Where are Ron and Ellen?
Summer 2002
Fåborg to Langeland, Denmark
Dear Family and Friends,
We are now in Rudkøbing, on Langelande, a very long island in Denmark. We biked here yesterday from Fåborg, fighting the east wind all 59 km of the way. We had to cross 3 bridges in the last third of the trip, the final one over the sound into Rudkøbing. We walked our bikes across the bridges, and even so, the wind was so strong that sometimes we could barely walk, particularly when an even higher velocity gust came along. We have great admiration for the several Danish bikers who passed us, riding along as if there was no wind at all. (Of course, we are riding our small-wheeled Bike Fridays, we are loaded with our full packs, and we are about 30 years older than everyone who passed us.) We agreed that we have rarely experienced such wind at all, much less tried to bicycle in it! The tourist bureau told us it was 15-17 meters/second. Our European friends will no doubt understand that, but at some point we will get out the calculator and figure out what that is in miles per hour for ourselves and our U.S. friends. We challenge our U.S. friends to figure it out -- and let us know! [Note: various friends came through with quite an assortment of ways of calculating the conversion, but the bottom line is that the steady wind was approximately 35-38 mph. The gusts, of course, were considerably higher!]
Today we are giving ourselves an easy day to recover, wandering around Rudkøbing, doing some grocery and gift shopping, buying post cards and stamps, and generally relaxing. Although we do plan to take a leisurely bike ride and do some exploring once we finish writing and sending this.
The hostels we're staying in have been quite nice, with basic similarities, but various settings and amenities. The first place, in Sonderborg, had a huge playground (there were several families with children there), and a huge common room with TV and comfortable chairs. Our room had 3 sets of bunk beds and a bath in the room. In Fåborg, the facility was smaller, our room had 2 bunk beds, a shared bath, and there was only a small outdoor space because it was in an old building right in the heart of town. Here in Rudkøbing, the hostel also has camping spots, and we have a room that is really more like a small cottage with bath, sleeping 6, with a sleeping loft and a little outside patio with table and chairs. All the hostels are very clean, very simple, but with all the basics. All have a big kitchen for use of guests, and we are doing some of our own cooking (we bought smoked mackeral and Indian rice for tonights dinner). So all in all, we are very pleased with our decision to stay in the hostels.
The biking has been wonderful (except for the wind yesterday!), and so far we have been very lucky with the clear sunny weather. The bike routes generally are off the main roads through farm country and small villages, although when they are on the main roads there is always a bike lane either on the side of the road or parallel to the road. There are lots of old half-timbered houses, some with thatched roofs. Wandering through the towns, we are intrigued with the openings into big courtyards that have lots of buildings opening off them, and sometimes another opening into another courtyard, and then another.... In Fåborg, we went to the museum featuring work of regional artists. We liked the building itself almost more than the displays, with the rooms painted various different intense colors, arched doorways, and floors of varying textures in tile or inlaid wood.
Love to all,
Photos, Langeland
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Last updated: 20 July 2002