Hello everyone and welcome back to the channel. Welcome back if you're a subscriber. You're part of a select group and I appreciate your support. You may have watched previous videos when we went cycle touring in the south of Holland. We had planned to return and cycle in the north of the Netherlands around Groningen but unfortunately Covid got in the way but we've made it back to Europe and this time we've gone a little further north to Denmark. My elder daughter unfortunately couldn't come with us because she's now flown the nest. You might notice how the other two children have grown. There's a ship here somewhere... it used to be...
what, she's come returning money [Music] [Music] It's time I keep my thumb [Music] out. Oh here a it's a bit wobbly isn't it. It's been boiling hot on the journey up today. If you want to ring for the Emergency Services you call 112 and you quote A475. You can come down to the beach have a barbie, go for a swim and here's a little bench. Another little hut, someone else. Changing huts I think are there. Here you're not allowed to do diving but I imagine you can go jumping.
Wife's making hot chocolate and the back of her head. Well we're here. The ferry arrived in the Netherlands at 8:00 and it took a while to get off and then we went and found ourselves a coffee. We set off about half-nine. That was a long drive. Very busy. We made it about quarter to 6. I went to bed early and then the gentleman on the right here at 6:00am with Country & Western music full on. You can see down to the fjord down there. We walked down there last night. There's a lot of permanent setups. There is no-one here at the moment. I imagine it's the main
site for summer camp. Our two tents just drying out. We are just taking the bag bikes off the back, packing our bags. Mum's in the kitchen. A nice little kitchen area. Making some breakfast and thankfully it's not raining too much. It did rain overnight last night. We were missing a tent peg down here and a dog's wee'd up the side of our tent - so that's nice of them. Our ready-made porridge we made at home.40g of porridge, 15g of sugar, 15g of milk powder. And this is the kitchen. Ruthers is doing the washing
up. They're the signs we're following. We thought we'd stop to have a look at this ancient barrow and you'll never guess how old it is - 2020. It's a copy, so we thought we' stop in the shade, have 5-minute break and kids can go blackberry picking and put them in our porridge tomorrow. I think hopefully we'll have some blackberries on our next campsite. Well, we've arrived at Fynshav and there's nowhere to get a coffee or much else really. There's no ticket office,
or ticket machine. We've rung the ferry company who say the 1:00pm ferry is booked but she said if you've got a bicycle you should be okay and we just pay the man on the boat. Well, I think this is our ferry. It doesn't look very big. There's a lot of other bicyclists waiting to get on as well so I only hope they can squeeze us on. That's what's got to get on plus the people waiting over here. Looking towards our first view the island of Aero. We're now in Soby at the western end of the island and that is an all-electric ferry. If I just scan around that building over there is the Butik museum, whatever that is. We
just popped into the unmanned tourist bureau and picked up a map which I will show you. If I come over here. That's the map so hopefully we can find our way to our campsite. Mrs Antagonist has just popped across there to get some milk. Around the back of the tourist office - if a cycle needs recharging there's recharging points and then here there's a bike maintenance area where you can come and get a bit of air.
And then down here as well as air there's all the various tools you could need, tyre spanners, what have you. If you need to effect a repair. They're all very organised aren't they. We're just I can see the sign over there. It's going to take us on to continue on cycle Route 8 . Wouldn't you know it! I thought 'a nice straight section' It's not easy recording with one hand - very pretty.
