Day 1-2. Kobenhavn to Ängelholm.
Our first goal, after passing the ribbon development that lines the East coast of Funen, would be the ferry port at Helsingor. We'd calculated that this would be about thirty-five kilometres in distance, and realised that with the headwind we would not make this in under two hours as we had hoped. Still we had warmed up by now and were enjoying the sun, the cycling and the prospect of camping in Sweden this evening.
Once away from the city it turned into a pleasant route. After following the main road 152 for a while on the cycle paths we were finally able to relax. We were pointing in the right direction and apart from the headwind it was a lovely day. We ran up past a sea-front houses looking East towards Sweden. It reminded me of many places in England, like Blackpool or Lytham-St Annes with houses of brick and stone instead of wood as is common in Norway and Sweden.
At around eleven thirty our thoughts started turning to lunch. Although we had eaten our breakfast later than normal, it had not been a substantial affair at all. We still had some sandwiches from the day before, which we hadn't eaten the previous evening but did not have much food besides that. We decided not to take any Danish Crowns out of a cash machine, as we did not want to have loose change jingling round in our bags for three weeks. This meant that until we arrived in Helsingborg we would be a little short on food.
Then we stumbled across a sort of country park which must have been around Nærum and found a sheltered bench in the sun. Although we had only been going for just an hour it was time to stop. We got out what was left of our sarnies and ate them together with some chocolate rations, and the first brew of the trip. Whilst we were sitting enjoying ourselves a dog came up and sat wistfully in front of us looking at our sandwiches. The owner, having found him, apologised and saying 'I do feed him you know' and we all grinned. It was clearly a lovely summers day somewhere in Northern Europe.
As we turned to leave via the smelly toilet block, we noticed that there was a cycle path on our side of the road, a small sign saying that it was route 9. This turned out to be the fun part of the trip, as it ran through woods along the railway line. As with the Rallarvegen, whilst the railway ran across the rolling landscape, with gentle gradients, the cycle path went up and down a lot. The asphalt was rough in places but the short sharp switchbacks made for a challenging and enjoyable ride. It was also a relief to have some shelter from the headwind and a change of scenery.
At around two we stopped at a small place called Humlebæk to eat the remains of our food. In contrast to our first lunch, when we stopped as it was a good place to stop, it was now definitely time to stop. The hour and a half cycling into the wind had been just a little too far. Damae wandered round with a camera doing Damae art, whilst I sat enjoying the sunshine and made some tea. We'd decided we were going to have a half hour break to compensate for the hard going into the wind. Fortunately the cove we stopped at was sheltered but this video of a sailing boat shows just what we were battling against. Still the scenery was lovely in that Danish coast sort of way and shortly after we started off again we entered Helsingor Kommune.
Stan's diary: "The 152 is a scenic route (according to the signs) and that it certainly is. Probably another 10km and we will hit Helsingor. Then the boat to Sweden, hit a cash machine and do some bread shopping."