Tag Archives: cycling

Planning a bike trip to Ærø

Spring is here and soon it will be more comfortable to enjoy the outdoors more again.

Ærø is a tiny island, around a 3rd of the size of Als, which is part of the South Funen archipelago of islands. It is well connected to Als via a ferry leaving from Fynshav 2-3 times a day. Also, once you get there, due to its small size, it is easily manageable by bike or even on foot (especially with the help of the free bus service). But how would you plan your trip?

Skjoldnæs Fyr, Ærø

Last year we went there for a two day stay. These are two route suggestions based on our trip depending on the time you have. For other routes read the last section.

One day on Ærø (cycle 16km or 36km)

Taking the early ferry at 7:45 ferry from Fynshav (every day except Sundays and public holidays), arriving in Søby, in the north of Ærø at 8:55, means that you can get a decent amount done in one day.

The route is 16km from Søby to Ærøskøbing and if you loop back on the bike it is 36km. If 16km is enough for one day you can take the bus back to Søby.

If you are doing the trip with turist-erria (as we did), grab the picnic lunch from Cafe Arthur just next to the ferry and get on your way.

From Søby cycle down cycle route 90 to Ærøskøbing along the east coast, getting great vistas over the Danish Baltic seas and the Ærø countryside. This is around 16 km and should take 1-2 hours at a leisurely but reasonable speed.

Once in Ærøskøbing park your bike and have a walk around town, to enjoy the town landscape kept intact since the middle ages. Grab lunch here in the centre of town – we had a really good lunch at På Torvet right in the centre of town. If you are not yet hungry (or you’ve had the picnic lunch) but want something sweet, ice-cream from På Torvet or Cafe Aroma by the harbour will probably hit the spot.

After a quiet lunch/snack and a walk around the town, get back on your bike and cycle the 10-15 km to Marstal along cycle route 92. This route is much flatter than route 90 and although around half of it is on gravel road, most of that is really nice to cycle on. Once in Marstal, if you have time, drop in at the Marstal Maritime Museum close to the harbour or, alternatively into Marstal church, which has votive ship models attached to the ceiling.

By now it is probably time to start thinking of getting back to the ferry. The best option to get the most out of your time is to take the bus at 16:08 from the Marstal harbour, arriving in Søby at 17:00, just in time for the ferry at 17:10. If you are using bikes do be aware that the bus will only take 2 bikes on each trip. You are now back in Søby, ready for a restful trip back to Fynshav after a very busy day.

Two days on Ærø

Two days on Ærø will allow you to experience the island at the more relaxed pace the island is probably meant to be experienced. It will also allow you to walk rather than cycle if that is the way you want to unwind.

If on bikes, start the trip as you would a one day trip, cycling from Søby to Ærøskøbing, stopping at pretty locations along the way for a rest, a picnic, or a quick look around the various shops and stalls set up along the way. Once in Ærøskøbing, rather than quickly rushing off to Marstal, we would recommend spending the night in Ærøskøbing, which is the prettier of the two. By now you are probably in need of a well-deserved break, so have a drink and a leisurely lunch, before checking in to your accommodation. We stayed at the holiday accommodation offered by På Torvet in the centre of Ærøskøbing.

Cozy cafe "På Torvet"

Once you’ve had a rest go on an amble around town to get your orientation and learn more about the town. We used the plan as set out in the book Byens Rundt, which took us round most of the streets with information on what we were seeing. If reading all the book and seeing all the sights this will take around 2 -3 hrs, especially if you get distracted by all the shops selling pretty items in town. If it is good weather you can also go for a swim in the beach off Vestre Strandvej. It was May when we went, but we still braved the ‘fresh’ experience!

For dinner you have a number of options. One of the options is to have dinner in one of the restaurants in town. Alternatively, you can do what we did on the recommendation of Gunnar, the owner of På Torvet accommodation, and grab a bottle of wine and a picnic and go see the sunset on the beach next to the beach houses before collapsing into bed for the night.

The next morning buy some rundstykke (Danish rolls) and pastries from the baker in town. Continue as in the plan for the afternoon of a one day trip, with a cycle to Marstal, which should take around 1 hour. During the trip you can make a short detour at one point to see a stone age Jættestuen (burial mound), which we would recommend just for the experience.

Once in Marstal you have the time to properly check out the museum, before having lunch. We had lunch in town, but for our next trip we have our eye on Fru Berg, a fish restuarant on the harbour.

