Introduction
This blog is part 2 following an earlier blog regarding a
cycle tour in September 2014 when Ricky Hearn and David Gladman rode from Den
Helder to Hamburg. This section through Schleswig Holstein and Denmark took
place in June 2015. It starts where the 2014 tour finished off, in Hamburg.
We had talked about going back to do more almost as soon as
we got back from Hamburg in 2014. As before, this time we planned only getting
to Hamburg and then the return, although even the return plan was sketchy and
subject to change. As the hotel in Hamburg had cost us €230 for a one night
stay the one thing we did was arrange a hotel for our first night as again we
stopped in Hamburg. This was partly because, as two Yorkshire lads, we were
keen to avoid paying out so much money and partly because we knew that we
wouldn’t arrive in Hamburg until well into the evening. We wanted to be
sure that we had a bed for the night. This plan worked brilliantly; the fact
that we were stopping over a sex shop being neither here nor there!
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| On the ferry |
So the overall shape of the trip was ferry from Hull to
Rotterdam. Then cycle into Rotterdam and to the Centraal Station. We had
researched train times so we had a rough idea but it’s the availability of
cycle space on the train that decides the route and times. We arrived in
Hamburg about 8.30 in the evening and rolled out on the journey proper next morning after breakfast. There followed
12 days of cycling and we were more or less on the rough schedule that we had
devised. Our cycling stopped at Frederickshavn where we stayed overnight before
starting the train journey back to Rotterdam. This was achieved in two legs.
The first leg was Frederickshavn to Flensburg where we stayed overnight before travelling
on to Rotterdam, cycling the final 22 miles into the usual headwind off the
North Sea.
It’s worth mentioning that in booking ferries with P & O
I had attempted to buy a flexible return as we were not sure what date we would
be coming home. In the event, we sailed back two days earlier than we originally
anticipated for which P & O Ferries decided we had to cough up a further
£70 or thereabouts. This was on top of the original charge. All
these arrangements were made from a hotel room in Flensburg and, frankly, we were over a barrel so
there was little point in arguing, but it’s a point to note when booking
ferries if flexibility is wanted.
An Overview
We had set ourselves a 60 mile a day target overall and this
we sort of achieved but we made various adjustments to be able to find
accommodation. In total we cycled around 655 miles. Places to stay are thin on
the ground outside of the North Sea resort towns in Germany. We relied heavily on Youth
Hostels in both Germany & Denmark. This gave us relatively inexpensive
accommodation but on all nights bar one, we had our own room with en suite facilitates.
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| Hamburg - the start point |
We had heard that Denmark was expensive although this wasn’t
our experience. Then again, we did stay in hostels most nights and out single
night in a hotel (Ribe) was probably the most expensive night of the trip.
Germany
The area of Germany we were cycling through was Schleswig
Holstein. Once out of Hamburg this soon becomes very rural. Sheep and wind seem
to be the constants for much of this section although we were both struck by
the amount of birds along the way. Herons and Oyster Catchers we recognised but
there were many more. We found the area pleasant and flat with most cycling
being done on cycle tracks and quiet roads. Signage was hit and miss. At least,
NSCR signage was not in evidence although there were plenty of other signs, but
cyclists would need some local knowledge to know which routes to follow. We had
a Garmin Tour for navigation purposes and this was very reliable. In fact, the
gpx file for the German section of the trip came with the Bikeline guide
(Nordseekusten-Radweg 3) which I could only find in German but it was worth it
for the maps and gpx file. Deviations from the NSCR route proper were minimal
in Germany and any diversions were usually for the purpose of going to or
leaving overnight accommodation.
Riding surface in Germany was constantly of excellent
quality. I only recall seeing one pothole. Some of the route follows farm
tracks, but even these have concrete strips rather than ruts, so are very
comfortable to ride. Curiously, the final section as we approached the Danish
border was on grass but this was only for a short distance and even then it was
perfectly ride able.
Denmark
Again we had the Bikeline guide which warned that some of
the route in Denmark followed gravel roads. The first of these, just after
Rudbol, meant that we took an immediate decision to avoid these wherever
possible, although we relaxed this as went along. So, whereas we had followed every inch of the route through Germany,
we followed a mixture of the NSCR proper and roads to make progress in Denmark. In actual
fact, we largely made the route up day by day, often with a view to finishing
the day at a locality equipped with a Danhostel. Within any days ride we did
try to take in some of the off road sections and many of these were a delight.
