Tilman's quote of the week: "The people here in the north may have bad weather, but they're in a good mood!" - a sentence that I can endorse! What better way to end the week on a bike tour than with nice people?

Saturday 07.10.

As is always the case when you're staying with people who are way too cool: you cant help but keep talking! With the firm intention of starting early in the morning around 09:00, I woke up on the far too comfortable sofa to find that Tilman was already up and about. A glance into the kitchen told me that he was already deep in conversation with Niklas. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for that last night as he had to pack for a weekend trip. Emil and his girlfriend slowly arrived and we had already anticipated the rest: We chatted away!

It wasn't that difficult to keep talking, since they've done some really cool things! A few years ago, they took part in a Danish "survival show" - and came first! It's crazy how you can live on fish and berries for a good 30 days!

As a parting gift, they gave us sample packs of the "astronaut food". Maybe it's not as bad as we think it is...

Apparently, the farewell was also very emotional, because the dog came running after us. It wasn't so easy for us either, because we turned back after about 200m. Of course, we had forgotten to inflate Tilman's tires again with a normal pump. Unfortunately, their pump didn't work quite as well on site.... So we just drove off again. This time we didn't come back.

For the next few kilometers, we continued along the island of Fyn towards Middelfart, where a bridge would take us to the mainland.

Andrea, Tilman's mom, knew the city from her sailing expeditions and recommended that we make a detour to the harbour. Of course, we didn't want to miss out on that! We had our brunch in the harbor with a fantastic view of the huge freeway bridge. Then we continued on to the Danish mainland. We took a familiar route, at least to Tilman. We cycled along fields, hills and the occasional sunshine.

For our last night in Denmark, we had chosen a free shelter near the water. Located at the end of a one-way road, we expected a fairly empty shelter. What we found after the beautiful drive down, however, was a row of 5 caravans that had "wonderfully" draped themselves around the shelter.

The surprising thing was that it was explicitly forbidden to set up a tent or camper for the night in the parking lot in front of it. Whether the small meadow of the nature reserve behind a 30cm high dyke was exempt from this was of course interpreted by some in their favor.

Two of the couples had made themselves comfortable in the shelter and in front of the fire pit. We weren't really enthusiastic, but we didn't want to send the others away either. It was also a motley crew and they offered to make room for us if we wanted to sleep. A very nice gesture! We were even allowed to take our little pot of water to the fire to try out Emil and Niklas' "astronaut food". Vegan chipotle. Not as bad as we thought, but pretty spicy for our untrained taste buds. We'd love to try it again, but we probably wouldn't spend any money on it. During the campfire conversations, we learned more about our neighbors. One couple came from Berlin, the others were Danes who occasionally go on weekend trips. The language of conversation was not entirely clear to us at first, as the Danish man could speak and understand German well, while his wife was not quite as fluent. However, the other German couple only wanted to speak in German the whole time. And this despite the fact that the German woman had previously claimed that she didn't go abroad to speak German but actually always spoke to people in English - that's how it should be. Well, sometimes there is just a discrepancy between self-perception and the perception of others... Even when we told her that we weren't sure whether a tent or camper was allowed here, she said with conviction that it only applied to the parking lot in front of it. It is so beautiful here that they would stay here for a second night. We don't quite understand how much this has to do with respect for the locals, but we didn't raise the subject again.

Instead, we enjoyed our last evening in Denmark. With a campfire, a clear starry sky and the sound of the sea in the background. A visit from a cuddly cat topped off the atmosphere :-)

Sunday 08.10.

The night turned out to be somewhat restless. Sometimes one camper's heating started up, sometimes someone went to do their business with a loud toilet flush and at around 5 a.m. the dog had to be taken for a noisy walk.

Not only others can go to the toilet at night. We also went for a romantic walk together as a couple under the twinkling stars on the meadow and let off steam.

After I was woken up at 5:00 in the morning, I couldn't fall asleep again. So I watched from the shelter as the sun slowly lit up the surroundings. A really beautiful morning. It would only have been even more beautiful if the view of the sea hadn't been blocked by campers.

We soon got out of our shelter, packed up the few things we had and drove back along the beach road where we had come from the day before. Of course, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take some more sand with us and dip our feet in the cold, slippery water.

Then we went through "flat" Denmark again. Flat seems to me to be a cliché. On the last day we had quite a few hills and cliffs and the border crossing was surprising and unspectacular.

So now we are back in Germany. The country where our tour started (even twice!). Funny to suddenly ask for the toilet in German again.

However, we didn't drive that far on German roads. Just a few kilometers after the border there was a place called "wild Schleswig". A sign informed us of the special type of cattle grazing in the area. It is explicitly pointed out that dogs must be kept on a lead. The area where camping is permitted is separated from the animals by fences and marked by two crossed ox horns. While Tilman had a long phone call, I started to put up the tent. It's funny to fall asleep to the mooing and grunting of the cows. Reminds you a bit of the reindeer in the far north.