[Music] Well, we made it to the Danish Forestry Commission Free Shelter campsite. It rained heavily overnight - well with rain - we just had enough time to put the tent up. That's looking North to Aeroskobing I think down there. We arrived about 6:00pm last night having stopped off to collect some water from a nice German couple. We stopped by the side of the road and asked for some water
and they invited us in. Really friendly, and gave us a beer and some nibbles, which was very kind of them. The wind's got up a lot. I don't know if you can hear me. I've got the windshield on the camera. Here's a post that shows you the water is 300 M away. There's a WC just up the road, which is an earth toilet. It's all beautifully clean and they've got hand sanitizer and toilet paper. If you take that route down through the trees , as you can see - that goes down
to a car turning area I think. Down there you can use. It's nice and warm. I spent my first night ever in one of these shelters. We didn't get to have our fire last night for obvious reasons. I don't think anyone's camped here - well not for a while. The ground... the grass is still very long. We're just making ourselves a cup of
tea. Believe it or not, that's all the gear we brought. It's about half-past nine because we had a 6:00am start yesterday. If I lift it up you can see the green roof. Given the rain we had I was pleased I was in there. Good nights
sleep. Emelye & Fynn are just up. We brought our gear up. I'm just starting to make our porridge. As you can see, before we came, we put our porridge already measured out into these sealed packets so then what we need to do is add water, pop it on the stove. We had a lovely breakfast of porridge and nectarines mixed in with it. Sun's now out.
I'll take you for a view of the campsite. Ow! Banged me head. Might be able to see - come down here - have a look at the view there it is. We were up at 6 yesterday so a more leisurely start today. We've just come down and going across the flat bit. Off to Marstal. The harbour. You can see the tops of the turbines over there and I imagine up on that high ground there is where we spent our night last night, with lots of rooks who we're very noisy until it got dark. That's the end of the Airfield.
Our route up there. Well here we. Came past the Airfield. Back on terra ferma. There's our map. How do I look? Tired? Towing the trailer - it's getting lighter. A few less tea bags. one dinner less. You should be able to see the children over my shoulder. Nice and straight.
Even the minor rural lanes have street lighting. Here we are in Marstal at the eastern end of Aero. We just paid for our tickets there. €44. All packed-up and we're waiting for the hal-past one ferry. It is a glorious day.
We're just going to go for... we've bought our tickets children. For those of you that might have been following us in Holland in 2017 they've grown a bit haven't they? Well, Ruthers has! There's some sort of Memorial and there's a yacht. There are the Germans off to Kiel.
We stopped for a coffee with homemade liquorice made on the island of Aero. If I take you around the front there's a ubiquitous Land Rover. That's looking back up to what would have been a fishing port I guess in the old days. There are
the cobbles to trip over. You can stop and have your lunch there. You can have brunch is served to 1:00pm. We are just having a nice cup of coffee in here. I imagine that's where we go. All the people coming from Langeland. Langeland! The ferry is not as busy as the ferry we caught yesterday. All the pedestrians off and the cars. We're on board. The Germans. Spot of lunch.
Well, we made it to the top of Langeland. We got the ferry across to Rudkobing. We've found a nice little site. Bit nervous about whether we're allowed to camp here or not. I think we're just going to cook up some dinner and then when the weather calms down, or the night comes on we'll stick our tents up. It's about half past seven. They've got themselves all sorted out. I've just broken a pole
so I'm in a good mood. We managed to mend it, so nothing that money can't can't save! Sorted out. Well, we're up at 6.00am. Lovely calm morning. We've had scrambled eggs and Danish bacon for breakfast. We're just doing the chores. Drying-up, washing-up waiting for the tents to dry out. That's the Danish Nature Agency sign telling us there's some shelters
just up the path in the woods there but there's a group of young people and beer that have the loud music going all night and were up at 3:40am but why not? A lovely calm morning If I turn you around - that's looking over to Fyn. Well, we've just left our campsite and cycled into Lohals Havn. The harbour. You can see there are some shelters you can hire overnight and these ones are actually on the water they go up and down with the tide and they take I think four people, something like that. There's bunks and mattresses inside and you get the facilities of showers and toilets. You have to book them and we were too late but we'll also flush with funds! A lovely morning. All sparkling clean, cleaned our teeth. Head off back to Rudkobing. We've made it back to Rudkobing. We're about to head off over the bridge we just need to cross over to the cycle track on the other side. That's the port we came into. There are the troops. We've done 40 km this morning. We've got
20km more into Svendborg somewhere over there. Lots of midges. That was where we were camping overnight right up there. That's looking towards Fyn and Svendborg 20km down there we need to go. Looking down to Rudkobing and the port down there. Looking back to where we spent the night and the bridge back into Langerland.