After lunch, grab a bus back up to Søby harbour, even though it is still a while till the ferry is meant to leave. From Søby cycle up to Skjøldnæs lighthouse, which is around a 5 km trip. This is the first thing you see on the ferry when approaching Ærø from Als, so is a fitting way to finish your trip. Once there you can go up to the top to see the views all around. The lighthouse is in a golf club and, if lucky, you may be able to buy an ice-cream or coffee from the club house.

Cycle back to Søby where you can grab a hotdog or ice-cream at Cafe Arthur if you haven’t managed to buy one at the lighthouse and enjoy the last few minutes of relaxation before the ferry arrives.

Our trip to Ærø was sponsored by Ærø turist (ferry ticket), turist-erria (picnic pack and books on Ærø) and På Torvet (accommodation and lunch).

Sønderborg Cycle Club is evil

The local road cycle club Sønderborg Cykel Klub (SCK) recently released a promotional video for the club and road cycling. The video is imitating a movie trailer with a deep voiced speaker and declarations like “The best bicycle club in the world”, “We are evil” and “We taler dansk”.

SCK offers cycling and competitive cycling for people of all ages (from 9 years old and up). The club’s aim is to create a team spirit and show that you can have fun while doing a competitive sport.

If you are interested you can join the weekly team training. If you are interested send an email to the chairman so he can let the trainers of the day know that a newcomer is joining. You can train with the club for while to try it out before you become a paying member. There is no requirement of being in a particular state of fitness in order to join, for instance can adults start training with the young adults in the beginning.

The club has some borrow-bicycles that people interested in the sport can borrow. Primarily the bikes are in sizes for 9-17 olds. In order to borrow a bike you need to pay a deposit and the worn parts (breaks, tires etc. need to be replaced).

To become a member sign up here.

The Sønderborg based production company Zoom Film is behind the film and it looks like parts of it is shot with a drone around Dybbøl Mølle and some parts on Kær Halvø.

A cycling holiday on the island of Ærø

Denmark has more than a thousand islands but the neighboring island of Ærø in the the South Funen Archipelago is something special. For a long time we have had our eyes on making a trip over here and looking back I don’t know what took us so long to make the short trip to this pocket of charm. We spent two days in Ærø and this is the story of what we did.

Off to the bicycle island

We put our bikes on the back of the car and drove to the ferry in Fynshav, the port of the east coast of Als. We left our car behind and brought our bikes on the ferry.

There is always room for bikes on the ferry to Ærø

If you are not bringing your own you can rent a bicycle so it’s waiting for you when you arrive to Ærø by ferry.

Bike or hike

The island of Ærø is best experienced on foot, by bike or by the free public busses. Bringing a car on the ferry is relatively expensive so a lot of tourists choose to come here by other means. That also means that once you hit the roads in Ærø you meet very few cars on the secondary roads.

The tour operator Tourist Erria organises a package deal similar to what we got – so everything is sorted from home. The one-day package they sell included ferry, bike rental and a picnic for the road. So all you have to do is show up, cycle and enjoy it.

The ferry from Als to Ærø
Skjoldnæs Fyr, Ærø

From the ferry the first sight we got of Ærø was of the the Skjoldnæs lighthouse as we rounded the nothern tip of the island.

When we arrived in Søby on the northern tip of Ærø we walked over to the harbour cafe where Kaj, one of the local men hanging out on the pier, was helping out the cafe’s owner and giving us our packed lunches.

Kaj bid us a safe journey and off we went on the road following the marked bike route.

Route 90 Østersøruten on Ærø

There are three signed bike routes on Ærø that are easy to follow. Route 90 (16km) goes from Søby to Ærøskøbing, route 92 from Ærøskøbing to Marstal (13km) and route 91 from Marstal back to Søby (31km). There is no online version available of these routes but a paper map can be bought on the island.

route_90-91-92_aeroeskoebing-soeby-marstal

You can buy also buy a PDF version of a cycle guide books with turn by turn descriptions of five bike loops of various lengths here. (In Danish there are two books available)

Enjoying the view

On our trip from Søby to Ærøskøbing we had varied scenery. There was almost always the view of the sea to one side. On the other side there were cute houses, an old water mill, art galleries and a valley with cows grazing.

The road was mostly paved but there were a few sections with gravel road. There was some hills and dents in the landscape that meant that a few times we had to get off the bikes to walk them up the hill. But none of the hills are long and once you are on the top it has to go downhill again – weee!

After about 45 mins of cycling we got too curious about the content of the packed lunches and we settled down in the grass outside a small gallery with view over the fields and the water.

The packed lunch from Cafe Arthur was two delicious sandwiches that really hit the spot.

Onwards and upwards we went and after another stretch of about 45 min we reached Ærøskøbing.

Going back in time

Many of the houses in central Ærøskøbing date back to the Middle Ages. The small one-story houses in a wide variety of colours ooze character. If walls could speak I bet this town would tell you many tales.

We cycled into the center of Ærøskøbing and settled down on the town square outside a cozy cafe called “På Torvet” for a well deserved break and a beer from the island’s brewery.

Cozy cafe "På Torvet"

We met Gunnar the owner of the cafe who told us about how him and his wife had fallen in love with the island and recently started the cafe/apartment rental business. Just behind the cafe they have a number of newly remodeled apartments and one of these was going to be our home for the night. The apartment was bright and spacious with a big bathroom and a fully equipped kitchen so we could cater for ourselves. Here’s a wobbly 360 of our room:

paatorvet 360

We dropped off our luggage in the apartment and went down to get lunch. The lunch for me was a delicious assorted plate which had some interesting things like garlic-herring, broccoli muffins and brie with fig jam – nomnom!

Frokost platte fra "På Torvet" i Ærøskøbing

After lunch we were ready to go out and explore more of Ærøskøbing – and there are many nooks and crannies, quirky shops and museums to explore.



Hammerichs Hus, Ærøskøbing


For the evening Gunnar had given us a hint. Go to the beach outside of town, bring a bottle of wine and some snacks, take a seat next to the beautiful boat houses and watch the sunset. It sounded like a great idea so that was how we ended the day, watching the sun sink into the South Funen sea.

Maritime Memories

Next day we cycled over to the next town, Marstal, the biggest on the island. We came across signs for a “Jættestue” and decided to check out what it was.

Around the island there are a number of ancient burial mounds, some of them dates back to the stone ages. The one we came across – “Kragnæs jættestue” is from around 3200 B.C. and was a chamber built in stone covered in a mound. It was used as a burial site used for many generations by the upper layers of society.

If you are like me and interested in sail boats and their history the Maritime Museum in Marstal is the place to see. Marstal was for a long time a big player on the worlds oceans as the artifacts and stories can tell in this museum. There are dozens if not hundreds of model ships of different ages and proportions, all either built on Ærø or sailed by Ærø people.

On the pier of Marstal the maritime theme continues in the cozy fish restaurant Fru Berg.

We felt we had cycled enough so after lunch we grabbed a free bus back up to Søby harbour, even though it was still a while till the ferry was meant to leave.

You can bring your bicycle on the bus – also for free. However do take note that there is only room for two bikes on each bus, so if you are on the island in a busy time you need some luck to get this to work out.

From Søby we cycled up to Skjoldnæs Lighthouse, which is around a 5 km trip. This was the first thing we saw on the ferry when approaching Ærø from Als, so is was fitting way to finish our trip.

You can go to the top of the lighthouse and see the grand views all around. The lighthouse is in a golf club and, if lucky, you may be able to buy an ice-cream or coffee from the club house.

Udsigt Skjoldnæs Fyr

We set our wheels in direction of Søby for the last strech. However, we had to make one more stop as in the middle of nowhere stood a shiny golden cow in a field. We stopped to check it out and we came across a beautiful sculpture garden on the other side of the road belonging to a skilled stone mason.


Back at the harbour in Søby we had time for a last ice cream. Our little island adventure was about to come to an end. Soon the ferry arrived, opened it’s mouth and swallowed us with our bikes. It dropped us off back in reality on Als – refreshed but with slightly sore behinds.

Learn more

The American travel journalist and tour operator Rick Steves that hosts travel shows on public TV and radio in USA has a tour of the best in Scandinavia and the Danish section visits Copenhagen, Roskilde – and tiny Ærø. Read or see more of Rick on Ærø.

If you want to get some of the island history before you go to Ærø do pick up Carsten Jensen’s novel We, The Drowned.

If you can read Danish there is an excellent book by Allan Harsbo called Ærø Bogen which in great detail and with humour tells about the geology, nature, history and culture of Ærø and its inhabitants.

The island is a bit challenged by its name with the Danish characters. Which means there are several ways to write Ærø in English. The official website calls it “Visit Aeroe“. But you can also find people refer to it as Aero or Erria.

Disclaimer: Our trip to Ærø was sponsored by Ærø turist (ferry ticket), turist-erria (picnic pack and books on Ærø) and På Torvet (accommodation and lunch).

World Class Sport in Sonderborg

This past week has offered a super bonanza of top notch sort to visitors and residents of Sonderborg.

U19 European Handball Championship (Women)

Denmark is a country crazy about handball. In fact, this tournament has been won 3 times out of the 17 it has been organised by the Danish team. Therefore, Denmark, specifically Sonderborg & Kolding, was considered a fitting location for the 2013 edition.

The tournament started last Thursday (1st of August). At a cost of 50 DKK for a whole day of games, popping in to see a couple of goals from the European stars of the future is well worth it! Games in Sonderborg end on the 10th of August with the 16-10th placement games. When we visited there was quite a lot of space available, so just drop in and enjoy the atmosphere and the playmanship.

World Championship – Europe class Sailing

Considering the lovely weather we have been having, enjoying the outdoors may be of interest. In that case, Sonderborg has been hosting the world championships for the Europe class dinghy since the 29th of July. The boats leave from the Sonderborg marina, from where you can watch the sailors in action out on the water.

As with the handball championship, this championship will come to an end next weekend, with the final races occurring on Saturday 10th August.

Post Danmark Rundt

Post Danmark rundt is a Danish stage race for professional bicycle racers. Followed by around half of Danes, this is a well-known race that hits the spot in this cycling crazy country. This year, 2nd stage ended and the 3rd stage started in Sonderborg.

We went along to watch the finish of the second stage. The race ended by 3 circuits into Sonderborg, up over the bridge and towards Dybbol Molle. This meant that as spectators we got to see the riders pass by four times. This – together with spotting Mark Cavendish – made the wait well worth it!

The six stages of the race came to an end today in Frederiksberg. Mark Cavendish did win this last leg, but the overall winner was Wilco Kelderman.

Gendarm Path: Around ‘Broager Land’

The Gendarm Path (Gendarmstien) is an 74km long route that follows the coastal border between Denmark and Germany. We plan on walking, running and cycling the path in chunks. This blog post covers the length from Sønderborg via Vemmingbund around the peninsula of Broager Land and back to Sønderborg.

My parents had rented a summer cottage in Vemmingbund 8km from Sonderborg so early on the Sunday me and a friend jumped on our mountainbikes and cycled towards Vemmingbund to meet my dad at the cottage. The path from Sonderborg to Vemmingbund is easy to cover on a mountainbike without being too difficult. It took us about half an hour to cycle that leg.

Setting off on Gendarm Path

From Vemmingbund the first section is tarmac road as there is a section of The Gendarm Path not right on the water here. Then you turn left towards the water going through Gammelmark Strand camp ground before you make it to the water. This is the first difficult section as you have a bit of beach, a narrow path and a steep set of stairs to climb.

Camera Roll-466

Once you’ve carried up the bike the hill continues so onwards and upwards!

Camera Roll-464

As you go along here getting up on the hill you get magnificent views of the area. However I was lagging behind at this point so there is no photos to show you the great view.
We continued up and down steep hills until at the top of the last hill before we made it to Broager Strand camp ground.

Camera Roll-469

Here Jan got a flat tire so while him and my dad changed inner tube I could take some photos. I attempted to do a 360 Photsynth image from here but unfortunately it turned out a bit dark:

With a new inner tube in place we could continue down the slope and onto tarmac again. Again we had a short detour inland before going back down to the water and through the forrest called Kobbelskov. After Kobbelskov we got all the way down to the water with a section of the path on the beach with fairly big stones. Not an easy place to cycle but interesting challenge as long as it was not for too long.

We continued until we reached a parking lot and took bearings of the situation. The path we just came from can be seen behind Jan. He looks concerned about the beach section coming up.

Camera Roll-471

From here on around the bend of the peninsula the Gendarm Path follows the beach with soft sand, medium and big stones and sections where you have to climb over big rocks. Not easy with a bike so we opted for the easier route inland again until we were past the wind mills. Here’s the beach path we did not follow.

Camera Roll-474

At Skeldemark we went back down to the water again and now we got a short section riding right on the beach with fairly even sized stones so it was doable to stay on the bike and keep moving forward.

Camera Roll-475

At a point on the beach the Gendarm Path took a turn to the right across a field. The inhabitants of the field didn’t seem too fussed about three guys in bright lycra outfits so we opened the gate, got our bikes in, and closed the gate again. We gave the cows a wave but they were not really interested in us as we rode across their field.

Camera Roll-480

We followed the Gendarm path inland to Gammelgab (Literally translates to ‘Old Yawn’) which looked more cozy than the name implies.

We went back down to the water for another patch of beach and gravel road riding through the courtyard of a farm and then across another cow field before we made it to Brunsnæs.

From here it was an easy drive to Broager with a single hill that was too steep for any of us to drive up.

In Broager we left the Gendarm Path and turned eastwards towards my parents rented cottage in Vemmingbund. Here we left my dad and Jan and I continued home to Sønderborg.

Route stats

  • 3 and a half hours excluding breaks
  • From Sønderborg and back was 50km
  • 370 elevation meters
  • See and download the route from Gpises or Endomondo.

The route is really great. I was amazed at the scenery and bike challenges I have on the door step here. As a mountainbike route it is really challenging with the various surfaces and hills.
This section is great for doing on foot without too big a load or on mountain bike. Other types of bikes will probably have problems.

Gendarme path sonderborg

Hike or Bike the Gendarm Path

The Gendarm path, known as Gendarmstien in Danish, is the former border guard patrol path between Denmark and Germany. It was in use from 1920 until 1958, where each gendarm (or border guard) had a specific section of the coastline to patrol. They would walk along the water as best they could and thereby created a small walking path.

By Bent Rasmussen
Picture by Bent Rasmussen – used with permission

The Gendarm path is one of Denmark’s best know and popular walking routes and follows a very scenic landscape along the coast of Flensborg Fjord. The full length of the path is 74km from Padborg in west to Høruphav on South Als.

Gendarm Path Sonderborg

Trekking the 74km s not something we planned to do at one go, especially in our unfit state! However, walking the path is a good way of enjoying and experiencing the natural beauty of the area. So our aim is to get through all the path in smaller chunks.

This is our progress so far. We will add more as we cover more of the path:

  • Sonderborg – Horuphav: Hiked on 23rd September 2012. Easy path through open fields and forest, with views over Flensburg fjord. You can walk closer to water, but if you follow the marked path this does not happen much. Buses running from Sonderborg to Fynshav or Kegnaes and back stop close to the start of the Gendarmstien in Horuphav, making it a pleasant Sunday trek on a nice day without having to backtrack.
  • Sonderborg – Vemmingbund: Biked on 23rd July 2012. Beautiful views along the water’s edge. If you are not much into hills, the path along the water is easily manageable (from someone who abhors cycling up hills with a passion) and you can walk up the hills if you prefer. However, if hills are your thing you can knock yourself out on the various side paths. Perfect on a warm summer day as the sea breeze keeps you cool
  • Looping Broager Land peninsula: A mountain bike ride with lots of different vistas and road conditions, through forests, over beaches and fields.

If you are interested in following the trail yourself, the tourist centres in the area have developed a leaflet with maps of the path divided into 10 manageable chunks. The leaflet is only in Danish or German, but a map is a map so you should be able to find your way around. The path is also well marked on the ground with small wooden poles with a blue border guard on them.

Gendarme path sonderborg

Bike on Motorway: Sonderborg - Kliplev

Bike Ride on the Motorway

We have previously written about the running race on the motorway but now the bike race has also been announced.

Bike on Motorway: Sonderborg - Kliplev

Photo:

Sunday March 25th 2012 you have the chance to either cycle or walk on the motorway. There is a couple of different options.

  • For ‘the exercisers’ there is a cycle race with one or two loops on the motorway so either 48km or 96km. Price 100DKK
  • For families there is the option to cycle as far as you want. You cycle to a motorway exit of your choice and turn around. Price 50DKK
  • For walkers you can also walk as far as you want to an motorway exit of your choice and turn around. You will be walking in the emergency lane and dogs are not allowed. Price 40DKK Adult, Price 30DKK kids

Sønderborg Y’s Men Club will sell food and drinks in the start up area. For those who cycle it to the other end of the motorway by Kliplev there will be a tent with refreshments.

Signup is done by sending an email to motorvejslobet@cms-soenderborg.dk with names, addresses and age and you will get an email back with where to send the money.

Read more on Sonderborg Cycle Clubs website.