Kategorie: Berlin-Copenhagen 2016

I really liked this trip. It seemed like the perfect distance, offering more than the usual 3 or 4 day escape from everyday life and fully immersing me into this tour.

The tour was perfectly signposted and had a logical layout most of the time. A few times I skipped short parts which were clearly designed to make the route longer, without offering any benefit but otherwise I have nothing to complain.

Although all my other gear kept up with the changing conditions, I was really disappointed with my bike and especially the failing tire-spokes. It cost me a lot of money and time to get them repaired and showed me that the bike was not designed for transporting me + my gear on long distance trips. This resulted in me searching for a new travel bike once arriving back home, more of which can be found in the ‘Equipment’ section of this blog.

Besides the one cold and rainy day in Germany I had mostly been lucky weather wise and had found some lovely campsites.

All in all a trip well worth it, and of the 714 kilometres cycled I enjoyed the absolute majority of them.

(A click on the route enlarges the picture!)

The final tour day. After packing my stuff and setting off I soon arrived in Køge, from where the route heads further inland for a while before returning to the coast. This is clearly Copenhagen Suburbia already, I got the feeling I was riding through one village after another without any space between those villages.

I met a nice German on a recumbent bike shortly after Køge and we decided to tackle the journey into Copenhagen together.

Especially the last few kilometres into Copenhagen were not like expected. We were on a brilliantly surfaced bike path, had a canal running next to us and trees and dikes as sound barriers against the nearby main roads.

All this made for a lovely arrival in Copenhagen, which ended with a drive through Copenhagen’s new, trendy and very creatively designed houses in the south quarter of the city.

Finally then, we reached the city hall and took some arrival pictures before parting way.

Proud and exhausted!

In front of the Tivoli 

The 80km ride had went by in a breeze and I was pretty proud to have arrived in Copenhagen by bike.

Now I had tried to find a place to sleep on the bike-community website “Warmshowers”, but hadn’t had any luck. So I stood at the city hall plaza, leeching onto the free Wi-Fi and tried to book a room in a hostel for the coming two nights. With horror I discovered that the weekend I had arrived on was also the date of the Copenhagen Marathon, so the hostels were full to the brim. I just about managed to find a room, just to learn it had been booked in the time it took me to bike to the hostel. The next hostel was only down the road and luckily had a bed for me, but not before deducting over 140€ for 2 nights from my credit card. And no, that wasn’t a lovely single bedroom with a lot of space, instead it was a 10-person dorm room filled to the last bed. I was really shocked by the prices in Copenhagen, as I spent more money there on a bed, then on the complete 8 day journey before, including food and transport.

Nevertheless I tried to enjoy Copenhagen in the following 36 hours I had there. I visited the botanical garden, the free art museum, the hippie-autonomous part of town called Christiania and walked up and down the city and went on a free walking tour. I have no idea how people can afford to live there, as every glance onto the menu hanging outside of the promenade restaurants sent a shiver down my spine and made me run to the nearest supermarket to buy a boring, but affordable supper or lunch.

Art museum

Perfectly describing the cost of living in this city.

Polar bear couldn’t afford the rent anymore

On the 22^nd of May I boarded a Flixbus (a German bus logistics firm that has expanded quite a bit into Scandinavia) after securing my bike at the back and sat on the top deck, watching nearly my complete tour of the previous 8 days fly by in slightly under 8 hours. With the bus driver putting his foot down we even managed to board the ferry 2hrs earlier than planned and therefor arrived 2hrs earlier in Berlin.

Heading back to Germany

(A click on the route enlarges the picture!)

Now I could have got much more cycling in that day, but as I had booked my return bus from Copenhagen before even leaving Berlin I noticed I’d have too much time in Copenhagen before catching the bus. So instead I decided to take the tour slowly and not rush into Copenhagen but rather have an additional stop midway.

The ride that day was uneventful, leading me over lovely roads through fields and along the coast. I was seeing quite some numbers of wildlife on this trip, specifically hares and pheasants, something I hadn’t thought I’d see on Danish roads.

 

The building behind the bisons is actually a prison. Guess their last break-out attempts didn’t end too well.

After a short ride of slightly less than 50 kilometres I stopped for the night at another free campsite near Stevns Klint, another set of white chalk cliffs on the east coast. I took the bike a few kilometres down the road where I found an access to actually head down to the beach and after a few hours there drove back to the campsite which was located next to the local visitor’s centre.

