Friday, July 26, 2002,
There is a heavy fog hanging around the area when I wake up at seven. Time for a nice hot shower so I go to the sportshall
where the showers in the dressing rooms can be used. Freshly showered and with my teeth brushed, I go back to my tent.
Andre and Helene, who's tent is right in front of mine, are just having breakfast and invite me to join them. They have
coffee so I gladly accept the invitation ;-) That is one of the nice things about bike clubs and treffens, to meet nice
people and do things together.
My plan was to go for a long ride on the mainland of Danmark but with the heavy fog I decide to stay on the treffen area for
a while and join the organized touer to Odensa later on in the morning.
Ready to go to Odensa
Andre and Helene on their red GL1500 and I on the 1200 decide to ride together and with a group of about fourty GoldWings we
drive to Odensa. Unfortunately with a group of fourty bikes, a town center is not the best place to go touring so shortly after
we enter Odensa, the group gets seperated in two or three groups. With the first part of the group we cross the center of Odensa,
past the trainstation and into the harbour area past some big ships. We stop at a local tourist attraction, the smallest ferryboat
of Danmark. For us, Dutch people is was not spectaculair because this type of ferry is very common in Holland as "bicycle" ferry
but for other people it may be interesting.
Waiting for the rest of the group
Finaly, the rest of the group arives and we go back into Odensa to look at the house of the fairytale story writer Hans
Christian Andersen. We park the GoldWings on a square in town and walk to the narrow street with nice small and colorfull
houses. It looks like a street from a fairytale  .
All the Wings parked on the square
The street where Hans Christian Andersen lived
When I walk past the house of Hans Christian Andersen, I meet someone from my home town who is also at the treffen. It's
a small world!
After looking around and buying souvenirs, it's time to ride again. With the whole big group we go back into town. Not a
good idea! The group was blocking the traffic while waiting at green lights for parts of the group to join again and when
we finaly had to stop in the middle of a big junction, Andre and I decide we would be safer to drive alone so we left the
tour to find our own way. Together with a Winger from Switzerland we drove back to Vissenbjerg.
Finaly the weather was getting a lot better. The fog was gone and the sun was shining so after returning to Vissenbjerg
we wanted to see something of Danmark so we went for our own tour. In Danmark the tourist board has developed a 1800 kilometer
long route, marked with signposts with a flower on it on some of the most beautifull roads of Danmark. We drove a small part
of this route in the Southwest of Fyn. Because I wanted to have a picture of the big bridge from the mainland to Fyn we stoped
a few times along the coastline.
On time we had a strange experience. We parked next to a car, with a Dutch license plate, said good afternoon to the people in
the car and walked to a small pier into the sea. While we where walking to the pier, the children that where playing in the sea
where called back into the car and they left in a hurry. They even left some clothing and shoes in the sand ????? Strange people!
on the small pier, looking at the bikes on shore
The villages in Danmark are very pretty too. The small houses are all painted in different colours and the churches are mainly
white with a low but wide churchtower and a red tiled roof. The landscape is green with a lot of hills and nice winding roads.
The population is a lot less dense then it is in the Netherlands and that shows. It is very quiet on the roads.
The next time we stop it is again by the seaside. There is a picknick table so we sit down and have a soda before we drive on
to Middelfart. Middelfart is a village next to the bridgehead of the bridge to the mainland. In Middelfart, we stop at a parking
with a view on the big bridge.
The bridge at Middelfart
We are getting hungry and would like to go to a McDonalds but don't know where to find it when a car stops next to our bikes.
Four people, carrying McDonald bags are getting out of the car so I ask them where we can find the local McDonalds. It is not
far from were we are, at the bridgehead of the bridge, on top of the hill at a roundabout on the first highway exit after
the bridge.
We park the GoldWings and go inside for a little tasty junkfood ;-) I have a Milkshake, a McSalad and a cheeseburger. Mmmmmm.
Just when we are leaving, a group of ten trikes passes by on the road next to the parking. Nice!
The bridge is right behind the McDonald
We follow road 161 in the direction of Vissenbjerg until we see a nice small road, somewhere halfway Vissenbjerg. We make
a small detour on this narrow road past a ostrichfarm and after a while we return on the 161. We want to fill
our gastanks for tomorrow but unfortunately all gasstations we pass are clossed so we'll have to get gas tomorrowmorning.
We do go to the bakery shop to get some bread for breakfast tomorrow and I get some cake for the coffee this afternoon.
When we're back at the treffen site we have a coffee with cake and walk around for a while. There are some beautifull bikes
on the treffen, Full dressers, trikes, sidecars with two wheels etc.
When we are near our tents, we see a camera crew from Danish television interviewing people and taking shots while sitting
as a passenger in a sidecar.
When it is time for the official opening of the treffen, we go to the big tent. Unfortunately the opening is mainly in Danish
so it is hard for us Dutch people to understand but we have a good time anyway.
In the big party tent
This evening there is a light parade on the parking in front of the entrance of the treffen area, with GoldWings dressed as
Christmas trees :-) It is a nice sight but two of the ten bikes need to be jumpstarted after the parade because of
an empty battery!
The light parade.
The rest of the evening, a life band is playing good music so we have a few drinks and hang around for a while until we go back
to our tents. When I lay in my sleeping bag in my tent I can still enjoy the band but I like the music so that's OK.
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