Day 24: Koge to Feddet

August 11, 2013

Last night we were looking at roads that woud cut across the penisula that lies south of Koge (Stevns Sjaelland), but by morning we have come to our senses. If we think we can not complete our ambitious grand circle route, then we may use the train - either at the end, or somewhere in the middle. But while we are cycling, we should not bypass scenic parts, or maybe any parts, just to get to somewhere else.

So here we are, going around the peninsula, on quiet lanes through old towns like Store Heddinge, and by ancient churches. It seems worth the time, even if we may not be in Beŕlin or Leipzig, quite yet.

One other area of soul searching came up today too. We had found that 100% of Danish sliced cheese we sampled was stinky, and we gave up on it. We're sticking to that. But on Danish pastry, which we have found terribly oily, we are still torn. Yesterday we said we were done with it, but this morning "one of us" bought some. Verdict: oily. You would think that would be the last straw, but at noon we ran into a bakery. Things looked good in the window, but we think we can now recognize where the secret oil reservoirs are. We decided on non-"Danish" specimens - like the green Marzipan roll in the photo. Verdict? Not bad, though I was wiping my fingers on my shorts a bit. We decided that in the intrests of pastry research we will hold out as long as possible, desperately patronizing every bakery we find. We hope you all appreciate this sacrifice!

The Stevns peninsula turned out to have a few special attractions. First are chalk cliffs, where a telltale horizontal line marks the boundary between geologic ages. The cliff base is chalk and the top is limestone. Between these is a thin clay layer known as the Fish Clay. The Fish Clay is thought to stem from the worldwide dust cloud that marked the mass extinction. The cliff area (Stevns Klint) is a UNESCO world heritage site candidate.

Also in the area is Stevnsfort, a cold war bunker type installation, with bbig guns to control shipping in the Oresundd strait. From the 1980's to 2000 the installation also had missles and was a NATO early warning station.

There is a lighthouse up the peninsula (Stevns Fyr) that also provided information on Soviet ship movements during the Cuban missle crisis.

A big feature of our ride today around the peninsula was the fact that it is on the Berlin-Copenhagen touring main line. So we saw no fewer than three dozen touring cyclists. These of course came in all varieties. There were couples, couples with children, families, and a few singles. We saw Hase Pino's with kids on the front, tandems, kids in two wheel trailers, and even two Bromptons with just packs on the front, covered with big yellow nylon waterproofs.

So we were not surprised when a pile of touring cyclists rounded a corner coming toward us. We saw there were kids in the mix, and Dodie said "Just like the Swiss family". But whoa, it was the Swiss family! They had come around from the south and were heading for Koge. Naturally there were lots of excited greetings.

These fouur year old twins at last night's camping were giving theirr Mom a hard time. Can you tell?

This idea of a bike/boat combo reminds us of "Rowed Trip", a book by Collin and Julie Angus

The father in this family touring group was just stung by a bee. Dodie applied one of her two sting relief meds. Later, Dodie herself got stung, so now we have none, but it's important to help fellow travellers.

This dog befriended Steve and hd him throw a stick repeatedly.

Look, the Danes have temporarily given up on yellow and invented red for a house colour.

This house was decorated with dwarfs. Weird.

A pretty typical view of our route for today.

Do you think this Jesus has Viking overtones too?

More of those long pastries. We were too cautious to try them

The green marzipan roll - not bad, had rum ball type chocolate inside

The family also told us of a camping shelter on a peninsula further down, beyond the town of Fakse Ladeplads. We plodded on - plodded, because of high headwind - and bypassed two or three "real" campgrounds in the quest for the primitive camping. We found a sign that directed us down a road, but that ended in a dead end. We were about to give up, but Dodie detected an unmarked side path. That led to, yes, a low shed sleeping platform, three picnic tables, and an outhouse!

Already in residence were Karin and Thomas, from Dresden. They had cycled to Copenhagen and were now on the way back. I apologized for disturbing their solitude, but they welcomed us warmly. We set our sleeping bags on the platform, beside theirs, and of course began to compare notes.

Karin and Thomas each had Ortlieb handlebar bags, but each release mechanism differed, and differed from ours. Ortlieb has a damn lot of gall releasing models we don't know about! Thomas also had a USB outputting storage battery capable of 12,000 mAh. It was called a TechNet - he had bought it out of the UK for the low price of 36 euros on Amazon.de! (That included 1 day delivery, to be sure to have it for this trip.) As you may see, Thomas and I are on the same wave length as regards electrical toys, Amazon, and suchlike, and we had much fun talking geek together.

Some of the references in the small part of Steve speak that is not Geek, however, were unknown to them. For example, I blithered about Dora the Explorer and The Map, or about Tweety and Sylvester (it seems the rest of my worłd view is based on cartoons - not true! - there are movies in there too!) These things were a mystery, they said, because cominģ from the GDR they had been sealed off from western culture. No problem, I explained at length what (in my view) Dora and Tweety have to do with cycle toųring.

Readers of this blog from Copenhagen will have seen the Dora references, but as for Tweety and Sylvester - if anyone cares, ask on the guestbook, and an explanation will be forthcoming!

Dodie and a small part of the Swiss family

At this roadside stand we bought the onions, and the beans, ... and the raspberries!

Marius, Sandra, think about stacking this pile in the barn!

These gas station ice cream treats look fancy, but they are that too smooth cheap ice cream style

Thomas and Karin and the shelter. Thomas turned out to be a physicist and Karin a "precision mechanic" working in sensors for ionizing radiation.

Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 1,668 km (1,036 miles)

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