A long, sunny day of gently rolling green farmland that took us to the very highest point in Denmark: the lofty summit of Møllehøj, at over 1700m, or 5,577ft.
Oh, sorry, I mean 170m, or 557ft. Yes, that’s as far up as the country gets. In fact, not counting comedy micronations such as the Vatican, it’s got the lowest highest point in all of Europe. There are bridge towers that are higher (on the Great Belt crossing, for instance: the pylons reach 254m, which would be the highest point you can stand in Denmark before getting arrested for trespass).
Even to get out of Kolding, we had to do some modest climbing, past a picturesque windmill.
Coming into Jerlev we were startled to see a giant mural of a racing cyclist on the side of a disused silo. It was painted to celebrate the 2022 Tour de France: the first three days were in Denmark, and Stage 3 came right past here.
Further along the road, a giant bike was another commemorative artwork.
In Vejle – one of a triangle of towns, along with Kolding and Fredericia – we stopped to admire the pedestrian centre in the sun, and enjoyed a quick chat with a teacher from Manchester supervising a school trip.
She was smilingly taken aback by the freedom given to Danish schoolkids, in terms of unsupervised roaming, adventurousness, and, er, tolerance of spicy language.
Further on, outside a supermarket at Hedensted, we talked to an English woman resident here for over a dozen years. She wasn’t in a hurry to go back. She had benefited from the high-tax, high-welfare system, which had enabled excellent opportunities for her autistic son, and she loved the place – not least for the bike-friendly culture and considerate driving.
We lunched in the park in Horsens, and coped with a couple of road closures and detours on our way to the mighty ascent to Møllehøj. This was only recently recognised as the country’s Everest: the summit of Ejer Baunehøj, a couple of hundred metres away, used to be thought the top (it’s only a few centimetres less, and in any case is now only the third highest point).
Ejer Baunehøj boasts a 13m high observation tower commemorating that reclaiming of South Jutland by Denmark in the early 1920s, so at 183m is the highest you can legitimately ascend on foot in the country.
Møllehøj itself is a non-obvious sort of summit, so no wonder it took until the 2000s for Danish surveyors to identify it as a zenith. It’s in the middle of a farm, whose owner has kindly allowed public access on a path past his laconic cows. They produce some fine mozzarella, apparently. You have some nice views from here, and there are information boards. (YouTuber The Tim Traveller has an excellent video about the place.)
The plunge down lanes from Møllehøj through more lush farmland was lovely, and we tracked the side of a lake before a long, long straight run on the bike path alongside the main road to Aarhus. It’s Denmark’s second city, and possibly its first city in terms of traffic lights, at least if that approach road is anything to go by: we seemed to spend half our time stopped at signals.
It was nearly seven by the time we got to our hotel in the centre of town, right by the theatre and cathedral. We enjoyed the canalside restaurant area, not least because it was car-free, full of benign dining buzz. Then we realised our hotel window directly overlooked it, so could enjoy the background dining buzz right in our rooms with a couple of supermarket beers each at a quarter of restaurant prices. Like its summits, Denmark’s expenditure heights can be quite modest.
Miles today: 75
Miles since Padborg: 202