Finale! It’s all over for now.

3,267 km is our final trip tally. We think we’ve done ok all things considered.

The most important number is zero. Zero injuries, no spills, we both stayed upright for the whole 3,267 km.

Thanks to no spills and Tony’s continuing good bike maintenance, our total mechanical issues were…one puncture, and one bike pump failure.

To finish off, we had had half a day free where we could ride before cleaning and packing the bikes up to transport back to Australia.

We headed off early, hoping to ‘beat the tourists’ despite being ones ourselves.

We followed the coast up from Kastrup and were intrigued by the water polo nets in the canal. We saw similar in Roskilde. Both canals with lots of green, stringy algae like growths.

Looking towards Sweden, there were wind turbines at sea, with a ship passing by.

The city ahead, with a healthy headwind.

From the south, we pass through Christianshavn and Margretholm.

Then on into the very famous Nyhavn famous since the 17th century as a trading port. Today it is a vibrant entertainment area and the subject of many a jigsaw puzzle!

Then on into the Kastallet, a citadel and regarded as one of the best preserved fortresses in Northern Europe.

It has a pentagon shape with bastions at each corner.

Today it is a military sight, evident when there as we encountered a few armed guards, super friendly, chatty and waving us through.

A borrowed aerial view.

As we approached an ornate fountain.

Two views from the fountain.

A couple of old buildings from the 1700’s used by higher ranking officers.

Then we headed out, looking back to another armed guard.

Perhaps the most photographed statue in Copenhagen, the little mermaid. I watched with amusement at a certain ethnic group taking selfies and photos, but making sure their hair was just ‘so so’ and dropping the hip. 😊

Just around the corner a larger, seemingly less popular statue.

All up we rode 46 km through Copenhagen so the following are a sequential series of views.

We could have taken hundreds of photographs as Copenhagen is a particularly photogenic city with incredible architecture and curios.

Amalienborg is the official residence of the Danish Royal family.

The complex has four identical smaller structures laid around an octagonal courtyard.

Originally built for four noble families, today Queen Mary and family occupy one, Queen Margrethe II another, with two to spare.

More city views.

We stopped for coffee here. Just about broke the bank but we enjoyed the view.

A group of school children were netting in the river. They brought in lots of free, stringy algae like growth. They really seemed to be enjoying it, but they moved on when a couple of the lads lost interest and started jousting with their poles.

A bird island devoid of any greenery.

We kept on cycling….

We rode through Freetown, a very bohemian and hip and alternative area just km from the city heart. It was green, lush and lots of little cottages tucked away.

Then there was this curiosity. I guess you can watch yourself be electrocuted in the electric chair, fire extinguisher handy. 🤣

We ended up finishing this trip the same way we started. We found another Thomas Dambo troll. Little kids come to hand over their dummies here, scattered everywhere!

Cycling in Denmark is like nowhere else we have ever cycled. At roundabouts there are clear cycling lanes and ALL drivers give way to you.

We have not seen one angry driver or cyclist. It just works!

A few Internet examples.

Cyclists also get a head start at some intersections with cycling specific lights.

It was an amazing experience to see in action.

Denmark has a population of 6 million with 1.4 million in Copenhagen. If they can do it, Australia could too.

Many of their roads are one lane each way, with a dedicated walking path and dedicated cycling path, often on both sides of the road.

It works!

That brings me to the end of this cycling touring trip. We now head to Switzerland for a few days, before returning to Copenhagen for one night, collect all our gear, and head home.

We return Sunday, I am back at work the next day 😝🙈.

Thankyou to those who have read the blog and liked here or on Facebook.

To those who took the extra time to comment, even bigger thanks for your support, encouragement and interest.

Ciao Ciao, Ooroo

😊🚴💪❣️

Our last full day cycling. Always a surreal feeling after a long touring trip. Many emotions, but we still have another half day tomorrow 😊

We left Fredensborg a bit later due to a later breakfast time there. Very nice sitting in the sun.

We passed this stone indicating a tree planted by the then King in 1940.

Forests have been such a feature this trip, and it was lovely to ride through more today.

Nice pond as we approached the Frederiksborg Slot (castle).

The castle was built by King Christian IV in the early 17th century. It is the largest Renaissance structure in the Nordic region.

(note: not sure why or how I changed the type font…not sure how to change it back either using my iPad, so it stays 🤩).

