Day 1: Toronto to Vordingborg via Haarlem

The idea of cycling from Amsterdam to Copenhagen came to me in Toronto one spring night as I was thinking about how my hometown could evolve into a place that encouraged active transport. It was coincidental that my friend, Erma, contacted me to see if I would be interested in doing the same route, except westbound from Vordingborg, Denmark to Haarlem, west of Amsterdam. And so it was that I quickly bought a KLM ticket to Schiphol Airport. Packing as light as I could, I bid farewell to my partner, Cathy, seen here in our backyard with my Brodie commuter bike.

Erma collected me from the airport early in the morning of June 24th. We cycled through her hometown of Haarlem, to and from her partner’s office. It became clear that the Dutch value bikes. There are separate traffic signal lights for bicycles and the density of bikes is impressive. From school children to grandparents, everyone seems to have and use a bike. Heaven.

The red brick path indicates for bikes only. Bike parking is generous and we both rode Kogas (Koga is a Dutch make) to a variety of destinations in Haarlem: Wouter’s office, a grocery store, a bike shop, the Apple Store, a supermarket. It is easy, convenient, and efficient to move about town this way.

In the afternoon, we rode to the train station on our bikes and took a train from Haarlem to Schiphol in a train car that is designed to accommodate bikes The flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen required us to package the bikes in KLM boxes. This involved a simple, quick process of taking the pedals off, turning the handlebars, and taping the box.

At Copenhagen airport, there are train links that allow one to board the train with a bike. We did so and made our way to the town of Vordingborg, about 90 kilometres south of Copenhagen. Our hosts, Klaus and Helle, were awaiting our arrival. Showing great warmth and hospitality, they immediately fed us and ushered us to our rooms at a neighbour’s house (the neighbour was in Norway and kindly agreed to house us).

Days 2-3: The Danish Cycling Championships

Klaus is a fit retired gentleman who has cycled two epics with Tour D’Afrique: Cairo to Cape Town in Africa and Cartagena to Ushuaia in South America. He and his wife, Helle, live in this quaint, historical town. The races began and finished in the central square of Vordingborg. Erma, Klaus, and I walked from their home to the square to set up a booth promoting the various tours offered by the TDA. We were joined by Gustav, a Dane who had completed the African epic in 2013. 

Within minutes of our arrival, the youth race had begun. Cycling in teams, the teens sped around a 18 km circuit that covered the surrounding countryside. It did not take them long to return to the square. There were a few spills due to the slick surface as it had rained. The road rash was cleaned up by the medical staff in the adjacent booth.

There is strategy to these races with a few pace setters pushing forward, followed by a peloton and then a few stragglers. Some riders faded and did not finish.

The first group finished to the applause of the audience. Medals were granted by officials followed by bouquets and photo ops. There is pride in the cultivation of a generation of competitive cyclists. 

The women began and their cadence was equally impressive. Some are professional riders in Europe and you can see the training regimen must be gruelling.

The second race was attended by the same fanfare and respect for their achievement.

The race of competitive riders culminated with the professional Danish cyclists. The race was approximately 200 kms. and the winners took about four and a half hours. Impressive speed and skill is required to maintain that pace. Throughout the race, the progress of the peloton was recorded and broadcast live to the crowd in the square. After the close finish, the winners were properly feted and awarded prize money. The national anthem was played and photo ops available for the admirers.

Klaus and his wife, Helle, a school principal, humbled us with their hospitality. We enjoyed a meal of local fish in the harbour and bid farewell to Helle who was off to work early the next morning (her school district is a distance north from Vordingborg)

Their cosy (gezellig in Dutch) home has a well-kept garden and plenty of room to store bikes and gardening tools. Each morning, we were treated to a hearty breakfast and multiple cups of coffee.

 

Day 4: A Danish National Park: Møns Klint

The day before our European ride began, Klaus had a meeting at the “kommune” office in the evening. He has been an administrator for the region for many years and remains active in the decision-making processes. During the day, Erma and I were introduced to a park east of Vordingborg where there are magnificent white cliffs and a forest dominated by beech trees. The coast is sprinkled with flint stone that is used for various purposes. Ferries crossed by on their routes to Poland or Germany.

Day 5: Vordingborg to Eutin 145 kms

We set off from Klaus’s house by 8 a.m. and cycled to the ferry at Rødbyhavn before 11 a.m. The Danish landscape is filled with windmills and as the cyclists say “Wind is the best trainer.” Our crossing to Puttgarden was smooth and reminded me of the viability of wind energy in this part of Europe.

The German infrastructure for bikes is readily accessible from the docks and we were soon on our way through fertile farmland en route to Eutin, our destination for the night. Again, the turbines, manufactured by Siemens, were on display on either side of the path.

Klaus knew a quaint hotel, Das Kleine Hotel, and we found our way to this comfortable spot for a quiet evening of rest and bowls of pasta for the next day.

Day 6: Eutin to Wilhelmsburg 130 kms

We began the day late to allow for the rain to subside. We made good time until I punctured a tire. Klaus deftly repaired it in a matter of minutes and on we charged toward the massive city of Hamburg.

Klaus was riding a custom-made Python, a Danish bike that is lightweight and sleek. Alas, his left pedal malfunctioned and we needed to find a bike shop where he could replace his pedal. As luck would have it, we were lost on the outskirts of Hamburg when the leader of a cycling group stopped as we were consulting a map. This gentleman and his pals, out for a constitutional ride, escorted us to a local shop where a replacement pedal was found and installed. We enjoyed the company of this friendly group who took us on a “short cut” through some leafy suburbs. Given the size of Hamburg, it was no surprise that we managed to lose our bearings again. Having covered enough ground for the day and spent by the bustle of the city, we repaired to a marvellous place that doubled as a museum dedicated to wood and nature.

Day 7: To Delmenhorst 130 kms

Every day, we would stop for coffee and a pastry. Bakeries are not hard to find and they offer sandwiches as well as sweet treats.

Klaus led the way. He had the Garmin for navigation and he was clearly the strongest rider. Erma is also fit and so that left me to benefit from their pulling. If you ride from east to west in this part of Europe, chances are you are heading, more or less, into the wind. Fortunately, the landscaping of the roads and cycle tracks has wind blocks in the form of stands of trees which form a corridor. We rode through several, stopped for a Chinese buffet in Lilienthal, and had a coffee in central Bremen where I searched for a football jersey for my son, a fan of the Bundesliga. We stopped for the evening in what looked to me more like a motel as it was next to the motorway.

Day 8: To the Netherlands 170 kms

There is little elevation in the western part of Deutschland. The land use struck me as being efficient in that the farmland seamlessly flowed into towns with small, light industry. Cows or sheep grazed close to the road as one entered  and exited smaller communities. The closer we got to the Netherlands, the pace quickened and we covered a lot of ground, taking a break at the border to acknowledge the transition.

Checking into a Dutch hotel in Coevorden was simple as we were now in Erma’s neck of the woods of reclaimed land. The lowlanders are masterful engineers who have turned the land beneath sea into a productive, rich source of food and culture.