You can tell who's carrying all the gear - it's one at the back! You have to do 50kph down here - I'll do my best! I've got your best side! You've got a cherub throttling a swan. I think that's our one. The Hojestene. It's the one up here. So, we're going from here and we go all the way - I think we stop at SKaro and then we go around and then go to Drejo. So Svendborg - it's quite cosmopolitan isn't it? I've never heard of this place. Anyone who lives in Langeland has to drive over that bridge on the
Sunday - it's the law did you know that - it was incessant wasn't it? You'd think they'd all be at church. So, as you can see, we're on board the ferry - no cars yet. There's people walking around with large ice creams and today is very muggy. I could do with a large ice cream. There's three cars waiting. Anchor! Three cars waiting.
We've just seen a coach a 'tourist fart' . So we don't know what's on Drejo. Hopefully, there's a somewhere we can buy some bacon and eggs and stuff. Goodbye Svendborg.
We're all wrapped up because it's August. Spots of rain - just arriving in Skaro. Turns out no one wanted to get on - and no one wanted to get off - so that was a quick call. If sea levels rose by about another half a metre, Skaro would cease to exist I think.
That's looking back at Skaro. We think this is Drejo coming up here. Very low in the sea. We're having curry tonight. Chicken curry and rice. In our little cabin and Fynbo even found himself a chair. Chicken curry
time. Well, the weather was kind to us this morning - went for a swim in the nuddy. Just had our bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast. I've got a wasp right next to me. Just drying out from our swim. That was the children's bivvy last night. There is a side door and a door right at the very end for your kit. Take you up and show you our a little bunker in here. You can open up all the side bits [Music] Down the lane. A sort of an area you can sun yourself with made here have a bit of a
[Music] BBQ. That's the lovely Beach. Yachts out to sea. We cycled right to the tip the other end of, well we would say Drayjo it might be Drayo - don't quite know how they pronounce it. Oh
that looks quite a fall out there. I think that's Aero or Sobe over there. Nice whitebeam hedge. All the berries nearly ready for the all the black birds. Lots of small white butterflies all over the Rosa Rugosa. They like whatever that is. Cycling back to the port. Downhill - no one behind
me. The Danish houses aren't like an English house. Seems to be very barn-based. Sort of what the French would call corps de ferme. Nice straight road. There's a bit of high ground at the end of the island and then there's a causeway in a low patch where it must go through some salt marsh. So in high seas this end of the island might get cut off. So, impressions of Denmark. What do I know about Denmark? Apparently, they claim to be the world's, or Europe's, biggest exporter of Christmas trees. We've
seen two fields of Christmas trees but by comparison to some of the fields in England they're tiny so they must grow those somewhere else. The farming we've seen it's very rural but it's all very small scale agriculture - small scale farming - almost small holding type. I imagine the topography dictates that. You're aware of Danish bacon? We haven't seen a pig since we've been here! I imagine they're in the sheds, inside. We can certainly hear them and smell them. We see cattle. The typical Friesans but
a whole mix of different sorts of cattle. Again, not massive herds but least are outside. It's very lush everywhere where because it hasn't stopped raining for the last month or so. It's really green. What else do I know about Denmark? They have the Order of the Elephant. I think Nelson had that after the Battle of Copenhagen wasn't it? And then Sandy Toksvig. What else do we know? Great Danes - the Great Dane dog and now we know a bit more. We know the names of the few Islands, a few
places. Victor Borge. Wasn't he Danish? And there was a model - wasn't it Bridget Nielson- was she Danish? Don't know. I anticipated... I thought there'd be lots of coffee shops and places to get a Danish Pastry but it's so rural. The villages tend not to have many village shops and not all that big but it could just be we in a very rural area on the island. We're going to go
back to the harbour. Back to Fyn and it's an hour and 15 minutes back to Svendborg. We're going to fill up some water, have an ice cream and then head out to tonight's hit point. It's the end of August. The housemartins and the swallows are still here. Danes like to have a trailer nearly every house has a trailer parked outside. We're now approaching the village. Right, we've entered the village. We see quite a lot of little stalls outside every house,
not every house. Many of the houses have little offerings of produce from their vegetable garden, or flowers, or knickknacks and vases, old children's bicycles. Which way do we go? Straight on don't we? Oh, there's the - oh , I've mucked that up... I'll come up here, we'll go around. Some bird boxes. We'll go around the block. This is actually the main Square in the middle of the island I think, or this square of roads.