 

Here I even found free toilets and had a look around the rather abandoned centre.

Although it seems unreal and unbelievable when standing at that cliff, this was actually part of Denmark’s eastern border and therefore one part of the frontline during the Cold War. Although there is a Cold War museum there, highlighting the highly secret defence buildings, which contained a huge fortress and underground bunker, I was content with checking out the radar tower next to my sleeping shelter. There was also a nice watchtower on site which was accessible, so I spent my time watching the sunset from up top, before heading for a chilly and slightly rainy night in my wooden shelter.

 

My Shelter for the night

(A click on the route enlarges the picture!)

The morning was spent by a lovely walk along the top of the cliffs, looking down through beautiful green, fresh leaves onto the beach below. At over 6km length and at some points 128m height these cliffs are quite a sight. One of the hills, Aborrebjerg, slightly behind the cliffs is Denmark’s highest point at 143m.

Lovely views into Denmark.

I took what felt like the longest staircase in the world to get down to the seafront. And spent a few happy hours walking up and down the beach, and enjoying the lovely white chalk cliffs glistening in the sunshine.

After having walked up the staircase again (uff! Biker-Legs and stairs are no happy match!) I collected my bike and gear at the campsite and was on my way again shortly after mid-day.

I biked westwards on Møn and after a bridge crossing was now on Sjælland, the island on which my final destination Copenhagen lay further north.

Shortly after cycling past the city Præstø I had marked another free campsite that I wanted to check out. And what luck it was, picking exactly that site, because when I turned off the road and headed down a small, grassy access road I found the most delightful campsite there is. Essentially, the campsite is an upturned wooden boat with a cut-out entry. Although pretty small I could lay my air mattress inside the boat and therefor have a wind- and rainproof shelter for the night. The campsite also had a nice chair and even access to the sea (although I was too lazy to actually try to go for a swim in the freezing water). I spent a lovely evening at that location, watching the sun go down from the wooden chair and later crawling into my “ship” before falling asleep.

Only 55km today, but I had only started cycling in the afternoon.

 

 

 

(A click on the route enlarges the picture!)

Early morning I packed up and headed for Nykøbing, which I reached about an hour later. Found the nearest bike-shop and left my beaten bike there to get it repaired, whilst having a relaxed breakfast in town. The repair was really expensive, at least for the 40€ he charged, the mechanic cleaned all the sand out of my drivetrain, so the crunching and grinding stopped at last, but it was a stiff bill nevertheless. And I was really upset with my wheel-setup, as it had now failed me twice in under a week.

After leaving Nykøbing I crossed to the east side of the island. Like in Germany, the bike path was mostly on roads and paths that weren’t frequented by motorized traffic, so you could really relax and enjoy the landscape.

At Stubbekøbing I boarded a small ferry with one other cyclist, and after 10 minutes we arrived on the tiny island of Bogø, and then after cycling over an impressive road built on water I was on the island Møn.

It was a tight fit, but our two bikes somehow managed to be taken aboard!

Just a very short crossing

Now there is the possibility to shorten the journey by heading north on Møn, and after about 15km you’d be on the next island.

The worst stretch of the 700km tour, but luckily it was really short.

Instead I opted for the long way, going to the most eastern point of Møn, as they have lovely chalk cliffs there. The road was quite hilly, and the last few kilometres really threw everything they had at me. The steepest roads on the whole tour, made of pressed sand and gravel helped to get some appetite worked up for supper.

By the time I arrived at Møns Klint (meaning “Møn’s Cliff”) campsite I was worn out for the day. The campsite was nicely located and although the people at the check-in desk weren’t really interested in their customers I managed to find a nice spot for my tent and spent the evening trying to get all my cloths washed and dried. That was really necessary, I kid you not!

All in all that made for my second longest day on tour, and considering I spent my morning at a bike dealers I was pretty proud of the 94 km on my speedometer.

(A click on the route enlarges the picture!)

After Breakfast at the Campsite the goal for the day was simple: Get to Denmark at last!

Shortly before disaster struck (again)!

