Flensburg to Kursa Denmark: We're camping in Denmark

August 30, 2013

A short day of riding, but it feels like we have come so much further.

Rain in the night and a cold, stormy morning did little to encourage us to move quickly breaking camp today. Mary Ellen was feeling unwell with cold symptoms and we decided to take an easy morning. Barry did some work on the bike, made a wonderful breakfast and ME got a much appreciated "lie in".

Flensburg was a surprise for us - we were so focused on getting to Denmark, we didn't appreciate that Flensburg was going to offer so much. The harbour is incredible here - a dynamic working harbour, fish sandwich stands (lunch by the water - delicious) and restored historic sailing boats which represent the history of Flensburg as a port/fishing town.

The town centre is a huge pedestrian area which we enjoyed touring with our bike on foot. Needless to say, we spent more time in Flensburg than we had anticipated. Situated on the border with Denmark, we found that Flensburg has a unique quality.

Lacking a detailed map - nothing has been available in any of the bookshops or tourist info places that we have visited - we followed the instructions of the Tourist Office to simply follow the left side of the harbour and we would find ourselves to be in Denmark. We took this to mean, that it would be more imminent than it was. Mary Ellen embarrassed herself by asking in a service station if she was in Denmark or Germany - the girl kindly told her that it was at least 7 km ahead. Since there are no borders between countries in the EU - there are no official signs of where you are. Due to Flensburg's proximity to Denmark, it is also confusing as they sometimes show Danish prices and language on some of their signs.

Anyway, we soldiered on and suddenly found ourselves within a few km of a campsite that we had read about at Kolland. We followed the bike signs and found ourselves on Cycle Route 8 which had a rough gravel surface with very steep climbs. We found ourselves trying to climb the steepest hill we have encountered on this trip and were unable to get any traction, so we wisely turned around. A tip: route 8 in this section should be avoided by heavily loaded bikes. As we cycled back to where we had started route 8, we found a free campsite by the water that looked lovely. There was no fresh water source and we needed more water to camp for the night, so we sadly moved on.

Back on the main road, we carried on in search of a commercial campground at Kursa that we had seen advertised. We were pleasantly surprised by the campground's lovely natural setting and spacious grounds with incredible amenities. The price is the highest that we have had to pay - roughly 25 euros. Nonetheless, "you do get what you pay for" and we feel satisfied that this is a good place for us tonight, We will use the internet here to regroup and do some more research. (Our previous research had described route 8 as being 95% asphalt - I guess we found the 5%!)....so tonight's research will require that we read between the lines as we investigate what route to follow.
The one thing we are sure of, is that we want to get to Copenhagen as well as ride through some of Denmark's countryside.

We'll see where we end up, but so far, Denmark is proving to be an intriguing destination for us to explore.