Sunday, June 11, 2017

Copenhagen to Rodvig -- Sunday, June 11, 2017

We had a perfect day for cycling. It was so perfect that I missed a turn and went 4 kilometers out of my way, having to retrace my steps, adding a total of 8 km to the day's ride, bringing my total to 53 miles for the day.

Missing a turn is hard to do on an ExperiencePlus bike tour because they mark the routes with chalk arrows. I must have been enjoying the bike path so much that I just buzzed on through a left turn arrow. The good part about this system is that if you go 3 or 4 km without seeing an arrow, you know something is wrong and you can backtrack until you pick up the arrows again.

We left our hotel in Copenhagen at 9 am. It is Sunday, so we did not have rush hour traffic to content with, and leaving the city was easy. It was all on bike lanes and bridges that are restricted to bikes and pedestrians. There is so much bicycle traffic in Copenhagen that they even have a procedure for the "Copenhagen left turn." Instead of getting in the left land and turning with the traffic as we do at home, you "box" the intersection -- go straight through, and then make a signal with your left hand (the signal we use for right turns in cars), then pull over to the right on the far side of the intersection, and wait for a green light to cross.

By 9:30, the sun was out and conditions were perfect for cycling. The next hour was all on a dedicated bike path where we didn't even see roads or cars. For the rest of the trip, the bike path generally ran parallel to the road, but we always had a path or a lane of our own. This is very different from most of the cycling that I have done where you generally share the road with the cars.

For the most part, we were riding close to the coast and the Baltic sea was visible most of the time. Our hotel in Rodvig is right on the sea, and I did get in the water briefly. It was too cold to stay in very long, but I have added one more sea to my list of seas and oceans that I have bathed in.

I mentioned to Philipp, one of our guides, that today was my anniversary and he recalled that this was not the first time that he and I have been together on my anniversary. As I said on Facebook, if you can't spend your anniversary with your wife, you can't beat a great bike ride in perfect weather.

A few might disagree with my characterization of the weather as perfect. We did have a fair amount of wind. But in Brentwood, CA, my home base, winds like we had today are pretty much the norm.

I got in early enough that I was able to do some laundry and hope that the Baltic sun will get the clothes dry this afternoon. The wind may help in that department, also.

Not many pictures today but here are shots of my laundry drying (the traveling clothesline is a great idea) and the fishin village of Rodvig.


Dinner tonight is in our hotel -- in about another hour.

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