Christian’s goal was to show off and enhance his status as a powerful European monarch.

Seems to have achieved his goal as it is impressive, along with the surrounding palace gardens.

I was impressed we could ride right through, over and around the moat.

Today it houses The Museum of Natural History.

Leaving the castle and heading into the town if Hillerod.

More forest. This section of the ride was super popular with many other cyclists out. Conditions were great and there were many large packs, and smaller groups making the most of the day.

As with all tours, ultimately we end up in big cities. In our case, Copenhagen.

There are many distractions.

It’s been a while since we’ve witnessed a good protest. This one was very loud, colourful and featured lots of bikes!

There was heavy metal music being blasted from this colourful truck. Many colourful characters were participating.

We crossed and then followed the river, winding our way around streets, admiring the architecture.

Tomorrow we head back into the city, early, hoping to avoid some of the crowds.

This is a very famous section, Nyhavn. I have a jigsaw puzzle of this.

Trying to find somewhere less ‘busy’ to buy some lunch, sit and chill was not easy. We crossed over to Christianhavn and sat on the edge of this dock.

We stayed here about 90 minutes, chatting with a Dutch family on holidays. Their kids had a large magnet on the end of a rope they were dangling into the water treasure hunting.

Then there was a line up of people who did a group jump into the water. Not sure why, but they got lots of cheers.

We arrived back in Kastrup, where we left 33 days ago. It was five weeks today that we arrived very jet lagged.

Still with half a day to go, we are pleased. We took a rare selfie.

The Pakistani owner could not believe we had ridden over 3,200 km. Where does your energy come from he asked?

I tapped my heart and my head.

❣️

Todays route.

Another glorious day. The sun was shining, blue skies and a robust wind.

We left our Air B and no B(reakfast) early. As I checked for anything we left behind I looked under the bed and realised why I had been coughing so much (asthma cough). The most incredible amount of dust and fluff was there. 😢

We did have a coffee as I had a few sachets in my bag. This place had a coffee maker, coffee but no filters. Filtered coffee has been the rage at nearly all of our accomodation. All other places provided some filters.

Out of town we were heading towards the north coast of the island of Zealand.

The roads were quiet and the rural ones delightful.

The Roskilde Fjord was in our view for much of the way, however distant.

Jyllinge has a nice marina area, thatched houses and a supermarket where we sourced food.

This sign was at the supermarket. There had been some in Roskilde too. An upcoming cycle event.

We were on a wide variety of paths today. These were lovely.

Frederikssund also has a large marina. We rode through a different part to yesterday, following the waterfront.

We stumbled across the Frederikssund Vikingeboplads. This is a historically accurate, reconstructed village based on archeological finds in the region.

The fjord waterfront is a smaller pebble beach here.

A nice boat reconstruction.

We continue north with an easterly angle. The winds are becoming gustier.

I do love these open fields.

The ubiquitous church.

We hit the north coast and ride through Troldeskoven, a lovely forest adjacent to the beach.

We dragged our bikes through some sand and parked them to check out the beach.

The beaches along the northern section were predominantly a nice white sand. There were multiple eateries along the way, selling burgers, icecream and drinks,

I liked this section of road. Two good verges to cycle either way, plus the lovely boat houses.

As we sat on a chair overlooking the coast, we could see across to Sweden, far more clearly than you can in this photo. I recognised Molle, a town we went through a few weeks ago.

Around here we started to work our way south, direct into a gusty headwind.

Nice old building from 1608.

Esrum So (Lake Esrum), is the largest lake in Denmark by water volume. Our destination, Fredensborg is on the south eastern shore.

It is a little hard to miss the Palace from our accomodation.

Our hotel was built in 1723 on the orders of King Frederik IV, with the purpose of being able to accomodate the guests invited by the king, who could not stay at the castle.

At the time, the castle was deliberately not furnished with guest rooms, therefore the Kings guests had to stay at the inn.

We went for a wander in the Palace grounds. The palace is not open to tourists but there are parts of the grounds you can access.

Former Queen Margrethe II lives here more permanently in her retirement. Queen Mary and family, this is their summer house.

We found out from a guard that the church was open today. So we wandered in further. Tony saw the queue and said ‘this is not happening Penry” so we turned around, (Penry is a reference to my middle name).

We wandered into the Palace gardens. They are huge. We found this house and plaque.