See if I can come around here . There's a lot of thatch everywhere you'd think more medieval. Seems to be a lot of building in the early 20th century judging by the dates on the houses. And then just here is where the local shop is on the island and where we stopped off to help the economy by buying some bacon and eggs yesterday for our breakfast this morning. And then if we turn left here, if I've got my bearings, this should take us
back - here you are you've been here before - this should take us back to the Port - Harbour. Needless to say there aren't many cars on the island. You can hire bicycles and things like that. 'Morning' Here we go. It's funny isn't it? Some people you say hello or hey to or morning and they come back to you and say hello good morning and others - they look at you like you're from another planet. So we are seeing the island in both its temperaments. We had the cold and the wind and the rain yesterday when we arrived and now we're basking in balmy, breezy weather. Well there's a ferry - hope that's not
ours. Let's hope that's not our ferry. We'll keep going - speed up a bit. Flying the flag ,which I think's called - it's got a name the Danish flag - white cross on a red background it's opposite to the English flag - I think they called it something like the Dannebrog, or something like that. They always proudly claim that it's the oldest flag in the world whether that's true I don't know. The flag has to be flown at a certain height. You have to have a permission to fly it. It's the only
flag you're allowed to fly although you are allowed to fly other flags of the surrounding Scandinavian countries to Denmark and the European flag - if you want to fly any other flag I think you have to have a license. They also have a streamer which is probably a bit better in the strong winds. I think the flagpole has to be five times the height or the width of the flag and then you can only put it up after 8:00 in the morning and have to take it down before 6:00pm at night or something like . So they they're very proud of their flags - as we all are. There's a lovely sailing schooner, or something out there. All the sailors amongst you will tell me it's something different. and we're hopefully back on time. Back to our friends running the
boat. I'll show you a map of the island. To put it in context. We came across from over here somewhere to Soby and we spent overnight about there and then went to Marstal, caught the ferry up to Rudkobing and we went all up to Lohans and cycled all the way back. Went across the bridge then on the ferry
to Drejo. Now we're going to go back to there and then we're going to go up here somewhere I think. There's a bigger map of Drejo. We arrived here. Cycled up here, got something to eat, went down to these cabins and the beach. This morning we cycled up and we went along this straight road. Across that sort of marsh causeway right to the cliffs at the end. Then all the way back again.
So we haven't done all the island but it's lovely. In fact, most of Denmark has a very calm feeling. There was a lot of traffic when we're going around Hamburg and then all the way up to Flensburg on the border. Then when you get into Denmark traffic faded away a bit. It might have just been the time of the day when we arriving. Certainly, on the first part of our cycle it was quite smelly. Smell of poo, cow poo, pig poo. It might just be the time of year when they're mucking out getting ready, clearing everything out ready for the winter. Muck spreading. Above me I can hear the flag fluttering in the breeze. The Danish cycling infrastructure is second to none and
puts us in the shade. Their picnic areas - and so much is done on trust. I mean those places we stayed last night. If you find them free and they're available get on this app, book them, which we did, and I think it cost us something like £14, which was reasonable.
