Puttgarden to Vordingborg - July 26

After a pretty good night's sleep in the tent we packed up quickly as the weather looked threatening. We had a quick look at the "beach" and made our way to the ferry terminal.
These are huge ferries that carry everything from pedestrians to trains. The approach to the terminal resembles the toll booth area on an autobahn. After some initial confusion , we went through the ticket booth with the cars and were directed to wait in lane 1 of about 15. We stood in the cold wind, in our own lane until a few motor bikes joined us.
We could see the ferry arriving and wondered where we were supposed to go next.
While the traffic lights on the queuing lanes were all still red a ferry line man rode over to us on a bike and told us to follow him, which we did. He led the two of us, the only cyclists on our ferry, to board the ferry first before all the motor traffic, and the train!
It was pretty strange riding into the cavernous vehicle deck.
the ferry was quite a few floors high and equipped with at least 3 cafes, as well as duty-free shopping.
45 minutes later we arrived in Denmark. The radfahrers were again well-treated. We were ushered out before any of the other vehicles, with a friehdly smile and a 'gut radfahren'.
We felt a bit like rabbits on an autobahn, knowing what was coming out of the ferry behind us, so we sprinted off pretty sharply. But there was no problem. We just hung to the right until we hit a cycle track.
Our first day of cycling in denmark was great- a tailwind and dedicated cycle tracks virtually the whole way.
Early lunch at a cafe in marilba was very tasty and we managed to get some danish krona. Being sunday, tourist infos were all closed and we had no map, so we relied on the gps map pat had downloaded a few days ago. We hardly needed it because the signage on the roads was so good.
This part of denmark consists of open farmland and low rolling hills . The countryside looks like one of those paintings by thingy - big sky full of dark rolling clouds above waving fields of wheat, with the occasional lighthouse looking silo. As in Germany lots of windfarms are in evidence. Every 10kms or so there is a small town, but at least on sunday, they are very quiet.
We crossed 2 islands and onto a 3rd. The bridge leading to this last island was about 3km long. It was a very interesting day.
We arrived in Vordingborg and booked into the youth hostel after very good bruscetta and wine and beer at the local Italian restaurant.
78km today. 92 km yesterday.

26 July Sonderborg to Slagelse
Rods solo tour
Left Sonderborg this morning and despite early rain managed to avoid a wet packup. Because the Denmark section of this tour was largely unplanned it is even more freewheeling than the earlier part of the tour. Heading for Nyborg today with the days first scenic stop at Augustenborg on the way to Fynshav and the ferry to the Odense Peninsula. Met a German motorcyclist while waiting in the queue to board, we had a coffee together and shot the breeze a little while the ferry made the one hour fjord crossing.
Yachting seems to be huge in this country with sailing vessels occupying every available berth. Sunday morning church bells are the only thing to break the peace and quiet here.
More rain so I pulled into Faaborg while the weather lightened up a little and headed to Odense where I grabbed some lunch.Got here ealier than I thought so decided to head on to Nyborg for the night. I discovered here that my planned ride over the extensive bridge linking the peninsula to the rest of Denmark was not possible as they had not built for cyclists and hence we were not allowed on it. At great expensive I purchased tickets for myself and the trusty steed on a high speed train to Slagelse. Decided that I may well get the crossing behind me and pushed on to Slagelse that day instead of my planned stopover in Nyborg.