Day 04, Tour09, A full day of riding in Denmark Sakskobing to Koge

I thought Denmark was flat!

I had a good day today, riding about 100 km starting at 8:15 AM and ending at 5 PM. There was an hour and a half or so when I was waiting out a rain storm, and fifteen minute or so when I was fixing a flat and a similar amount of time cleaning and lubing the chain after riding in light rain for a hour or two. I suspect my total riding time was about six hours, which is three times as many hours as I have ridden in a day since I got sick.

On the way to Vordingbord

I started out riding to Vordingbord, the place I would have ridden to yesterday if my body had been in shape and my heart not in A-Fib. I guess I should say I started out the day trying to ride to Vordingbord since my first attempt resulted in leaving town headed south rather than north! I retraced my route, found the sign for Vordingbord I had missed and, after getting on what I thought was the right road, used my GPS to make sure it was. I don't like routing with the GPS, but it sure is handy for answering two questions: Am I on the right road? and, if the answer to that question is no, How do I get on the right road. It came in very handy today!

Today was a big day for bridges, including this small bridge with no bike lane
That didn't cause any issues when I crossed it in traffic.
I saw three other tourists on that bridge

There is a lot of water and a lot of bridges over the water in this part of Denmark. The biggest piece of water, and the most impressive bridge, is just south of Vordingbord. Like other big bridges in Denmark, it has bike lanes, car lanes, and a railroad track, all on the same bridge.I think the overall length of the bridge is several kilometers. It took quite a while to ride across it.

Starting across the bridge
You can see all three sections in this image

The conventional bridge section near the far side

Vordingbord as seen from the bridge

In Vordingbord, I got kicked off the main road and routed down onto small streets. I quickly came to a T intersection where I choose to go north. I should have looked at my GPS, since the road I choose went along the coast and eventually dead ended. I did use my GPS to discover this, but only after I had ridden a mile or two out of the way. Then I used my GPS to figure out how to get back to the road I should have been on. That was kind of fun since I ended up riding dirt roads to get back to the highway. When I did get back on the highway, I immediately had a flat rear tire.

On the first dirt road

I took my bags off and inverted the bike to search for the source of the flat. It wasn't hard to find! A large roofing nail had been driven into the tire and bent inside. It puncture the tube in two place, so I used two, overlapping, patches to fix it. As I was patching, I was watching a storm in the direction I was heading. After I finished the patch, I rode on - using my GPS to be sure of my routing, and, a few kms later, rode into the out lying rain from the storm.

I lucked out in that there was a Shell service station at just the right place to stop and put on my rain covers. I lucked out even more in that the rain got really heavy and I decided to have lunch there and wait it out. While I was waiting, a fellow pulled in to get his '62 MGA without a top or side windows out of the storm. I went over to see the, lovely, car and we ended up visiting for the next hour while the storm raged. We left when the rain had died down to gentle showers. I rode in the rain on and off for the next 20 or 30 km, and, after the rain had gone, stopped in Dalby to clean and lube my bicycles chain because it had become noisy. Then I rode on to Koge where I planned to stop for the night.

A Danish bike route sign

In Koge, I asked a fellow sitting in a public area about hotels and he sent me to a hotel just off of the main square in town. It is cheaper - 360 vs 550 Dutch Kronars - and much less fancy than the one I stayed at last night. That one was actually very good value. Everything except the wireless worked well and it was very comfortable. Breakfast was simply among the very best breakfasts I've ever had on tour.Tonight I'm saving almost 30 Euro, but I'm not, at this point, sure the value will be as good.

Speaking of value, I had a 40 Kronar super tonight. That is what the beer cost from the bar downstairs! Last night's beer cost 5 Kronars. The rest of my supper was left over from yesterday. However, that beer, even for the rip off price I paid for it, was really good. It was a Budvar dark lager. Those are Czech folk that make really good beer and this was a really good beer.

My beer of the night! Damn it was good!