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Over Easter, my friend Andy and
I took the ferry from Kiel to
the Danish island of Langeland
(Long Land) where we planned to
take a three day bicycle tour.
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As the name implies, Langeland is
a long narrow island (60km x 10km)
with beautiful countryside, beaches,
and rolling hills. An ideal place
for bicycle riding, although on
this particular weekend it was
hella windy.
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Another cool thing about Langeland
is the many stone-age monuments
scattered around the island. For
example this Dolmen (burial chamber).
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We spent the nights camping out,
which I have not done in a long
time. The weather was a bit cool,
but bearable.
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But Andy was pretty grumpy when he
found out that the beer we bought
was in PLASTIC bottles with pull-
tabs.
Being German, Andy thinks the only
way to drink beer properly is out
of glass bottles. He also thinks
that Americans who drink beer out
of aluminium cans are wimps.
(although he was too polite to
say so.)
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If you ever end up visiting
Langeland, be sure to bring money
with you! There are very few ATM
machines on the island.
We had no money the first night,
and we couldn't even buy something
to eat for dinner. However, the
campsite owner was kind enough to
loan us some money.
His name is Alan Halsted and he
runs the campsite in Spodsbjerg.
If you are ever there, look him
up, he's a great guy.
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One of the coolest things we saw was
the sculpture park TICKON, at the
Tranekaer Castle.
All the scuptures here are made with
natural materials and reflect an
earthy, organic sensibility.
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Andy got inspired and took this artsy
photo of one of the scupltures.
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Andy and I both agree that
this scuplture was the most
boring we saw. Sorry Karen
McCoy, but what's up with
the title "Structure for
discourse on light and shade,
No. 1" ?!?! Looks like a
duck blind to me.
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I have to admit, by the end of the
second day, my ass was killing me.
Unlike Andy, I didn't have saddlebags
but a heavy backpack instead. Plus I
had rented a bike with a harder saddle
than I was used to because my new bike
was still on order.
Anyway, I ended up sitting on a piece
of foam that I cut from my matress. It
helped a little, but not much.
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But the campsite on the second day
was really great. Right on beach,
it was almost like a tropical island.
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On the last day we had to ride back
the distance we had covered in the two
previous days. We planned it this way
because we knew we would have a tail
wind on the last day.
What we didn't plan on was TWO flat
tires! I got one and Andy got one too.
Luckily we got pretty good at repairing
them, and didn't have to make up
for lost time.
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One outstanding thing I noticed
in Denmark were the self-serve
stands by the side of the road.
These are run completely on a
trust basis, you take what you
want and put money in the jar.
Isn't that great?
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