Biking through postcards

I guess we looked weird with our bike helmets, Gore-Tex rain suits, and other fancy bike gear. Denmark was a country full of bike people, but in 1986 few Danes looked like us Americans.

I came to Denmark as a member of a commercial bike touring company called Eurobike. Our group of 26 traveled to Scandinavia to bike for two weeks on some of the Islands that make up Denmark. We would also bike a couple of days in Sweden, a country easily accessible by ferry.

Denmark is a biker’s paradise because it is flat, scenic, and caters to people traveling on two wheels. Bike paths with their own system of lights lead into most major cities. At railroad stations there are caches of bikes for anyone to use. Painted yellow, these bikes are used by people free of charge, left, and then used by other people. The system seems to work, and it is fun to see people of all ages riding bikes.



It rained some part of every day, when my wife and I biked in Denmark. In a short time one gets use to the rain, and it is no big deal. One day I remember riding during a heavy downpour and ahead of me was an elderly lady in street clothes with raincoat riding in a most dignified fashion.

Like Switzerland, the scenery in Denmark is spectacular. I remember thinking we were riding through a number of postcards that were linked together. Scenic homes on quaint back country roads with neatly landscaped lawns seemed to be the rule. Our routes were well planned, and traffic was scarce. This made sightseeing easy and fun. We rode in small groups, frequently stopping to look at historical points of interest or to sample different Danish pastries.

Our time was our own, and days drifted by in an intoxicating fashion. After a while your bike becomes an extension of you, and you feel funny without it. I remember the final day riding though an old royal hunting ground that was still populated by different kinds of deer. Twenty years later this series of images remains fixed in my mind.



It was with a heavy heart that I turned in my bike at the end of the trip on the outskirts of Copenhagen. That night our group drank Tuborg beer together, as we reminisced about a fun trip in a beautiful place. The rains and winds we had encountered, at the end of the day made the adventure brighter, the beer more tasty, and the colors of Scandinavia more brilliant.