The cycling through Northern Germany has been pretty flat and nothing but farm lands. We've been avoiding big cities like Hamburg, because they are a mess to cycle through. The weather has been preventing us from getting an early start. In Germany, it rained until mid morning or later so we just wait it out.
A few things that I noticed while cycling through Germany - Northern Germany is certainly not as scenic as Southern Germany. We cycled passed farms, cows, sheep, and more farms and modern windmills. There were 2 or 3 nuclear power plants that we cycled past and it was mostly flat. So, it was a pretty boring ride compared to the mountains and small cute villages we cycled through in Southern Germany.
- Public bathrooms don't exist in Germany. None. Northern Germany also had very few secluded areas so it was hard to find any privacy.
-Supermarkets are few and far between in small villages and in larger towns there are often 2 or more supermarkets. We don't bring a stove or have much room to carry a lot of food, so this was a problem for us. Sometimes we'd cycle for an hour looking for a supermarket. The saving grace for us was bakery's. There were bakery's in every small town. Germans make hundreds of different kinds of bread. Since our diet is mostly based on bread and cheese since it is cheap and easy, we've had a great selection of bread and it was all really good!
Our last few days in Germany was rainy. On July 19th we made our way to Bremerhaven, taking 2 ferries to get there to cross rivers that feeds into the North Sea. In Bremerhaven, since it was raining, we decided to stop at the maritime museum. It was a large museum that covered everything from the German Navy, to water sports, to the history of life saving, to polar exhibitions, and so much more. We spent most of the day wondering through the museum and later climbed on a couple historic ships which were available to explore. It was certaintly worth our delay. We cycled another 15 or so kilometers to a campground overlooking the North Sea.
On July 20th we had another long day of cycling. We were working to make up for the short days we've beeninf having due to weather. we cycled 133km to Brunsbuttle, again using the ferry system to cross large rivers. The ferry system must be doing very well in Germany, since there seems to be a lack of bridges.
On July 21 we crossed into Denmark! We were excited to get out of Germany and experience a new culture and new money! Denmark is not in the euro yet, so we had to exchange our money for the Denmark Krown. Unfortunately, even though we thought we were getting a great deal by exchanging €300 for over 2,000krown, everything costs at least twice as much here. We are paying a lot for food, but thankfully, we did our research and found some sites where there is free camping. The first night we stumbled on a cabin that was unlocked and available. It was a nice retreat to our cramped tent!
Our first day in Denmark cycled through the historic town of Mogeltonder, where the small village boasts old historic houses and is home to (one of) the prince and princess' homes.
We cycled past small villages on small roads and made our way to the historic village of Ribe, Denmark's oldest city. We arrived in Ribe on the morning of July 22, and we were convinced the town was still asleep, which was odd since it is a touristy town. I'm pretty sure the Danish just don't get out until after noon. We had a full breakfast at a bakery in the old town and walked around the historic city center and church.
On July 23 we cycled to Billund, birthplace of Legos. We didn't think we'd make it as far north as we did, but Denmark is a really small country, so cycling is going quite a bit more quick than in Germany. Billund itself is a surprisingly desolate city, with little to do except for the main attraction of Legoland. But we bought our tickets to Legoland and were committed to spend the next day revisiting our childhood!
July 24th we made it to Legoland! We went in the morning when it first opened and walked around the "mini land" which was sights all made from Legos- very impressive. I think Martin was more impressed with the Star Wars x-wing fighter completely made from Legos. We quickly grew tired of the crowds and children after lunch and left to cycle another 94km.
We cycled to a town called Middlefart. A beautiful seaside town overlooking a section of the Baltic Sea. We are dinner and finally had ourselves a fine hoppy beer.
It was getting late and we needed to find camping quick so we cycled our of town to a small peninsula off the middle island of Denmark. Thank goodness we found a nice place to camp because weather has been keeping us from cycling, and were "forced" to take a layover day at a beautiful campground overlooking the sea with a sauna! The campground host was so excited that we were from the U.S. that he gave us two nights free camping!
Tomorrow we plan to cycle towards Copenhagen and decide on whether we will take a ferry from there to Poland or go to Sweden and take a ferry from there.