If that was in England there'd be beer bottles strewn everywhere and it be set on fire within a week I reckon. So many of the things are selling by the side of the road rely on honesty boxes. I can vouch that the sea was lovely one you're in. Very shallow, nice and sandy. Go for a wander. Found the marina. There's Molly. Don't know where they're all from. There seems o be a fair few German boats sailing out of Kiel. It's a yachtsman's paradise around here. [Music] I'll walk you right to the end and take a shot of Ruthers before he crashes off into the water. There's a swallow.
You think they' put something here - I suppose that's deeper water in there. Looking back at that Hojestene. Waiting for us to pop on board. This looks like the crab cabin so they can come crabbing. I've just looked over the edge and there are a lot of crabs in that can go catching
them I don't know, it looks like you can eat them probably - you can take them there and they cook them up - they're too small to eat now fisherman looks like you can doesn't it. Around here you can take your little trolley - wheeling stuff in and out. Goodbye to Drejo. Got back to Svendborg it's quite hard pushing a heavy bike with your left [Music] hand. That's the view from our overnight tonight. Just looking at the cattle in the water meadows.
Over to the lake. The area around here is quite clayey - the soil. There's a brick works just up the corner and the managing director of the brick works back in the late 19th century built the house and I think we're in the orchard here. There's apples. We're just having a beer. Apples and pears and just through here you can see - I'll give you a glimpse of the house. I don't want to spoil their but you can see it. Lovely isn't it? The tower. There's two trains here. We're off to Odense and there's the other train heading on to Svendborg.
We're having an ice cream in Odense. We went to Goodis - Goody Goody Yum Yum. Got the sun in his eyes on the way back. I didn't know you could go in there.
Hi there Peter! Peter the Potter pottering around in his garden. Wow look at all these. Here we go. Peter collects pots. It's not Odense. The D is a soft The Danish don't have a oh. This is our ,we put the lights on, oh it's warm in here isn't it, kitchen. Sofa. [Music] Morning [Music] [Music] [Music] Coming into Faaborg. Flag. That's where the rich people can stay not like the rest of us [Music] So after Drejo we went there.
Here we took the railway line to Odense and back down again to Stenstrup. This morning we down Faaborg around there [Music] Horne - go down there to Fynshav. So we made it back to our campsite. There's the van - still safe - hopefully, it'll start. We got
back at what time 4:40? 4:40 - 20 to 5. I thought before I forget - what wouldn't I take next time? I took three battery charges of which I needed one battery pack. I thought the children were going to require more. I took a tripod I didn't use that's quite handy for the GoPro. I took another tripod - little handheld tripod I didn't use. I took too many cables because I was in a rush. When
we left grabbed a load because I thought the kids will probably want them. We took lights but we didn't use them but that's just to be on the safe side. I took a long pair of trousers that I didn't use. I got a spare pair of underpants, I got a spare pair of socks, I got a spare shirt. I only broke the hoodie out today, which I could have got away with. I don't think if I was traveling in summer I would take the light sleeping bag. I took a quilt as my wife does get a bit chilly. I would
just make do with the quilt because can zip it up like a sleeping bag. What else wouldn't I take? I've got a pair of waterproof trousers, that as at last time we didn't wear. Other than that - we've eaten our way through the food. We got a few bits left as you always do just in case. We got the
straps to keep the lids on there and that's all ready for if we had any breakages we could strap it up. We broke a pole on our tent. Rather, I broke a pole on the tent. So that's a £40 quid to repair. If anyone likes to send me some money that would be great, or replacement pole. The kids bikes held up - we didn't have any punctures which was lovely. They were all very good so hats off to Richard at The Oxford Bike Works for our bikes and also to Shaun in the village for giving a service to the kids bikes - just to make sure - the wheel bearings and everything - he took them all apart and put new chains on and made sure we had new brakes and everything was super duper. I took a helmet wore it a bit but generally didn't wear a helmet. Last time we were in Holland got very trolled by some people mainly the Dutch, or certain elements of the Dutch, for why we were wearing helmets and being very rude. In Denmark helmets seem to be worn - I would have said probably 60:40 people wearing helmets. Obviously the more you're in the town