With only 50km to the ferry in Rostock I was planning on getting there by midday no stress. Unfortunately I had just crossed through the little village of Schwaan when I suddenly heard a *pling* once again and found a new spoke had snapped on my back wheel. I was soo fed-up, I was seriously concidering lying on the ground and throwing a tantrum, but as I was the only person far and wide on this bike lane I guessed it wouldn’t have had the wished for effect. Instead I decided to take my spoke wrench (bought extra before this trip, well invested 5€) and tried to adjust the huge misalignment in my rear wheel. After a lot of time of fiddling around with no real expertise I managed to get the wheel straightened up again, so the side of the wheel wasn’t pressing against the brake-callipers anymore. I repacked heavy stuff from the rear to the front panniers and hopped on the bike after this hour long interruption.

Whilst continuing the bike ride I decided on getting the wheel repaired in Denmark the following day, not further delaying my ferry crossing by looking for a bike shop in Rostock. I sailed through Rostock without really looking at the sights and then took the bike path out of town to get to Überseehafen (the ferry terminal).

Once there it turned out that the ferry had quite some delay so I drove back to nearby supermarket to stock up on cheap german supplies before being subjected to Scandinavian food-prices 😉

Waiting in line for a ferry ticket (and looking slightly like a washing rack on wheels!)

The ferry seemingly had had problems on the Danish side, so it took forever before boarding the ship at last. I had arrived at Überseehafen at 12 o’clock, but until we got moving it was 4pm. I relaxed on the ferry crossing, looking out at Warnemünde shortly after leaving port and then sitting inside and reading in peace and quiet before disembarking again at round about 7pm.

Fun experience to ride into a ferry on a bike

Safely secured

Warnemünde

All my plans of having an easy 50km to Rostock and then a nice afternoon cycling in Denmark had been messed up by the broken spoke and the ships delay so I opted to keep it relaxed in the evening and find the nearest campsite after disembarking from the Ferry in Gedser.

In Denmark at last! Boy was it windy.

Denmark had, as it turned out, some lovely free campsites. Either they are unmaintained or people living nearby help keep the campsite clean. Some have little shelters, some even small toilets and yet others are just a place to pitch your tent. Most of them are free, although some can cost a small fee (usually 2-5€/person), which can be deposited at the campsite. I highly recommend the App “Shelter” as it has them all GPS-located and you can find the nearest one.

I took the second nearest to Gedser, pedalling against strong headwinds and finally arrived at a little area off the road which didn’t have any infrastructure besides a sign and a small toilet. I pitched my tent, looked at the magnificent sunset and soon crawled into bed.

Roughly 48km to Rostock and a short 22km in Denmark still made for a long day! I was hoping to get a quick repair done to my bike in Nykøbing the following day and then be on my way again.

(A click on the route enlarges the picture!)

The morning started with a short cruise into Waren, along the promenade. I was in search of a nice bakery, but unfortunately turned off the main road soon and left the city without having found a nice breakfast.

The trip led me around a lot of little lakes, mostly far away from motorized traffic and made for a relaxing drive. Well, at least it would have been, if the weather hadn’t turned on me. Whilst riding through the forest the wind picked up and suddenly I was in a short, but very unpleasant hailstorm. By the time I had brought my bike to a stop and fumbled for my rain-gear from one of my bags I was absolutely drenched and the rain had nearly stopped. This happened 3 times in a very short interval.

Hail, and off-camera: a very wet me!

In the same forest I met a fellow biker who had overtaken me the previous day and was heading to Copenhagen as well. For the next few days we spent quite some time together.

In Güstrow we had quite a disgusting late lunch at a kebab stand at the train station. The city was as dead as a dodo, and that was the only place serving food we could find.

But Güstrow did have a nice palace…

… and cute streets.

After having had a really cold morning with 10 different rain-clouds deciding to keep me cold and wet, my weather luck returned in the afternoon. Although staying quite cold I spent some time being bathed in sunshine.

Freaky road-side animals Nr. 1.

And Nr. 2. Yes, that actually is a camel roaming the field in eastern Germany.

The overnighting destination was Bützow, as that left less then 50km to do the next day before boarding the ferry to Denmark. The campsite was nicely located at a lake (3 lake-campsites in 3 days 😉 ) and had quite a few cyclists staying the night. Also they had a beautiful pontoon leading out into the lake. All in all I had done 102 kilometres that day.

(A click on the route enlarges the picture!)

