Days 1-4 : Road Biking: Jutland
Meet in Odense, and train to Fredericia, so hidden by grass-planted fortifications that it once escaped attack because its enemy couldn’t find it. May you fare better!
A three-day cycle starts along the Vejlefjord (yes, a fjord in Denmark). Jelling, symbol of ancient Denmark, is where Gorm the Elder and son Harald Bluetooth federated the Norse kingdom and buried a lot of stuff, including the queen. Runic stones abound, Wends maraud, and the whole business is somehow linked to early Christianity, at least if you believe that Christ was a Viking.
Across the moor to Silkeborg, heart of the wooded Lake District, for a night in a country krø, the typical thatch-roofed Danish inn.
Then by way of lakes and lanes to lively Århus, home to Scandinavia’s longest cathedral, a royal “summer cottage”, great night life, and an ersatz 200-year-old town plunked down in a city park. Days 4-7: Road Biking: Fyn and the Islands
Back to Odense, where you first met the group. Another fun night town, and birthplace to the still-revered Hans C.
Three days of biking the country’s most delightful lands. Langeland, Ærø and Fyn are island homes to fairy tale fishing villages garlanded with poppies. Visit 13th century churches, spooky Viking burial mounds, water and wind mills, quaint manor houses, and sea-faring museums. Castles dot the landscape and beaches line the route. Delights abound and distances are never great on these tiny paradises where fantasy flies. Can you tell Blue Marble likes it here? Days 7-8 : Road Biking: Copenhagen
To the capital for a night. There’s too much to do, so suit your tastes: palaces, ancient ruins, canals, museums... Visit Tivoli, the world’s first amusement park. Stroll pedestrian streets and enjoy a multitude of street artists. Christiania reuses a military base as a fascinating experiment in communal living.
The ’burbs host “Louisiana”, a modern art museum/sculpture garden with a view to Sweden. Helsingör castle was home to Hamlet, the only person Blue Marble's heard of who did not have a good time in Denmark.
A celebratory smörgåsbord (that’s not how they spell it, but it’s unrecognizable in Danish) and a salute to Erik the Red before heading off. Or was he Norwegian? Days 9-12: Hiking/Mountain Biking: Biking to the Sognefjord
The Oslo - Bergen railway is an engineering marvel. It draws a line across some of the world’s harshest mountains, culminating in eternal snows at 4,000 feet. Oddly, this is where Blue Marble chooses to detrain. Go for a glacier walk, read the polar bear warnings, or retreat hurriedly to the hotel for a hot chocolate.
Mountain bikes get you outta’ here, on a three-day descent to vegetation, following an old Hanseatic trail. Multi-trip alums rank this ride among the most spectacular.
Reach sea level at Voss, where the folk museum clearly illustrates the effect of central heating on farmhouse living. Then double-back to the top of a mountain by train, so to descend a spectacular gorge to the Sognefjord, Norway’s longest.
A country (wilderness?) bus carries you to the “hütte”, a hiking refuge that offers more comfort than many hotels. Hot showers, hearty meals, blond wood, and blonde guests. Days 13-14: Hiking: The Aurlandsdalen
Two days of hiking surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery Blue Marble knows. This wild valley is one that Norwegian hikers refer to with awe, and they are the arbiters of taste in the matter.
Take day trips from the base hütte, over moors, down deep dales, past cascading waterfalls and along idyllic brooks. Return home tired and happy, for evenings of singing your favorite Norwegian folk songs in front of the fireplace (yes, we’re kidding). Or bang out some Grieg on the hütte’s piano. Day 15: Fjord Cruise: The Sognefjord, Bergen
A sedate ferry carries you through the lonely splendor of the Sognefjord, and up the dramatic Nærøyfjord, Norway’s narrowest. The country’s smallest zip code is on the banks: six houses and a post office. So are seals, farms you reach by ladder from the valley floor, and all sorts of other geography-induced craziness. On to Bergen by bus and train: try the diner’s salmon for lunch!
A micro-climate explained by the gulf stream makes Bergen one of the warmest places in Scandinavia, though that’s not saying much. It’s also tough to tell that the city has been around as long as it has: it is made of wood, and burns down with unnerving regularity. Visit the Hanseatic Museum or the reconstructed port, buy kilos of salmon, sample culinary delights such as reindeer n’loganberries. A sleeper train returns you to Oslo. |
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