Tsar Alexander III bought this villa in 1885. His wife, empress Maria was a Danish princess ( Dagmar). He had it carved into a Faberge egg gifted to his wife,

His son who became Tsar Nicholas II, later executed by the Bolshevik’s, carved his name in a window pane, along with his English cousins ( George V).

The house is privately owned today.

We turned around and decided to walk down to the lake via one of the Long Walks.

The lake is lovely, featuring a large boathouse and restaurant.

Back to our hotel, the Yaxley flags are flying. The washing dried very quickly in the sun and wind.

We had pre booked at the bistro without any idea of prices. Small menu, big prices, fancy food. We gulped….we were a bit stuck as we were seated so just picked a main course and closed my eyes as I pressed green on the machine approving payment.

The meal was quite nice but…..😝🙈

105 km ridden today, 582 metres climbing.

We only have one full day, and one part day riding left to go.

A latter breakfast will ensure a later departure as we head to Copenhagen.

Thankyou for reading.

A glorious morning in Roskilde, saw us heading off to the local shops as we are at another B and no B. Not sure why they call themselves a Bed and Breakfast if there is no breakfast.

Anyhow today we were doing a circuit around Roskilde Fjord plus a little add on.

The fjord has many arms and bays.

This is a large pond!

Nice houses in quiet villages.

Gershoj Kirke has a history going back to the 12th century.

Adjacent half wooden buildings.

Lovely view towards the fjord.

This trip we have seen plenty of poppies popping up in other crops. This is a nice example.

This is a farm, Krabbesholm. Hard to see, but there is a nice tower there.

We rode through Skibby and Gerlev, crossing the fjord to head into Frederikssund. It was very blowy and we knew we would have fun on our return leg.

We stopped for an iced coffee and nibbles, sitting in the sun, before heading off to complete the loop.

Distant views of the fjord.

The lump of land is Bolund Halvorsens and is part of the Skjoldungernes Land National Park. I am sure there might be some Viking stories there.

The final 10 km into Roskilde the fjord became noticeably shallower around the shorelines.

That is Roskilde ahead, with the Viking museum to the left.

We headed to our accomodation as Tony wanted to replace his brake pads. Whilst he did that I researched another Thomas Dambo troll, only 7 km away.

Off we headed. The path below is ok for bikes I had read.

That is very steep and no bike of ours is going down there.

Walking was hard enough. The troll was less than 50 meters away as we could see his fishing rod.

There he is. Rundie Rie is his name. You can swing off his fishing rope and into the lake, formed after the closure of an old quarry.

Back to Roskilde finished our riding for the day. 82 km and nearly 500 metres climbing.

We then started walking. Roskilde Cathedral was the second thing I wanted to see this trip.

Roskilde Cathedral is Denmark’s royal burial church. It is UNESCO listed.

The first church was built here circa 1033 by King Harald Bluetooth. The cathedral was built about 1200 and was the first Gothic edifice in Scandinavia.

The church was originally Catholic but since the Reformation in 1536, it has been Lutheran.

Forty kings and queens are buried here. There are over 1,000 people of nobility buried below floor level in crypts. Since 1805 only royals are buried here now.

Just outside the main front door are nice old buildings.

The front door seemed a bit ghoulish to me.

The other side of the same door, but from the inside.

This is interesting. Queen Margrethe II has had a sepulchral monument created years ago in readiness for her passing. A crypt has been excavated below the monument where the coffin will be placed.

The monument cannot be viewed until she is laid to rest, but it is glass, containing effigies of her and husband Prince Henrik.

Henrik changed his mind the year before he passed and was cremated. So Margrethe will be the sole crypt occupier.

The blue, pink, yellow cover is covering the monument.

Plenty of other chapels with ornate coffins, walls, ceilings.

This is the tomb of Christian IX and Queen Louise, parents of Queen Alexandra of Great Britain ( wife of Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria).

Lovely and more simply decorated vaulted ceilings, creating a lighter and airier looking church.

There are many beautifully carved, but heavily worn tombstone slabs adorning the floor. I try and dodge around them.

Frescoes on the ceilings in one of the many chapels, all containing more ornate coffins and statues.

Having tested Tony’s patience with my history interests, he got out in one piece!

The Cathedral and museum are worth visiting.

As we walked back to the fjord, a modern house peaked our interest with the multiple roof lines and angles.

Another day. Not many left. We are so close to Copenhagen but have a few things still to ride to.

Thanks for joining us.