20 Sept 2013
Lynge to Koge
19 miles

Is anyone else noting our daily decrease in mileage? It’s not for lack of trying but we are in serious jeopardy of hitting the end of the alphabet with our plans before we reach the end of this holiday.

Plan C is now this: ride the highway back to Farum, catch the train to the end of the line in a town called Solrod south of Copenhagen, connect to national Route 9, and ride the last bit south into Koge. Birds head south for the winter, so shall we.

But not before a visit from Cycling Angel Number Four. Tucked onto the train with all bikes and bags, we are furtively discussing the status of our ticket. The lady at the ticket counter at the 7-11, and by 7-11 I do mean the 7-11 of slurpees and late-night munchies, which oddly enough has the monopoly here in Denmark on selling train tickets alongside boxes of donuts, told Gina to stamp the ticket nine times. But in our panic to not miss the train, we only stamped it once and as we discuss this troubling error, Cycling Angel Number Four is listening and tells us that yes, indeed, we need to get off the train and stamp the ticket 8 more times. Our conversation then goes a little something like this:

Us: “Get off the train?”
Angel: “Yes”
Us: “When does it leave?”
Angel: “In one minute”
Us: (Unspoken) Is she nuts?!?

But before we can wipe the astonishment off our faces and actually make a decision to do something, Cycling Angel Number Four takes Gina by the arm, places her strategically in the train doorway, one foot on the platform and one foot in the train, and commands “Stay there!” while she swoops onto the platform and starts feeding our ticket into the machine like it’s a one-arm-bandit and she’s a nickel away from winning it all. Stamp, stamp, stamp it goes as she counts away in Danish while we count away the seconds until the train is to leave the station. And then she is back, big smile, ticket stamped, train doors shut, and we are on our way south.

While we are grateful for all of the cycling angels on this trip, we are noticing that it really is taking a village to get us around this country by bicycle. No sooner were we off the train than we were, once more, off the route. Standing again alongside a busy road with a look of wonder and puzzlement mixed with a hint of disgust and frustration, a look we are starting to perfect on this trip, Cycling Angel Number Five appears. Driving toward us, slowing, stopping, and yelling across the road if we need help, she tells us what we needed to hear – Koge (south) is THAT way. Maybe this is why we can’t find a map to save our lives – there are angels at the ready to keep us moving along.

I’d like to write that THAT way was scenic and pristine, with little butterflies dancing around our helmets as we pedaled along in this fairytale land. But the reality is it was loud and gritty and the only thing dancing around our helmets was fumes from the truck traffic. Ok, so this Plan C is going to need to morph into Plan D. But before that happens, at least we can enjoy another super cute camping cabin that we’ve landed at for the night.