June 6: Day 36, Flensburg-Hedensted
I overslept by an hour today, which I haven't done before. Might be the last of the flu? The breakfast wasn't really worth getting up; they didn't have any kind of pastry at all and the best thing there was cereal so I had that twice. I should have looked for nearby bakeries, there were some close by and I'm sure I could have found a good and cheap and quick breakfast if I'd got organized yesterday.
But it did mean I didn't get delayed by three courses of breakfast; and I got on the bike at 930 which isn't too late. I was running low on isotonic drinks: I'd checked a few places yesterday and found nothing, so presumably they aren't common around here; but I figured a big supermarket would be worth stopping for.
Today's route followed a main road for the most part. I tweaked the first section to follow a nearby Eurovelo route, but didn't want to add too much: taking the scenic routes yesterday added an hour, and since I had started late I didn't have much spare time.
It meant the route went down to the Baltic sea, which is the first time I've seen the sea since Spain. It's not too hot, but it is sunny and some people are on the beach. I saw someone trying to sunbathe ... if they tried swimming it'd probably be so quick I'd miss it.
From left to right: a tank on the road; there was a guy on the back with the job of waving a reflective stick to indicate that they were turning left. Me at the Baltic sea - a bit of a milestone! The bikepath alongside the shore. Entering Denmark.
Komoot estimated today's ride to be 7.5 hours, but after lunch at 1300 it thought there was still 6 hours left. 1.5 hours of forward progress all morning!? I'm a bit troubled by this; the roads have been good and I thought I was making good time. I thought the Eurovelo route didn’t delay things much!
But I'm looking at a 1900 arrival, assuming no more delays... No more Eurovelo today, I need to stay with the direct route. Probably also time to drink more isotonics.
My last bottle of Lucozade is passionfruit flavour. But the flavour is so completely unlike passionfruit it gives me a weird out-of-body experience, like this whole trip is some VR experience, but the machine overlord hasn't figured out passionfruit flavour. I drink it anyway.
I've been to three supermarkets without finding any isotonics, but while passing a petrol station I see through the door that the whole back wall is a fridge filled with drinks. Worth a look? I stop, park and lock the bike, get the important bag out (yes, this is slow and gets done every time and I'm sharing the experience) and head inside. They have Lucozade! I get four bottles. I'll check petrol stations again.
From left to right: bikepaths at roundabouts in Denmark are pretty well signposted. The troubling flavour. The energy drink section at one of the supermarkets. The haul.
From left to right: a bicycle roundabout within a road roundabout. The map view to prove it. Taking a traffic-free alternative. The direct route sometimes took a backroad.
But I was pretty focussed on trying to stay close to the Komoot estimated times; I didn’t want to arrive too late. So I pushed on. Got passed by a 20-person peloton, entirely dressed in yellow. Zigzagged through the countryside. Passed a driver training center, which included a shallow pool of water where someone was drifting. Ate quite a lot of the trail mix. And drank several Lucozades.
But the surface was good, and I made good time - I was slightly faster than the Komoot estimated rate. I ended up arriving slightly before 1900. So 10h for a 7.5h estimate. Tomorrow is a longer ride, Komoot estimates it to be 9h. Hope I can finish it closer to the estimate, or I may be out all night...
What I’m listening to: Icarus (Main Theme) from Human Revolution by Michael McCann: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns7fNPiNiNc
Full soundtrack is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyG6YMLEWus
The game is old, but the soundtrack is still good!
