Two in a row
Today was our second rest day in a row. We couldn’t find another way to make the logistics work to see Skagen, have a Sunday rest day, and have a reasonable itinerary to make it back to Amsterdam in time for our flight. Our current plan is to ride about 520 miles over the next 6 days, taking a rest day next Sunday about 100 miles north of Amsterdam. That gives us two days the following week to ride 100 miles and then pack our bike at the airport on the end of the second day.
We hit the supermarket last night and bought food to cook, taking advantage of the fact we are staying in an Airbnb with a good kitchen. We made fried tofu and mixed it with Indian curry and some leftover stir fry vegetables from Friday night. When you’re hungry things taste good. That tasted extra good! Today we had granola for breakfast and fried some potatoes for dinner. Both nights we made delicious salads. Our wonky diets kind of get in the way of the full European experience at times, but we generally find ways to eat amazingly well and because we are eating out of grocery stores, the cost fits my tightwad ethos.
Random fact: the apple juice is really good in Denmark.
Besides eating well, we are both sleeping well. There is something about exhausting one’s body that kicks in good sleep vibes. It is so amazing not to have to wake up to an alarm clock, although we may need to set one tonight to get an early start for tomorrow. We plan to ride 85 miles to Struer, but the wind will determine if that is an easy or painful plan. Also, Natalie’s ankle continues to be a problem. We’ve been working on our coordinated cadence during shifting, wondering if somehow my pedaling during the abrupt cadence change of a downshift is causing the problem. There are tandem drivetrains which would allow one of us to stop pedaling while the other continues to work – such a system might help with the specific issue Natalie is having, so we’ll look into those after this trip.
This weekend is when the graduating high school seniors are celebrating. Big open trucks with siderails drive around full of partying seniors. There is an adult driver, like a bus driver at the wheel and music is blasting and he is honking the horn. The truck stops and seniors come running out of their homes and hop on the truck which drives away to the next lucky neighborhood. It appears the mobile party stops occasionally for food, becoming a stationary party for a bit, but no less rowdy. I’ll try to include a video snip in the album below. It is interesting to see the different traditions. They must think our Halloween hay rides are completely bonkers weird – and they’d be right. We’re just used to that form of weird.
We are currently sitting on a couch in our Airbnb listening to our stomachs rumble. We must have eaten something they are not used to…. :-) We are loving the oat milk here, and just had some ice cream made from oat milk which was absolutely magical. Find some. Hopefully oat milk will catch on in the US as it has here. It seems like a much more efficient way to create a milk substitute than almonds or cashews.
Our bike is running well. We have one squeaky brake pad that drives me bonkers. I even ride sometimes with the brake slightly compressed just to silence the squeak. That is saying something – I’m willing to pedal harder just to pedal in silence.
Komoot (our routing software) has done a pretty good job of finding a route for our tour. We love the software and it works well from my phone. It is extra helpful that our bike computer integrates with Komoot so I can plan a route on the side of the road and upload it into the bike computer – the whole process can take less than a minute. We usually ride with me watching the heads up display on the bike computer and Natalie has her or my phone speaking directions to us as a backup. We’ve yet to get lost, knock on wood.
Today we attended the Aalborg ward. It was quite large relative to other wards we’ve attended on these trips. The chapel was unique and beautiful and someone translated for us. While at church we met a nice man, Per, who was very familiar with the roads, as he is a trucker. He did a little research and found that the ferry from Brunsbuttel to Cuxhaven (in Germany) we had hoped to use isn’t operating. That adds about 50 miles to our itinerary but we are so grateful he figured this out before we spent an hour or two later this week at the waterfront trying to find our boat. He also offered to rescue us if needed. :-) One of the funnest parts of our adventures is meeting wonderful, colorful, kind people. It always makes me want to be more helpful to others, as I sense the positive impact helpful people have on us. Often small and simple act are very meaningful. Someone simply waving at us or giving a thumbs up gives us a happy boost.
Party on.
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