Monthly Archives: May 2011

Visiting degree confluence 53°N, 9°E

Posted on May 11, 2011 by todd

Have you heard of the Degree Confluence Project (DCP)? It’s a website that records integer degree confluence visits. If that sounds a bit geeky… well, it probably is.

Anyway, degree confluence 53°N, 9°E is just around the corner and since I had a bit of spare time today I paid it a visit.

The ride with the singlespeed was lovely. The confluence is located just south of Achim, a small town just 20km east of Bremen, inside a grain field. Accidentally, I found a geocache there, too. On the way back I practiced following cycle path signs. ;)

According to DCP, 53°N, 9°E has been visited a couple of times. I plan to attempt a couple of first-time confluence visits during my upcoming summer trip, though.

Trip: Day Trips | Country: Germany | 1 Comment

Ollerup – Flensburg

Posted on May 2, 2011 by todd

A few days ago, Freja and Andreas had suggested to go to Jutland (the mainland part of Denmark) via the islands south of Fyn instead of Fyn itself. Since I hadn’t found a couch to surf in either Kolding or Vejle, and since I’d thought about cutting the trip a bit short for various other reasons anyway, I’d decided to go for that island-hopping route.

Had breakfast with Helle and Louise and chatted with ’em for a bit too long so that I missed the ferry that would bring me from Svendborg to Ærø. Instead, Louise gave me a brief tour of their school.

I then changed the plans for the remainder of the tour entirely. Took a ferry from Bøjden to the island of Als, had a look at beautiful Sønderborg, cycled along the northern shore of the Flensburg Fjord, and crossed into Germany at border stone No. 1 of the German-Danish border.

On the last stretch before the border my router (openrouteservice.org) had a little easter egg for me: uncompacted gravel up a steep hill that was impossible to climb on my bike. I had to push it for the second and last time.

Cycled into Flensburg from where I took a train back home.

Crossing into Germany

Trip: Going Home via Denmark | Country: Denmark, Germany | Comments Off

Næstved – Ollerup

Posted on May 1, 2011 by todd

Left Anders’ place around quarter past ten, with approx. 140 kilometers of cycling ahead, the longest stretch of this trip. From Næstved I went south to Vordingborg, where I crossed to the island of Falster over the Storstrøm Bridge, then on to Nykøbing, where the only crossing to Lolland exists that can be cycled.

The weather was still beautiful and so far the wind has been a good friend, too, blowing from northish directions. In Nykøbing my direction of travel changed to west and it got even worse in the town of Maribo from where I was headed north-westish.

Near Nakskov I got lost for a few minutes when I followed the cycle route signs leading to Tårs port (where the ferry to Langeland leaves) instead of my map. When I finally arrived at the port, I saw the ferry close its hatches and the friendly lady at the ticket counter noted dryly that I could now relax for an hour.

Reached Ollerup, near Svendborg, at half past 7pm where I met Helle and her friends/housemates, my CS hosts for the night. They’re a bunch of most lovely people and I felt welcome and at home instantly. Went dumpster diving with the girls after a tasty dinner.