Well, despite the weather forecast, it turned out to be an overcast with on and off rain. So, what to do? Go bike of course and explore the surrounds, meet the locals.
and explore the bike routes.
Then enjoy a beer at the deserted waterfront and let the clothes dry out.
Well, the weather up north is for about a month of rain, showers, some sun but basically a damp time. So I’m heading off south to Germany tonight. Where I hope there’ll also be some darkness at night. Being in eternal light for the past few weeks is messing with my head and sleep. Last night I stayed in a hostel that was an old converted steamship in Turku and I had an inside cabin – no porthole and therefore dark! Still woke up at 2am, damn it!
Oh well, tonight I will be on another ship, but this one moving and heading to Lubeck in Germany.
A suitably grey and gloomy departure from Finland.
On reflection, if I was Dr Who and could travel thru time, I would skip Tallinn and Helsinki and go straight to Turku, oh well… Anyway tomorrow’s another day.
Overcast, possible showers and strong winds was the forecast for Wednesday. So hang around in Lubeck or cycle? I opted for a cycle and ended up with my longest day in the saddle to date, but somehow it didn’t feel long – well sometimes it did.
In a totally preserve fashion my highlight of the day was getting across this 2k bridge between the mainland and Fehmarm.
Traffic restrictions were in place with a speed limit 50 kph and truck warnings. All because of the wind and I had to struggle to walk my bike across. I couldn’t even wear glasses as the wind simply took them off and at times I struggled to hold the bike. But boy, do you know you’re alive!
Germany is a very orderly place. There’s even coin operated meters so you can reserve these ‘shelters on the beach.
After yesterday’s fun, the wind was very favorable for a northerly run so I took the ferry to Denmark and Lolland
and basically got blown north by north east across the island. Actually, after the excitement of yesterday’s bridge crossing, I wanted to do the next one. But this was a 4.2k bridge…
But it was an anti climax as the wind simply pushed me across to the extent I really didn’t need to pedal. C’est la vie.
Ultimately I jumped a train to Helsingor ( aka Hamlet’s Castle)
Only to find out that my ferry back to the UK had been cancelled and I now need to head south again – to Holland …..
Okay, I admit, Holland wasn’t on the agenda at all. But here I am in Cheese town, Gouda.
How did I get here? To recap. The DFDS ferry holed herself at Harwich and is out of service ( by the way, DFDS has a lot to learn about customer service ) so I had to change plans and get the ferry from Hook of Holland or Calais etc. took the night train to Utrecht – sharing a compartment with a talkative and interesting man from Croatia who lives in Norway but was on his way Prague and somewhere else. But I also met Timo who I hope will come to NZ as we need good ICT project managers and enjoyable people.
I couldn’t really decide where to go next – Delft or Haarlem? But finally settled on Haarlem as it allowed me to stretch my legs a bit (poor reason I know, but still a reason). So I spent most of the day following canals and waterways although at times I felt in the middle of a Tour de France training camp as teams in full team kit went roaring by. There were some wonderful transistion s such as this little ‘bike’ ferry.
It’s funny but the last few days of cycling, from Germany to Copenhagen then thru Holland have been wonderful. Very different from Sweden, more crowded but just as enjoyable. Of course sitting in a town square with a beer in hand helps.
