Fairytale ending!

Thank you for bearing with me on my fairytale themed ride.

I wanted to make my route to Copenhagen a spontaneous journey and I think I achieved it.

The Netherlands.

Haarlem was my first night and I can thoroughly recommend it for a genuine Dutch experience.

I cycled quite quickly through northern Holland, nearly as quickly as the Dutch Grand Prix (I narrowly missed it). Groningen was a busy city with a fairground in the main square. It had lots to offer. I stayed in the hostel in one of those sleeping pods. It’s in a mixed dormitory….interesting….I met about six people of different nationalities in one night.

I did my share of dykes and harbours.

Germany.

The big hitters in Germany were Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck.

I had a couple of nights here. It’s very much worth a visit. I had a couple of river ferry trips and cycled under the Elbe river in a dedicated cycle tunnel (there’s a tunnel for walking too).

Lubeck is a little gem. Loads of historic buildings and it is the capital of, what was, the trading powerhouse of the Hanseatic League.

Denmark.

The cycling slowed down as I hopped around the islands.

I enjoyed the easy ferry journeys and I visited Faaborg and then up to Odense….the home of Hans Christian Andersen.

His museum in the city told his life story and fairytales perfectly.

There are surprisingly few Viking era remains in Scandinavia. These are reconstructions but at the sites of a genuine ship burial and fortress.

I then visited a series of grand slots/castles.

Helsingor is associated with Shakespeare’s Hamlet but it was probably one of the best towns of my trip. I even went to a Country Music concert one evening.

Sweden.

Next I surprised myself by catching a ferry to Sweden. Why had I not thought of that before!

Helsingborg is a bit of a twin of its Danish cousin across the water. I then cycled down to Malmo.

I devised a four night cycle loop of southern Sweden. Ystad was my furthest point and it was worth the ride.

Back to Malmo for a last night in Sweden. I saw a different part of the city which I enjoyed….even the surstromming (fermented herring) and the sheep’s eyeball…yuck!

One last train journey to Wonderful Copenhagen.

We have done three palaces of the city, Nyhavn area and Tivoli Gardens. All fabulous.

Not to mention the little mermaid….

We also met up with Barbara (from our Stamford cycle group) and her partner Darren for a few drinks. They were in Copenhagen for a half marathon on Sunday.

I would like to thank all readers of the blog for their support and also Janice for coming to collect me. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to more of the same in the future.

It has been a fairytale of a journey and a dream come true, certainly a Scandinavian Saga.

The fairytale returned to its starting point when Janice kissed me again and I returned to my natural form….

….and it all ended happily ever after.

We are travelling round in the car for a week before we return home.

Bye bye, croak croak!