Down On The Farm - Tuesday July 20, 2010

Down On The Farm - Tuesday July 20, 2010


It was back to Denmark to bike today along the marked trail that criss-crosses the German/Denmark border - probably our last opportunity. It is only about 5 km north of “home” here in Klixbull.
We parked the Twingo, unloaded the bikes and headed east for about 5 km back through the farmland. Farmers with large tractors and huge wagons were on the back roads carrying loads of hay and chopped wheat back to the barns storage. Storage in Denmark is mostly above ground on large piles, packed down with tractor wheels and covered with black plactic - held down in place by old rubber tires placed edge to edge. It is only here that we see almost ripened wheat being chopped off for feed similar to as we used to chop corn with a forage harvester and blow it up into the silo except their silo is a mound about 10 feet high x 30 feet wide on the ground. The wheat at that stage must have the high protein for cattle feed needed during the winter months - not only winter months though - the cows are in the barn most all the time in the large dairy operations. It is very dry in places and many farmers are irrigating their corn and hay fields. We saw big fields of potatoes being irrigated along the way as well.
While riding along through Denmark we saw a farm sign with the farm name “Jersey Canada”. On the way back 2 fellows were out beside the barn so we wheeled in curious to know what was the Canada connection. The younger - about 25 years old - said that he worked on a farm in Alberta for 2 years and learned genetics and they are building a similar herd there in Denmark. He spoke English very well and when I told him such he just smiled and told me about his Alberta work story. I asked him if I could take a picture of the sign and he said to take all the pictures that I wanted. We lingered a while for a rest there in the shade by their driveway and took several more pictures of their operation.
Later we rode into the larger Danish town of Tonder and were soon in the middle of a market/sidewalk sale. It appears they have it every day since there were bus loads of tourists there to buy their wares - everything from vegetables to jewelry to clothes. FYI, Fran, I even had the chance to buy one of those delicious raw fish sandwiches but declined since we had our own lunches. We spent close to 2 hours there walking the cobbled - car - free streets. Near the end of our time there, the Knights went through town and followers were handing out leaflets about an upcoming event we assume. After riding about 14 km we headed back to the car and took the long way home along the border - farmer everywhere were busy taking advantage of the nice windy and sunny weather.
Danish roads signs are white with red letters an only a couple feet off the ground - they must not get a lot of snow accumulating or the drivers could not find their way. Perhaps it melts as soon as it hits the ground.

Daytona Beach Move Over - Sunday July 18, 2010

Daytona Beach Move Over - Sunday July 18, 2010

Today we decided to drive into Denmark, a distance of only 5 km to the border. No border check point or inspection booth - the border was simply a few flags along the highway and we were in. The landscape is flat, flat, flat with more wheat fields and sheep and cattle than we could have imagined - again like the Canadian prairies. The nearest city inside the border is Tonder just off the highway but we wanted to visit the island of Romo, another 25 km approx. to the north west and just off the coast. Unlike Sylt, it is connected though to the mainland by a vehicle causeway that is about 10 km long. Once on the island we saw a sign for internet café so we took advantage of 15 min. of time there to check our e-mails from home. The island is about 25 km long and 12 km wide. We drove south along the mainland side as far as possible then turned west to the ocean side. As we approached the west side we could see in the distance what appeared to be another dyke to hold the ocean back. As we drove up onto the top we could hardly believe our eyes. On the other side was a very wide sandy beach with small patches of water scattered throughout. What was more surprising was that cars, campers, motorcycles and bicyclers were driving up and down the beach much like we did years ago in Daytona Beach but there the strip was maybe 4 cars wide max. It was obvious that the tide had gone out several hours earlier leaving a smooth solid driving surface. The beach stretched all the way across to another island 3 - 4 km away. Many vehicles were driving across to the second island and it appeared some were wind surfing over there with 3 wheeled buggy type contraptions with rubber tired wheels. Many of these contraptions were mounted vertically on the back of the car on the trailer hitch - these were actual manufactured 3 wheeled wind sail buggies. No we did not rent one to try it out. We decided not to drive across (Jean would not let me for fear we would sink) but instead rode our bikes up and down the beach roadway for a short distance. The wind was very strong and it was tough going but coming back was easier. Cars were driving north along the sandy beach so we decided to see how far we could go. After driving probably 10 km the wide beach began to be lined with many more cars and campers especially out close to the waters edge. In places the beach was at least a km wide out to the water - smooth and solid sand. Cars were criss-crossing in every direction. We never did see the end of it. At one point we saw many cars heading away from the beach and it turned out to be the road to the internet café where we had been earlier. We then drove the road to the north end of the island as it was only a couple km further.
Once off the island we stuck to shoreline back roads and saw some very interesting farms and scenery through the Danish countryside and little towns.
After trying many locations for internet hot spots back in Niebull, we finally found a very weak one and were able to catch up on several blogs but it was too weak to upload photos so will have to add those tomorrow at the library hopefully.
After supper we headed out on the bikes for a ride to Bosbull about 6 km away. According to the little odometer on my bike, we have biked over 475 km so far in Europe.