dunes, swimming the sea and getting my
back side majorly burned in the summer of ’76 (boy am I old). My folks
used to own a summer house in the area and an uncle had one too.

We found a tower with a great view over the area we were about to cycle through, a wee bit windy up there but down in the trees we barely felt the tail wind.

We went over Uggerby å (a river if you can call it that) where we saw
some people canoeing just like I use used to do when I was a wee nipper.

The route varied from tarmac to gravel to forest paths and always well
sign posted so there was never any change of getting lost.

We had our elevenses at Råbjerg Kirke just before we arrived at Råbjerg
Mile, a wandering sand dune. Danish television and movie studios have
over the year used this as a back drop for scenes in the desert.

Cycling heaven when the wind is in your back 🙂

We headed out to the church that the sand have reclaimed and now it is only the tower that is left standing. Lucky it is the low season in Denmark, because my memory of this place and where we were heading is a sea of German tourists and the odd Swede.

We arrived in Skagen the northern most town in Denmark to have a pizza for lunch. Before we headed out to Grenen (the tip of Denmark) on a beautifully laid cycle lane which ended in a bike parking lot.

The old light house and the new light house.

The end of the world as we know it, well the end of Denmark.

We were a little pressed for time and still had around 2 hours in head wind to go before Denmark curved around so we got the wind in our back. So therefor we just looked at the tip and headed down south.

The new light house and Skagen Harbor.

A couple resting after a walk out to the tip and back.

We then headed south on the national cycle route 1 until it became number 5 and continued on that. I didn’t know that there was so many trees, I only knew it was flat and flat and flat and therefor was a bit worried about the wind.

[quote]
In Denmark the wind is our mountains.
[/quote]

But because of the trees the wind wasn’t a problem and we were making good time.

Around an hour from our finial destination I called up and arranged a pick up. We arrived in Fredrikshavn at the same time as my old man around 8 hours a 15min and 63 flat miles later. I think the hilliest bit on the whole ride was the bridge over some railway tracks on the way into Frederikshavn.

The Gun Powder Tower in Fredrikshavn, our final destination on today’s ride.

Got home to some brilliant home cooking prepared by my mum. They were a bit worried about this whole veggie thing, but on the second day my folks got it down to a tee and the mushroom pate, potato dauphinoise for us to share and chicken for us carnivores and the homemade ice cream was numnumnumnumnum 😉

Today’s ride was sponsored by Matilde Kakaoskummetmælk (aka EPO). This lovely chocolate drink, picked us up nicely when we had 8 miles to go and we were running low. I do not know what is different to this chocolate drink compared to others, but boy does it taste good and work.

More photos here …

Click here to read the next day in Denmark, A trip down memory lane