In 2012 we, decided to try a cycling holiday. It has been something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and finally I manage to convince my better half and found the time to do something about it.

We decided that cycling through Denmark following the North Sea Cycle Route could be a great place to try this kind of holiday. For practical reasons we decided to start at Fredrikshavn, cycling through Skagen and south against the German border. I bought a map showing the danish cycleroutes for preparation.

We took a ferry, Stena Line, from Oslo to Fredrikshavn. This was just for transport. The ferry has def seen better days. We ordered the Arne Brimi meny, which I recommend. If you do not travel with kids, do not choose the buffet. For transportation, it worked great.

Wind

We were warned that the wind usually came from south south-west, the direction we were going. The three first days, we had heavy wind against, up to 20 m/s. Then it was not a good idea to cycle along the beach from Løkken to Blokhus. Average speed cycling the beach for about 20 km was 8,5 km/h. Another problem with that was that the bikes chain and deraillur was completely stuffed with sand. 

After that, the wind calmed down, and turned from south-west and more north / north-west. We even had a couple of days with the wind on our back. So we might have been lucky with the wind on this tour.

Leaving the west coast heading east through the danish islands, the wind was pretty calm. We changed directions often, so we had some wind against, and some at our back. But the wind was never strong.

Weather

The number of days camping says it all. I guess we were lucky. Exept two half days of heavy rain, and another couple of cloudy and foggy days, the weather was excellent. I was suprised, because I have been to Denmark before several times, and not experienced all good weather. For cycling the temperature was great. Some wind would always cool you down from the sunny weather.

Eating

We were mostly self catered, but be warned. Following the north-sea route means cycling outside the main cities with stores. We actually had problems finding grocery stores on the route. Often we ended bying grocerys on the camping sites, and all grocerys on the camping sites are expensive. The selection ain't the best either, and varies a lot.

I had one goal though. That was to get at shrimp sandwich at Skagen. I don't know why, but I had an imagination that they should be good. I guess it had something to do with its closeness to see.

And I got my sandwich. The best I ever tasted, with lots of fresh shrimps, accompanied with a beer, of course. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, just in the center of the town. Gonna check that up. Its nice when the first day of the tour match yoyr expectations.

In Denmark they do not eat  breakfast at the same  time I am used to. At breakfast-time they eat what they call "morgenmad". That seem to be a small quick meal.

Breakfast they eat at lunch-time. And thats a more solid meal. Picture at the right is a breakfast we got at an outdoor restaurant in Sønderborg (the beer is an extra though).

Living

We hoped mainly to find camping sites to stay on, and Denmark has a lot of it. Our map had marked spots for camping sites along the routes, so it was not difficult to find one. The camping sites on the west-coast has a very good standard also. Price being reasonably, about 150 DKR.

They often have a lot of services to offer, like washing machine, grocery shop, restaurants and activities for kids. But remember, its not the cheapest place to shop.

We really had only one bad experience with a camping site. That was Bøjden camping. Its very "comercial", if you know what I mean. The beach looked a lot better on the pictures on their web, than it did in reality. I was not temoted to take a swim. When we got there, they said we could pick any place to camp, not mentioning the price difference. We did not ask for price of a tent spot this time, I regret that. Certainly do not complaint, not much help in the staff. Really unpolite behaviour. We ended up paying three times normal price.

The restaurant looked very nice, and it seemed to have a real chef, but the dinner buffet had seen better days. I guess the place is great for kids, and if you want a crowded noisy place to stay.

Hurrying away the next day, it was good to be on the road again. Danish people are very nice, just not at Bøjden.

I can not write this section without mentioning Postgaarden in Riibe. After a night of heavy rain at the camping site, we went 2 km to Riibe to stay at Postgaarden. Its a bed and breakfast in a very old building. The restaurant/café on the ground floor is faboulous for lunch/breakfast. We did not try the dinner.

On the ground floor they have a small shop selling specially made beer, schnaps and wine.

The rooms was nice and clean, but small. The room had shared bathrooms. Rooms with bathrooms, cost some more. To welcome us, we got a small bootle of wine on the room. To us, this was more than good enough. Worth the money.

Routes

We planned to follow the North-sea cycling route south to the german border. We should decide the route from there when we came there. We had bought plain tickets home from Copenhagen, so we had to finish there of course.

Total distance cycled in 20 days: 1213 km.