the more likely people are to wear helmets. Is Denmark flat? No. If you're on a road bike great. If you are really lightweight touring and we're not - we're comfort touring - you're probably okay. With a trailer - that was hard work - I mean it's undulating countryside so yeah, can get a bit, a bit hard. I think I walked up a couple of hills. So what else wouldn't we take? One thing we did take that I thought was good was the flat pack 5 L water container so we had enough water overnight when we needed it. The Dutch are taking - it was them in the camper van - they've
just arrived back - they've just gone and they're off are they - or they're going to put.... ah, same as us. So we're just going to put the tents up now and then have a shower and reacquaint ourselves with civilization and then probably pop out for a pizza or some nice nosh. Well that's our broken pole. Fortunately, I had a repair section and the ubiquitous gaffer tape, which held up so far. If anyone from Wild Country or Terranova is watching you'd like to send us a replacement - I don't know 8mm section, or better still, a whole new pole section. A marvellous tent. We got the
Hoolie 3 etc ,which has the little bit extra out the front for your gear. The kids are just in the straightforward Hoolie. Both of which we picked up second hand because we're not rich. So what have I got in my panniers? In this side I've got my sit mat that helps waterproof and protect there. On the other side in the gauze, which is used for drying out I got my the good old, what are they called - Crocs. In the back I've got my wash kit and towel and the other side I've got - I don't know what I've got in there might well be waterproofs. In the side I've got
a tool kit and then we've got clothes in one side and tech. In then the other side I've got sleeping system and in the trailer you can see I use my Karrimat sleeping mat and that not only protects things but stop things making a noise when they are bouncing around. It helps keep things waterproof. We got the kids sleeping mats at the back. We try and pack over the wheels. We've got an Ortleib waterproof bag that has all our sort of communal kit for cooking, stoves and mess tins and bits and pieces. Then when you go to conferences and you walk around picking up these
bags they're really handy for just prepping outside. So I know the beige one has biscuits in. The white one has all coffee bags, hot chocolate, tea. Orange bag has bread and bits and pieces and then the blue bag it's that's breakfast breakfast bag. There's our water bags and more water bags. We didn't really fill up the trailer. You could have put more in but of course it's obviously
heavy. Then in here is our cool bag which is a Sainsbury's job for about 4 quid. We brought some salted butter with us which has kept okay. We do bring a little bottle of olive oil and a little tiny bottle of washing up liquid with us as well. For breakfast we had Danish bacon and eggs. We brought our own mixed-up porridge and then as we going out every day we managed to buy some milk as well. So it didn't take us long to get the old site up. I'm going to nip up to the reception and settle up for the next couple of nights. 'I'm just going to let that down reduce down.'
Now we're back in civilization, waiting for dinner to cook, watching Simon Bloke in the Woods on YouTube - catching up what he's been doing. Now they're all up in the kitchen cooking dinner. 'Spice in as well ...' Andy from Kent Survival. ' It's got and cloves and onion and garlic and cumin in..' I'm wrapped up like this to try and stop the [Music] mosquitoes . Walked down to the fjord and swimming area. It's absolutely mill pond calm. Look at. It's about 9:00pm I think and I'm just going to be tucking into to my pudding which is a Sainsburys rice pudding, which is using up the last of the food it just happened to be in the van so that's my pudding for tonight.
Lavatory we say in our family. What did you buy? What are they? Like caramel wafers. Butter biscuits are they? You got a hot one? We got [Music] two. [Music] Interesting version of 'Frere Jaques' there. Gets a bit thin around here I don't want to drop the
camera. We've just been to the art gallery. 15 euros that was. Sunday morning breakfast time in Kampen - stinky smell of cigarettes. Signs on the wall there - undergrund - overground wombling free..
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2025-01-24 17:36