As is typical I got a pretty late start after leisurely sipping through a pot of coffee. My plan was to make it to Denmark with not much more. The weather was supposed to be pretty miserable, raining heavily throughout the day. However there was one silver-lining: a strong wind out of the south averaging at least 16mph. I set my sites towards Kolding, Denmark.
The first part of the day was exuberant. Immediately upon getting on my bike the rain started. I was happy, warm, and ready for a big day. The path quickly turned into something like compacted gravel with some surprise single-track thrown in for good measure. The rain was fairly heavy throughout but a slight break occurred about midway through when I was failing at orienteering at a crossroads.
The sky opened up and dumped on me. I was still warm and all was good. I thought I had successfully avoided some glass; I’d stopped and checked my tires even. At one particular corner I started to feel really sluggish. But I was so strong! My rear got a small glass puncture through one of the large treads. Since it was a great day, it stopped raining while I patched the tube (trust to hold) as I only have one new tube on me. It took longer than I hoped but I used the time to do some general maintenance and clean of the sludge my drivetrain had accreted.
At this point I had another 55ish miles to cover and it was already 2 PM.
I passed through Feldsburg, my final German city. One of the nice things about pedaling through the rain is that there are few pedestrians which makes getting through a city much easier. There was a neat waterfront I might have explored on a nice day. Things started to look more…Danish. I stopped at a Lidl supermarket and loaded up knowing it would be my last bit of reasonably priced food in Europe for the foreseeable future.
I crossed the border. It felt triumphant. The rain started again, heavily and I started to get cold. I booked a hostel-like room for €60 which is way more than I should have paid but I wanted something warm. In hindsight one of the three-sided shelters might have been fine but I also lost data for much of it. The final destination was Hejls.
The wind was very strong. I averaged around 22 miles per hour for at least two solid hours. I was barely putting effort in. I know I’ll be on the other side of that equation sometime shortly, but it felt good.
I’m in the hotel now. It’s neat. The host is a fiber artist with her work throughout. There is no food nearby so I ate one of my loads of bread with preserved meat. The heating kinda sucks. That’s roughing it for me at this point.
The plan for tomorrow is towards Svenborg. No rain forecast for tomorrow but there is everyday for a week after that. A sign to get moving. The pace is such I should hit the arctic in late June or early July. Still not sure of that is in the cards.