Day 6: Night riding

After a good rest and a hefty danish breakfast, I felt very well rested compared to few previous days. Weather was not rainy, as forecasted, so I was really happy for that as well. The wind was still at storm levels, but luckily mostly from right side direction.

Riding on the shore of the Baltic Sea.

The route went for the whole morning through typical Danish countryside. Pretty beautiful, but even flatter and less forests than in the German side. A really nice part was, when the road went between the shore of the Baltic Sea and a forest. Around lunch time, I arrived in the small town of Stubbekobing, where I wa supposed to take the ferry to the next island (Mon).

A surprise was waiting for me in the port: the ferry starts operating in May. Ok, change of plans. I was forced to discard the Berlin-Copenhagen biking route and head 15 km West to take a 5 kilometers long bridge over the stormy strait. But first, the 15 kilometers were again straight against the notorious Danish headwind. Well, I had done the same yesterday so today felt almost easy (mentally, not physically). Also a bit of sunshine was keeping my spirits high.

My Danish friend was sometimes joking that Finland and Sweden has so much forests because we were just too lazy to cut them down. Now I hoped that the Danish would have been a bit lazier, because every small group of trees (not so many in Denmark) was giving cover and a precious little rest from the wind.

On the afternoon I then arrived on the the other side of the strait to Själland, the biggest island of Denmark. On the other side Copenhagen was waiting for me! At this point, I decided to make a radical shift in strategy. I just wanted to get fast to the destination, so I decided to take the fastest possible route and not return to Berlin-Copenhagen biking route. Luckily, Denmark is the promised land of bicycles so there was a nice space for bikers or even a bike lane on the side of big roads most of the time.

I decided to find a place to sleep in the small town of Prästo, but when the road went past it, didn't feel like stopping. At this point I had came about 75 kilometers. 10 more easily, I thought. However, in the next town of Ronnede, there was surprisingly no accommodation at all, according to the locals I asked. But the next hotel would be 10 more kilometers away in Dalby. Found the hotel when it was just becoming dark. Well... Not open today, the owner told me. Next option? Koge, 20 more kilometers forward. Let's go!

Night-riding amidst the murky landscapes between Dalby and Koge.

Now it was already dark. Wind was still howling and on top everything, it started to rain from the murky sky. There was no road lights. So the 20 kilometers to Koge passed in quite special atmosphere, biking in the middle of nowhere, middle of storm, middle of darkness. I vividly remembered another similarly adventurous night three years earlier. Then we got lost on the countryside on the border of Turkey and Greece with a few friends. We crossed the border walking, in the middle of the night, and slept the end of the night under a roof of an abandoned train station.

But at the exact moment, it's sometimes difficult to value these adventurous moments. I was only wondering if I could find any place to sleep for the night. Finally, I arrived and found the way to the Central Hotellet of the town. The place was all dark, but luckily there was a phone number to call. And even more luckily, a person answered and sent someone to open the door for me. Redemption! Actually, at the moment I crept out of the dark night into the light, I was looking probably exactly like the guy in the movie cover of Shawshank Redemption. What a feeling!