After having packed up my tent, I headed into Fürstenberg. Now normally that would have been a quick drive through, but I had had the first bike-related hiccup on this tour the following day. With my bike having behaved flawlessly all the way to Usedom and on the Hamburg trip it had only needed 8 hours on this trip when I stopped after a continuous *pling* *pling*-sound coming from the rear tire. On closer inspection I found the reason: I had actually snapped a spoke, and of course it was on the drive-train side (pain to remove and replace!) and of course I didn’t have a spare spoke with me!

So Fürstenberg meant a visit to a much needed bike-shop. The mechanic working was in quite some stress so I headed to the nearest café to let him work in peace. He managed the repair and with a bill over 20€ I was on my way again after a two hour wait.

I would have liked a much longer stay-over, as Fürstenberg is adjacent to Ravensbrück, the former women’s concentration camp. Before entering the city I had also driven past signs showing the way to the Uckermark concentration camp which was erected near Ravensbrück and was built to imprison girls and young women. Both camps together had over 130.000 inmates and looking at the run down barracks and the tremendous size of the location whilst cycling past the area put the idea of my bike tour into quite some proportion. As said I really wanted to spend time at the Ravensbrück Memorial and view the museum, but decided against it on that tour, as I’d have had too little time to fully immerse myself in the museum and dedicate the time a place like that commands. Also Fürstenberg is only a short train journey from Berlin so a later visit to focus on the concentration camps seemed like the better idea.

“Former Youth concentration camp for girls and young women and later extermination camp Uckermark.”

The afternoon went by with me covering quite some kilometres, even with the delay from the bike shop. Bored of listening to music I managed to use a perfect Terry Pratchett Audio Book (Good Omens on BBC Radio!) as a way to take my mind off cycling completely. When the last words were spoken I noticed I had been pedalling for nearly 3 hours non-stop and was nearly at my evening destination.

How far north had I gone?

That was missing in Troja in ancient times, a slide out back!

Before entering the city of Waren I found a perfect campsite looking out onto Lake Müritz. This was for sure the biggest campsite I had visited on any of my tours with a 700m cycle ride just to get from the entrance to my designated camp spot.

I spent the evening between partying groups and their campervans, trying to get some sleep.

(A click on the route enlarges the picture!)

I started my tour by heading off to the Brandenburger Tor, as this is the main starting point for many bike routes leading out of Berlin.

Here we go again!

A drive to the north-west brought me past Tegel airport and then went along likes on extra bike routes, so there was no interference from motorized traffic.

Old watchtower along the Berlin Wall, now converted into a museum and memorial.

By lunch I had already reached Oranienburg, over 50km from my starting point and had a nice relaxing food break at the side of a canal.

Beautiful roads along the many canals.

Legs feeling strong I continued on to Zehdenick where the route follows through the grounds of a brick manufacture, which has been revamped into an event location. The last 10km to Tornow were quite challenging, as my legs were clearly feeling the strain of the day, but I tried to take it easy and arrived at my Campsite “Am großen Wentowsee” in the early evening after 103 kilometres.

A good first day, but still a lot to be pedalled, as displayed on the left side of the picture!

Located nicely at a big lake I managed to build up the courage to actually go for a swim. Luckily I could hit the showers right after that.

Boy was that cold!

Perfect temperature and weather accompanied me on this first day, I was sincerely hoping it would stay that way.

Having found my love for bike-touring again on the recent trip from Hamburg to Berlin (as described on this blog as well), I decided to head straight out again. As my obligations to university meant sitting in a hot library and writing essays, I was pretty sure that could wait another week.

I had picked up on the Berlin – Copenhagen bike-path ever since I had noticed it started right behind my flat in Berlin. It had the right length (approx. 700km) to be a challenge and give me a longer time away from home than my two previous tours (which were each ~300km), whilst still being a manageable distance as I could start without big preparation and didn’t have to wait for a holiday occasion to come around.

The route can be looked at here:
http://www.bike-berlin-copenhagen.com/route/three-stages

and here:

http://radreise-wiki.de/Berlin_-_Kopenhagen

As it turns out the signposting was pretty good. Using my mobile phone as navigation + a dedicated biking-map (I used the one from “Bikeline”), sticking to the route was no big issue. Only wished the planners would have designed a more colourful logo as a lot of signs were really faded from the sunlight: