Denmark

• Denmark seems to be created for cycling:
  • The bike road system is magnificent, for longer distances the best are the national roads, which we used most often (on the photo it's the road marked with a '6' on the red background).
  • Drivers respect bikers much more than in any other country we had an opportunity to cycle. They give way to bikers wherever it's possible, even there where cars normally don't have priority. And what's even more striking, they wait to give way if only they see a biker (even when a biker is still 200 m away)
  • In case of emergency, one can take a bike to most of the means of public transport
  • Helmets are not obligatory, in spite what we thought, but we strongly recommend using this invention.
  • If there is a need to repair a bike, in Denmark it's relatively easy, there are shops and service points nearly everywhere, however open only Monday to Friday.
  
• Denmark is a very safe country. Starting from a certain moment we stopped locking our bikes. They were left with all our possessions while we were shopping or sightseeing. An excellent example of the Danish safety is provided by the micro-shops situated in front of many countryside houses. Self-service includes not only choosing the goods one intends to buy but also paying!
• Although we never used any organised form of spending a night (to be honest, we didn't spend anything for it) we never had any trouble. Nobody attacked us. Not even disturbed. And the Danes we met seemed rather friendly and frank.
• It's good to go shopping in the network of NETTO shops and obviously ALDI. The latter, maybe because of the general economies, don't accept payments with Visa cards. Therefore it's always good to have some cash with you.
• In general there were no problems with paying with a Visa card. One can buy even the ferry tickets with it, however only the more expensive ones, for the longer trips.
• Tasty and nutritious prison bread (in 1,6 kg loaves, green or blue versions) can be bought in a network of Brugsen shops (Lokal Brugsen, Dagli Brugsen i Super Brugsen)
• One can hardly ever find shops open on Sunday. Moreover Sunday is the day when many tourist information offices and monuments are closed as well. It's worth making enough of provisions (including local maps) on Saturday at the latest and even that rather in the morning.
• Blue is used to mark nearly everything in Denmark, including the bike roads of various categories. This may often lead to painful deceptions.

• The weather in the end of August and in the beginning of September doesn't really favour cycling. It's raining nearly all the time and the wind blows right in the face most often. In our case it was like this at least during 90% of the cycling time.
• It's worth remembering that Denmark is much more a mountainous country, than it first seems to be. Although the highest natural point is nothing more than 170 metres over the sea level high, because of the glaciers that visited this country very frequently in the past, one goes always up or down the hill there. And in Denmark even down the hill is not as easy as it might seem because of the very specific winds. Sometimes, even to go down, one has to step on the pedals quite strongly.