Travel

Nordkapp - Seaside Fun…

Had a good morning and set off with plenty of time for the ferry. I stopped a couple of times as I was having some awful row coming from my drain train. Couldn’t see anything, so in the end have everything a good polish, and cleaned the chsin again. It didn’t seem to help much but a few km in everything was right again, go figure!

At the ferry port I met two other Brits, although touring the fast way on S-Works Tarmacs with gravel bags. They were doing a two day run from Copenhagen to Hamburg where they live. The ferry crossing unlike with the ferry into Denmark where bikes went on and off the ferry first, this time we were last ones on and off and put in a corner of the boat, not even the bike rack as the one into Denmark. The crossing was also much longer at just under the hour, and a rough one also. I got talking to a Swedish couple who asked me if I was the cyclist with the bike covered in solar panels. Yep, that’s me! We had a good chat and they say they keep going to Denmark as unlike the Swedes they are much more talkative as in Sweden no one takes to anyone. Chuckled that that wasn’t something I had noticed actually. Amusing couple with a pair of Scottish terriers, one of which was trying to pick a fight with every other dog onboard!

Entering Germany was straight forward as was the bike paths leaving the port. The winds that really knocked the ferry around were soon very evident blowing me around and giving a solid headwind all day long. Eventually I came across a lovely little bridge which really kicked in Mr Vertigo. Once in it though the vertigo became the least worry, staying on it and ahold of the bike in the massive winds was far harder. Utterly crazy gusts that really battered me around. I was very pleased to be off the bridge and get some shelter at lower levels.

The day was a real drag due to the wind which did a number on my blood sugars. I was chain downing gels and Snickers bars again (Lidl have been selling them cheapish in Denmark so they made great carb boosters) which is never good.

I saw my first German bike shop also. Very different from ours Scandinavian brethren. In Germany an even larger focus on ebikes and also interesting was mopeds in the same shop. I guess it makes sense with them using the same bike paths etc. and what seems to be a lowish entry point for age as well.

Something about Germany that hits you pretty quickly when dealing with cars and junctions and people in general, as well as the little details you notice in the town’s. It feels much more like home than anywhere else I’ve been on this trip so far. The wildlife, the plants, the congestion, the shear numbers of people and cars. Yes the shops have different names but the mixture of cultures and multiethnicity is so very similar to home. Even the dare I say it war memorials in the town’s and villages. It’s only very small differences really but even after 80km the huge similarities are very clear.

Fingers crossed the wind well drop and let me have a good crack at getting to Hamburg tomorrow. It would be great if I could!