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| Signage can be confusing |
Signage again we found unreliable. We had copied sections of
the route in gpx format from the NSCR website and we used this and the Garmin
to amend the route as we went. This meant that we followed “main roads” in some
places but we found that these, more often than not, had cycle paths. Car
drivers were considerate if we found ourselves on the main carriageway.
In contrast to the sheep of Schleswig Holstein, much of the
western coast of Denmark is National Park. There is a varied landscape with
some being forested; some areas of mainly sand dunes and some open moorland.
All of this is incredibly peaceful, full of solitude and nature. That same
solitude did find us quite a way from shops / catering facilities on a couple
of occasions and we had two nights where our evening meal consisted of what we
could muster.
I had my one and only mechanical of the entire trip about a
mile from home when I caught a gate on the cycle path and knocked a pannier
off. It was soon fixed.
We had expected a rough crossing as high winds were the
order of the day, but we both slept well. The pressure for today was to cycle
into Rotterdam fairly quickly so that we could get the train journey to Hamburg
organised. As we had cycled into Rotterdam before we knew the way and
found the cycle tunnel easily. We were at Rotterdam Centraal Station by 11:15. We
hadn’t booked trains in advance in case of delays but we were soon sorted
although we didn’t travel via Osnabruch as expected, going through
Dusseldorf instead. This was because of the availability of cycle spaces. We had a bit
of a wait for our connection in Dusseldorf and had some discussion with the
conductor on the train as we had difficulty getting our bikes properly mounted
in the racks because of a family with a push chair. The conductor turned out to
be a very nice lady who did her best to help us.
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| The hotel is on the right |
There had been some kind of incident that had delayed trains
along our route so it was well after 8:00pm when we arrived in Hamburg, but our hotel was only half a mile from the station and were soon there.
Our evening meal consisted of a motley selection of goods
from the local supermarket as our priority was to get a good night’s sleep and
to be off as soon as we could in the morning.
We were up early for breakfast and we had the bikes packed
up and ready to roll by 8:00 am. Our plan was to make up for our short stay in
Hamburg in September by taking a rapid cycle tour. This we did by cycling
around the Alster and visiting the Rathouse (Town Hall) before going down to
the banks of the Elbe and riding along to the Fischmarkt to re-join the route
where we had left it in September 2014. This little tour was taken slowly,
probably to the annoyance of other cyclists; many of whom were bombing along at
a pace. It struck me that there were a lot of fit dogs in Hamburg too as many
were being taken for a walk attached to bicycles.
The ride out of Hamburg became ever quieter as we followed
the path past beaches and through pleasant countryside. Thatched cottages were in abundance. We found a “serve
yourself” café just before we got to Elmshorn. Here we found tea and coffee
together with delicacies such as apple cake – irresistible in my book. We met a
German chap here who told us that such places were common in Schleswig
Holstein. Needless to say, we never saw another one!
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| Gluckstadt |
Our first day of cycling had seen 62 miles go by and we ate
royally in the main square at Gluckstadt. Burgers were the order of the day,
and very nice they were too.
Being a Youth Hostel we had to strip beds etc., but we had a
good breakfast and we were on the road by 9:30. With hindsight, it wasn’t often
that we had a tail wind, but this morning we did. I got passed by others so I
thought let’s give it a go and see what we can do. I was cruising along at 20
mph with full bags! Amazing. A short run up the coast brought us to Brunsbuttel
where there is a free ferry across the river. The NSCR then does a lap of the
town taking you past (and into) a very nice Italian coffee house before heading
north to do a detour around Kuden. This was all very pleasant but it meant that
we kept seeing signs for Sankt Michaelisdonn that sometimes said it was getting
nearer, sometimes further away and sometimes not moving. Whatever the case, it
took a long time to get to Sankt Michaelisdonn where we promptly plonked
ourselves in the station café to feast on bratwurst, frites, ice cream and
sprite.
The afternoon got quite hot and we continued to Meldorf
where we stopped to cool down in the lovely town square before heading back out to
the coast to head north to Busum. Again most of this was cycled at a brisk
rate. As we got to the coast we found a caravan park (€8 a night) and a café so yet another refreshment
halt was called.
As we
entered Busum we went past another caravan park and there, right in front of
us, was the youth hostel. We sorted a room and food before having an evening
stroll through the very pleasant, and very full, town.
The
day was overcast and grey, with a lively wind out of the west. Squally rain
showers kept running past as we prepared for the off. It was time to don wet
weather gear.
We
rolled out of Busum to be stopped by the beach police for cycling where we
shouldn’t have been as we looked for the way out and onto the dykes. It was
head down, but the rain stayed away so we were able to take off the wet weather
gear fairly quickly, but the wind persisted. For some of the time we had
shelter from the dykes but at others we felt the full force of the wind. One
such place was as we crossed the dyke and the bridge before heading west to
Sankt Peter Odding. Here we were riding on the very top of the dyke and the
wind was catching my panniers with such force that I had to slow down. We then
had shelter for a while, and stopped for a breather, before heading west,
directly into the headwind. It was slow and painful progress so we eventually
ran off the coast onto a road just inland. What a difference that made, but we
then had to plot a route through Sankt Peter to find the NSCR again, and to roll in
along the sea shore.
We
were both pretty tired after fighting the headwind so we stopped for a while
and refuelled with more burgers! Of course, as we set off again, we had the
wind pretty much behind us so the afternoon was spent cruising at 15/16 mph.
We
had a slight navigation error as we went through a village called Tating. The
NSCR route wanted to take us off down a minor track but we decided to stay on
the road. Hey presto, a café appears so it’s coffee and cake. We were sat
outside in those wonderful German deck chairs when I took a photo of Ricky with
the comment to “look as though you’re enjoying yourself” followed by “you’ll have to try harder than
that”. A young lady at the next table started to laugh at that and came over to
take our photos. After that it was on to Husum where Ricky again kept asking
for directions to the youth hostel. Later that night I spotted that the youth
hostels were all marked on the maps in the guide!
Another
good night’s sleep (despite having a beam across the room that threatened
instant decapitation) saw us up at 6:30 for an early breakfast in the hostel
and on the road by 8:00 am. The morning was cool and breezy. I opted to ride in
long trousers, not for warmth but to keep the sun off. I had discovered that
riding a more or less northwards course meant that the backs of my ears and
legs had caught the sun and both were pretty tender.
The
wind was coming from somewhere around West / North West and again this gave us
some spells where we are trying to make progress against the wind. In other
places we were headed roughly North, but we were at the sea side of dykes so
were exposed to cross winds. Sheep and birds featured heavily in the days
distractions. We even spotted blue sheep at a coffee stop and the importance of
sheep to the area is, no doubt, reflected in their appearance on weather vanes
– photographs on request!
Approaching
Dagebull was hard and slow, it taking us about two hours to cover 12 miles. Dagebull
itself was quite a busy ferry port to the islands so coffee was had as we
sheltered from the wind before turning eastwards and running with the wind to
Neibull to our overnight hostel.
The
hostel was quite sizeable and catered for school parties. Being Sunday there
were just three of us there. There was no food in the hostel so we walked into
town to eat at a restaurant recommended by the lady who ran the hostel. Very
good it was too.
My
notes for the day mention two firsts. The first first was I spotted a piece of
litter on the seashore near Dagebull – a Domestos type bottle. This was the
only piece of litter I had noticed after leaving Hamburg. The second first was
a pothole. I almost stopped to take a photo. It constantly amazed us that in
both Germany and Denmark the road surfaces are in such good condition. There is
a lot less wear and tear from traffic, but it still begs the question just how
do they do it?
Again
we were up early for breakfast and away. We were delayed in Neibull as Ricky’s
sunglasses had gone AWOL, so we retraced our steps from the evening before but
it ended up with Ricky digging deep for a new pair.
We
had about 12 miles to get to the border. This was pleasant and uneventful, the
only noteworthy thing being that the last section of route into Denmark was on
grass. It was perfectly rideable but came as a surprise nonetheless.
There
is no border crossing into Denmark but the old crossing point furniture has
been left on site, perhaps just in case it’s ever needed again. Ricky went into
a supermarket for more staples whilst I went off in search of the Danhostel to
see if we could book ahead for the night in Ribe. I found the hostel but the lady
I spoke with did the bare minimum. She did check for us but I was simply told
the hostel was full.
We
felt much underwhelmed by our arrival in Denmark. There was no Welcome to Denmark
sign (although plenty going the other way); the lady in the hostel just didn’t
strike as friendly and the price tags all had a lot more zero’s as we were now
in Danish Krone land. It got worse. We followed the NSCR route and this took us
off the paved road onto a rough gravel affair. This was not fun. We
both thought the road was not good to ride with a fully laden bike. Luckily, the
Bikeline guide maps differentiated between paved roads and tracks and unpaved, so we
decided to amend the route to stay on paved surfaces. It still got worse. We
pressed on to Hojer for a café stop. Hojer was shut – the whole town. We found
a café and sat outside eating some of our own supplies and thought about going
back to Germany.
We
pressed on. The Garmin was reprogrammed to take us to Ballum on paved road. It
was a slog in the wind, and it was decidedly cool under clouds. We found a
hotel at Ballum where we had about 4 cups of coffee each while we covered the
table with maps and guides to work out the next bit. We decided to stick to
main roads (or at least the cycle paths at the side of main roads) to Ribe. It
took two hours to get there and the first place was full.
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| Ribe |
And
then, everything improved. I was out in the street while Ricky was on his quest
for a room when a chap in his 80’s wandered by with his Zimmer. He started
talking to me in Danish and I replied “nay spracken Dansk – English”. He smiled
back and said in very broken English “Welcome to Denmark.”. At this point Ricky returned with a room. Even
better, we met another chap (Gerry Eddlemonn – an American) who was into
endurance cycling. Despite being over 70 he had just complete a 24 hour event
in Denmark and it turned out he held various records in America.
Our
hostess in the hotel also looked after us well by sorting out the menu (very
little was understood by us) by delivering two meals of chicken and fried
potatoes. We decided that we liked Denmark after all so we had an evening
stroll (a very cold stroll) around the beautiful city of Ribe before turning in
for another good night’s sleep.
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| Clear signage! |
We decided to use main roads to Esbjerg and then to have another think. Thinking again was going to involve coffee and cake but café was there none. Ricky managed to find us some as we were invited into the home of Michael and his wife, and again we stopped too long in cycling terms, but it was very pleasant talking the morning away with them.
We
left Esbjerg and noticed a change in the scenery. No longer was there sheep,
sheep and more sheep. We were now seeing cows, sand dunes, lakes, anything but
sheep in fact. We had sort of decided to follow NSCR for a while again. And
very pleasant it was too. We went along the sea front leaving Esbjerg, past
some artwork reminiscent of the Angel of the North but this was four rather
large seated gentlemen looking out to sea. We were riding through pleasant
country past Oxbol and Tarp before stopping for a break in a picnic area
overlooking the sea at Kjelst. After this we entered an area of sand dunes that
felt like riding through the Scottish Highlands as the terrain was lumpy with
lots of heather and scrub. This area was, it seems, used for military training
and we came across a fleet of tracked vehicles roaming around amongst the sand
dunes. 
The
terrain was a mixture of sand dunes and forest. We were riding a mix of paved
cycle path and forest tracks, but all very pleasant. We both had a dismount moment
as I hit a gate post with a rear pannier and was sent sprawling. Not to be
outdone, Ricky stopped on an incline on a forest track and fell backwards into
the woods. Perhaps this was an indication that we were both getting tired. We
were 53 miles into the day and our reckoning was that we still had a good 20
miles if not more to get to Hvide Sande. Not only were we getting tired but it
was getting late because we had spent a fair amount of time chatting in Ribe at
breakfast time and then later in Esbjerg. Even worse, Ricky’s battery was well
down its charge and there was a good chance that it wouldn’t get us another 20
miles. We had a break sat by the roadside and a van selling honey to consider
options. There seemed to be just one – press on to Hvide Sande.
We
then had one of those God moments. Looking at the guide I was convinced that
the road we were sat by was the road that eventually went to Nymindergab. It
made sense to stay on the road to conserve battery power as there was some more
track coming up. We decided to take the track which was a good choice as the
road would have taken us well away from where we needed to be. As we came into
Nymindergab I could see the route turn left but I decided to head down to the
main road instead. We got to the road and turned left to see Danhostel flags
fluttering in the breeze. There was an instant decision to stop here which
after some discussion with the site staff we did. Only just in the nick of time
too. We arrived at about 5.55 pm and the office was shutting at 6:00.
The
downside was that there was no food so we bought ice creams and dined on
biscuits and crisps. It didn’t matter, we had somewhere to stay and could
recharge our batteries, literally and figuratively.
The
hostel owner had been away the evening before but we had been promised
breakfast and it was not a disappointment. The buildings were an old school and
were quite splendid inside. Our breakfast was served in a very light and airy
dining area. We started with muesli and yoghurt through a continental breakfast
and finishing with fresh Danish pastries.
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| Nymindegab hostel |
After
a sumptuous breakfast that more than compensated for the sparse rations of the
night before we were off again. We decided to stay on the road to avoid the
track that twisted and turned through the sand dunes to Hvide Sande. Even on
the road it was almost 20 miles to Hvide Sande and this would have been beyond
our battery range the evening before. Hvide Sande was declared a coffee and
cake stop and we went down by the Havn for refreshments – more Danish pastries.
We looked in a couple of shops but it didn’t seem particularly expensive.
The
route for the day was fairly simple as we were just headed north on thin strips
of land between the sea on one side and fjords on the other. The NSCR route
proper was weaving amongst the sand dunes, no doubt with short climbs and
drops, but we stayed on the road for the day. We left Hvide Sande and the cycle
path took us away from the main road. We passed what may have been the Danish
equivalent of Butlins (Danland, I think it was called) where there were some
very splendid sand sculptures. We stopped for more refreshments at Sondervig
and then about every 20 kilometres. We had spotted a Danhostel at Fjaltring on the map so
this was our declared destination.
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| Fjlatring hostel |
We
had a major review of progress and did some planning for the rest of the ride.
We even consulted the weather forecast and found that storm force winds were
predicted a few days ahead.
We
had more muesli for breakfast and then rolled off, again with the view that
much of the day would be spent following the same road. It was grey, overcast
and not warm I was wearing tights to keep warm. We were simply tapping out the
miles.
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| Approaching Thyboron |
As we
approached the fjord leading up to Thyboron I misread a sign and thought that
cyclists had to leave the road just before it started to cross the fjord. In
the event I was wrong, but we took up the NSCR again going through the village
of Harboore before joining a cycle track running up the seaward side of the
fjord. This was well surfaced, very quiet and abounding in wildlife. We watched
a couple of heron’s as they kept flying up with us. I’ve never seen as many
swans in one place before. The 10 kilometres into Thyboron was very pleasing and
the bonus was that we found a café for coffee and hot dogs before going down to
catch the ferry. There was a second God moment as we rolled down to the ferry. I was just slowly rolling along the road with nothing else around me when I heard a tremendous splat and saw the road turn white a metre to my left. Should have gone to Specsavers was my first thought but I was very grateful that I was saved from a guano plastering!
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| Leaving the ferry towards Aggers |
Good
timing (luck) meant that we arrived at the ferry point just a few minutes
before the next ferry was due. We met an Australian couple who kept a camper
van in Germany and spent six months of the year in Adelaide with the other six
months spent touring Europe.
We
disembarked and rolled off down a perfect cycle path at the side of a road that
only served the ferry, so no traffic. Again we were rolling through beautiful
and peaceful national park. We rolled on through Aggers for a nice afternoon of
cycling. We were heading towards Hantsholm but there was no hostel there.
We noticed that the guide had a camping sign for Klitmoller so we went to investigate. Bingo! We hired a wooden cabin on a campsite for the night. Better still we had chicken skewers for dinner followed by ice cream! This was our best meal for three days and it was very much enjoyed.
We noticed that the guide had a camping sign for Klitmoller so we went to investigate. Bingo! We hired a wooden cabin on a campsite for the night. Better still we had chicken skewers for dinner followed by ice cream! This was our best meal for three days and it was very much enjoyed.
Not
only had we found a brilliant place to stay but the weather changed to be warm
and sunny. Fresh bread was bought for breakfast – it followed another helping
of muesli! We were soon off again heading towards Hantsholm. On the way we came
across a hill, a proper hill it was too. There was a cycle path on both sides
of the road and we were on the left hand side. The road wound its way up the
hill corkscrewing to the left. I think we both decided at the same time that we
need to get to the right hand path to ease the gradient. 
After
Hantsholm we followed the route once more and ended up bowling along gravel forest
tracks for mile after mile. We then came onto quiet traffic free roads before
joining the main road once again. Again, we decided to stop for a break and
this time we had the luxury of a bus shelter to sit in whilst we had the usual
rations of crisps and biscuits. We had considered Blokkus as our favoured
destination but instead we decided to head south from the route and go to
Fjerritslev where we knew there was a hostel. There was sign giving the
distance to Fjerittslev as 30 kilometres just after the bus stop. We put our heads
down and covered it non-stop at decent pace.
The
day was a short day but we thought that an afternoon off was a good idea so we
made the best of it when we arrived in Fjerritslev. We found a smashing café on
the main street so we stopped for coffee, cake and chocolate. We returned later
for a proper meal after having an afternoon snooze the hostel.
We
had gone some way south of the NSCR proper so our first target was Blokkus. The
Garmin was giving us a route on main roads so we navigated village to village
resetting the Garmin each time. As a back-up we had taken a photograph of a map
in Fjerittslev the evening before. In the event we had a very pleasant morning’s
ride to arrive at Blokkus about lunchtime. In honesty, we found café’s as
Blokkus so decided it must be lunchtime as we settled down to a decent helping
of fish & chips which in Denmark comes with an accompanying salad. Harry
Ramsden would not approve
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| On the beach |
The
guide book had told us that, at Blokkus, the route goes down onto the beach for
about 15kilometres to Lokken. We had spoken with a couple of chaps riding south
who had ridden across this part; we were told that it was perfectly rideable
(as the guide book said) and that it was better riding close to the sea where
the sand was firm. It’s not only bikes that go along the beach here, it’s also
the road for cars and the sand proved to be very firm. It was rutted in some places
though, and where the sand had dried on top it was not as firm as it needed to
be. We stayed on the beach for about 3 miles but there was an escape route
(with a café, as it happened) back onto the main road so we opted to use that
to Lokken and then on to Hjorring. Curiously we came across a giraffe and
various other exotic animals – all made of concrete. No idea why they were
there at all.
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| And off again - note road signs to right |
As we
arrived in Hjorring we decided to test the Garmin. To our surprise it was
capable of finding an individual address so it took us all the way across town
to the hostel, which was in an out of the way place and could have been
difficult to find otherwise. The bad news was that the hostel appeared closed. A
guest at the hostel (Thomas) translated the notice for us and then phoned the
number for us so we could get a key for a room. It was with some relief that we
got our room but there was little by way of food so it was another, crisps,
biscuits and chocolate night. I also found out that Ricky had spent far too
much time playing pool as we found a table that we could use and Ricky won
every game.
The
weather forecast was still predicting storm force winds of up to 50 miles per
hour coming from the west. These were forecast to build up over the course of
the day, peaking in the afternoon. The morning, however, was pleasant and
sunny.
The
hostel manager had told us the route from Hirtshals to Skagen was mostly
passing through forested areas on good quality tracks. His view was that the
trees would offer us some protection from wind, plus we knew that once we had
got to Hirtshals the wind would be mostly behind us. On that basis we headed
north to Hirtshals. The ride north was through lovely rolling countryside with
the odd hill thrown in. We were very impressed by the cycle path avoiding a
busy junction via a tunnel under the road to join up with the road again well
past the junction. Oh for similar facilities in the UK.
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| Now that's a cycle path! |
Hirtshals
looked a busy place with industry and heavy traffic heading for the ferries. We
met a German couple by some road works who had taken a steady 6 weeks to get to
Skagen from Sylt. From Skagen they were heading to Gottenberg. We came across a
new road under construction to by pass the town and link straight into the port
area. For today it was the best example we had seen of a Danish cycle track!
The
route from Hirtshals to Skagen was as sold to us at the hostel. We had a splendid
day on every imaginable type of surface but all in good condition and all
passing through glorious countryside. We stopped for a while at a narrow bridge
close to the beach where there were parties canoeing along (or more properly,
being blown along by the wind). Here Ricky met a chap who suggested that
sending bikes ahead by courier could resolve the difficulty caused by being
unable to fly with an E-bike. Now why hadn’t we thought of that?
It’s
always sad finishing off a ride and we decided to ride this section as it took
us to the end of the Bikeline guide. We also had the route from Frederikshavn to
Greena loaded in the Garmin but decided against riding this section (of about 120 miles) because, although
we had the route, we had less information about accommodation and we knew that
there were no hostels. We were also away from railway lines so our options for
getting back to Rotterdam were limited once we went past Frederikshavn.
So we
retraced our route back out of Skagen before turning south at Hulsig. It was a
pleasant but uneventful ride, although we did find a Wild West theme park for
coffee!
Once
at Frederikshavn we were straight into sorting out the journey back. We decided
to stay in Frederikshavn at the Danhostel overnight and to travel to Flensburg
the next day. At Flensburg we had another overnight stop before travelling on
to Rotterdam the day after. Again we found the cost of train travel
exceptionally good value although it was a long day travelling to Flensburg, and again travelling to
Rotterdam. Once at Rotterdam we had a 20 mile ride to the ferry mostly into
a headwind.
