Kattegat-Tour – Day 1 – Flensburg to Sonderborg

Our alarm goes off at four in the morning. Time to get up – the train is leaving soon! After a few last-minute preparations, we strap our bags to our bikes and cycle to the local train station. The regional train pulls in on time, and before long we’re in Frankfurt, where the ICE will take us north. The train is already sitting in it's spot on the track and we have to walk the entire length of it, since the bike car is in cart 1, right at the end of the platform. We load the bikes, and shortly afterward the train starts rolling toward Hamburg.

The trip feels like it’s taking forever – we’re tired, but we can’t really fall asleep either. We’re way too excited to see what the next two weeks will bring. At most, we’ll cycle all the way around the Kattegat through Denmark and Sweden – but depending on our fitness, mood, and how we feel, we might not. We haven’t committed to anything, and this time we really haven’t planned anything specific besides the arrival and departure by train.

Shortly after 10 a.m., we arrive in Hamburg and board the regional train bound for Flensburg, bikes and all. Yet another 1.5-hour train ride, and then we’re finally off!

Once we arrive in Flensburg, it takes us a few minutes to get oriented, then we set off on our bikes through the city. From the train station, we ride through downtown straight to the Flensburger Förde. Here we ride along the harbor for a bit—it’s really beautiful, but we don’t want to linger too long since we plan to make it at least as far as Sonderborg today.

Our route now takes a detour away from the harbor, and we see the first road sign that says “Denmark.” We don’t follow it here, though. Instead, we continue along a side street, past a little park. And then, all of a sudden, the first view of the beach opens up. There we come to a public beach with restrooms – which is very convenient, since we had planned to fill up our water someplace anyway. We also use the stop to slather on plenty of sunscreen, since it’s quite a bit sunnier than we had expected.

Afterward, we continue along a nice gravel path by the coast and soon reach the spa town of Wassersleben. We cross the small town and after a turn to the right, we suddenly cross the border into Denmark quite unremarkably over a small bridge. We only notice it because a small flag is flying behind the bridge.

Once we cross the border, we follow National Cycle Route 8 for the time being. It first takes us up a hill on a steep, gravel forest path – it's not all that flat up north after all. After passing through the first few small danish villages, the route continues along a larger road. We make good time on the paved bike path, passing small villages with charming little houses one after another. Many of them are brick-clad, and some even have thatched roofs.

Every now and then, our route takes us away from the Danish Baltic Sea Route – which mostly follows along a larger road here – and instead we take little detours through the idyllic countryside and small villages. And quite a few times the route goes up and down – more hilly than we’d really imagined beforehand. Near Dybbøl we pass a war museum and a beautiful old mill, and shortly afterward we reach Sonderborg much earlier than expected. We briefly consider continuing on to the ferry terminal in Fynhav. But since we had vowed to take it slow and had also already gotten up very early today, we ultimately decide to stay in Sonderborg. 

So we check in at the campground in Sønderborg and use the time instead to explore the town a bit. We end up taking a leisurely stroll through downtown and along the marina. There, we get to watch as the bascule bridge opens to let the many small sailboats through. We listen to a concert on the other side of the river for a while and then walk back along the riverbank to the campground.