The last day, all the way from the Fourth City, or perhaps the Forth City, up to the farthest-flung strand, literally, of Denmark. But quite not all the way for me. Like a surgeon in a faulty lift, my left ankle was not operating at the right level. So I thought it best to leave the full-on cycling to Nigel, and for me to get the train most of the way before cycling the last 25 miles or so up to Denmark’s northernmost spur up at Skagen.
It turned out to be a rather fabulous finish to the ride. I got the train as far as Kvissel and headed north, at first alongside one of those roadside bike paths that Denmark does pretty well. I had a tailwind, it was sunny and warm, and all was good. Fortunately, it stayed that way.
Eventually I peeled off the main road on to EV12, aka Route 1, which wandered happily across heathland and dunescapes northwards.
I was amused to see that Denmark’s bike-route signs had ripped off the Sustrans branding – Margaret-Calvert-like typeface, perky white bike symbol on a deep-blue background, white frame, red route numbers in a rounded square – until I found it had been the other way round.
This was all delightful cycling on a lovely day: a car-free path for many miles in open, uplifting landscapes, gently plied by touring cyclists.
I stopped off at the Sand Covered Church just south of Skagen – a rather low-key attraction, say A flat minor. It’s a church that was, as the name implies, swamped by sand and rendered unusable over a century ago. Nowadays just the tower pokes above the dunes.
You can go inside, but there’s no feeling of the inundated body of the church below, because it’s, well, covered in sand. Still, a place to stop and snack and have water on a fine sunny afternoon.
I lunched at Skagen, its pleasant harbour-town pedestrianised central streets thronging with cruise-ship strollers and quite a few hire-bike wobblers. Nigel caught up with me mid-pizza – he’d made fast progress from Aalborg with a helpful tailwind – and we headed north for the final few kilometres to the northernmost bit, the cape of Grenen.
This was journey’s end, and it does have a feeling of ultimacy about it. There’s a dunetop observation point, which is as far as you can cycle. The pointy bit of the sand, with the Skagerrak one side and the Kattegat on the other, or perhaps vice-versa, is a kilometre further but is walkable only.
We posed for amiably awkward pictures, admired the bracing seascapes on both sides, and chatted to the many holidaymakers who had also come to look at Denmark’s extremity. Job done; not quite satisfactorily for me, given that I lost one full and two half-plus days to a dodgy ankle, but I’ve had a lovely time.
There’s something about Denmark I like very much: the informality, the feeling of common status, the welfare provision, the affordable supermarkets, the pretty good bike provision, the good driver behaviour, the inexpensive and convenient trains. The pastries. The bacon. The friendly, helpful and humorous people (all of whom seem to speak good English).
So I definitely will be back. Doing a side-to-side of this splodgy-shaped country, I think: a cross-islands hop from west to east, taking in Jutland, Funen and Zealand. And fairly soon.
Miles today: 78 (me 32)
Miles since Padborg: 437 (me 273)