Sunday Biking

Regional bike path to Hillerød gets narrow and goes cross country

Biking remains our mode of getting to work and entertainmemnt and diversion.  The colder weather has set in with temperatures dippping down to freezing in the night in places around Denmark.  Biking to work in the AM is chilly and my aging eyes water, pushing through the frigid air that my eyeglasses are spotted like a wineglass in Jetdry commercial.  The combination of brisk winds, cool temps, and locomotion make a windchill believer out of me.

Biking is not just for commuting—we do it for fun too!  Two Sundays ago we rode out to Roskilde on 50 Kms of national bike routes.  In this case they were a combination of bike/pedestrian paths, small streets and rural roads, and separate bike only trails.  South of Copenhagen we pedaled into a marathon race with over a thousand participants.  The race was on a shared bike/walking pathway and the racecourse doubled back on itself creating bike/walking/racing traffic in both directions on a sidewalk-wide path.  It was kind of like a two way Tetris cascade requiring juking and jiving to thread your way through competing currents of people.

Classic mustard-yellow house color along the route

Roskilde has a national cathdral that contains the crypts and remains of almost all of Denmark’s dead royalty.  The cathdral is imposing and the monuments to former Kings, their family, and notable hangers-on ornate and over-the-top in many cases. I was more drawn to the carved heads on the centuries-old armchairs that had been worried smooth by the fidgeting hands of worshippers

 

.

We had planned on jumping a train back, but decided to at least start biking back to Copenhagen.  We ran out of gas partway back, but revived ourselves with an apple juice/candybar/potato chip infusion and completed the 80 Km roundtrip just fine.

Yesterday (Sunday) we ventured out to Hillerød (50 Km one way).  It was a fine fall day--sunny, but quite cool.  We had a stiff wind at our backs (the "medvind") and that nixed any ideas about biking back.  This time we weren’t vexed by marathoners, but the Tour de France wannabes in their spandex shorts and Quickdry racing jerseys were out in force.

The historical fix in Hillerød is Frederiksborg, a classic 17th century castle turned into an historical art museum chock full of period paintings of notables, furniture, and elaborate and fanciful architecture and decoration.  The 85 rooms bursting with artifacts bested my inadequate museum stamina and by the end we were doing a quick drive-by.  The children’s exhibit was quite cool—with help kids could remove the finery from the display models and try them on for size.

The bicycle car in the S-train back was packed, but we were happy to stand swaying for a while instead of battling our way through the wind gusts.   As biking is such a part of our lives, you will probably hear more and more about this biking life.  Daily I discover more aspects of this biking culture, but more about that later.    Nhat