Monday 09.10.

The night already foreshadowed what the following day would be like: rainy. There wasn't much more to say about the day. We came across the Buen Camino here and there ! It was cool to pass under the Kiel Canal. Finally an elevator of a suitable size for bicycles. We spent the evening in a garden above 1nitetent. The family was super sweet and super nice. The little boy made friends with Tilman straight away and didn't quite want to accept that it was "bedtime" at some point.

Tuesday 10.10.

Tilman's quote of the day: "People in the north have shit weather, but a good mood".

We can only confirm that. Although it was pissing all day, everyone had a smile on their face.

In front of a Lidl supermarket we were approached by two motorcyclists who were often as bulky as we were. Funny conversations you have in front of supermarkets...

Around noon we went to visit Tilman's great uncle, as it was on the way anyway. So I'm slowly getting to know Tilman's whole family :)

Afterwards, we treated ourselves to a kebab for the first time. And we immediately felt the inflation for ourselves. It still tasted good and we enjoyed not having to cook ourselves for once!

A few kilometers later, we took a break next to the B4 in a small wooded area. As soon as we snacked on our Franzbrötchen, we were approached by an elderly gentleman who was doing his daily round. Sometimes, apparently, you do something good in the world when you lend someone an ear or two.

So we continued our journey after a good 30 minutes and waved goodbye to the gentleman at the bus stop. Then we continued our journey and drove through Hamburg for what felt like hours.

This town did not necessarily shine with the quality of its cycle paths. But at least there were some on most of the roads, even if the ups and downs on the kerbs weren't exactly pleasant. But at least it was safer than on the road. The last few kilometers were along the waterline of Hamburg. And whoosh, we were standing in front of Michel's door. Can you still remember Michel? We met him on a bench north of Lulea and our conversation was only interrupted by the approaching rain. Seems like we wouldn't get tired of the topics of conversation that evening either. From cycling to Scandinavian life and politics. We chatted and chatted and chatted. But at some point we had to go to bed. Luckily we were staying another day!

Wednesday 11.10.

Despite the noisy building site outside the window, we slept for ages. We needed to recharge our batteries before heading into Hamburg's city center on foot. As we'd both been to Hamburg a few times before, today we limited ourselves to strolling around a bit. Through the Speicherstadt, seeing the musicals from the other side and just walking along the waterfront. In the evening we cooked dinner with Michel and spent another never-ending evening with lots of travel stories. Maybe Norway is worth another trip by bike after all?

Thursday 12..10.

In the morning, we said goodbye to Michel, who had to go to work early. But then we went back to bed. The route to Mölln to the two lovely campers we met in Mehman, who helped us out of our misery a little.

Before we could set off after a good night's sleep, however, we had to change Tilman's chain again. For a few days now it has been making worrying noises, which after almost 14,000 km it should be allowed to make. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a little more difficult than expected. The chain breaker was stuck in motion and it took a bigger lever to push the pin out of the link. After that, everything was just as usual and we were ready to go.

A little rainy, we followed our route to Mölln and were already full of anticipation. Not just for our favorite campers, but also for the town. On one of our smaller tours, our route had already taken us to Mölln and we were so positively surprised by this small town that we wanted to visit it again. Apparently, however, we had chosen the wrong time... Mölln's town center is, and will remain for the next 3 years, a construction site. The entire street had been torn up and there was virtually no way through for pedestrians and cyclists. So we'll have to try again in a few years!

When we arrived at our favorite campers, we were first allowed to visit the shower and take our things to the cellar, where a bed had already been prepared for us. Dinner and the subsequent wine consumption took our conversations from the hundredth to the thousandth. It's funny how good chemistry can sometimes develop, even across generations. We really enjoyed it and it probably won't be the last time we see them!

Friday 13.10.

Last night's conversation naturally continued the next morning. So long that someone was almost late for work.

We started the penultimate day of our tour in the pouring rain. There's no point in waiting. We had to ride anyway. So we went through fields and forests and because of all the rain we missed a turn and had to go back another 3 km. The road density up there is just not that dense. Our route took us onto the Elbe dyke, where we unexpectedly had wind from the south. Why was that? The wind had been coming from the west for the last few days (and the week in Denmark). So the wind was denying us a tailwind. As we were making slower progress than expected and it was already starting to get dark, we decided to take a small passenger ferry across the Elbe. And then we were already in the well-known Dannenberg and set up our tent in the garden of the parents of Tilman's friend from university. A familiar procedure. With the sound of the rain and the slight melancholy of the last evening on the tour, we snuggled into our sleeping bags and fell asleep.