Fjords and seaweed safaris: a brand new cycle path alongside Denmark’s east coast | Denmark holidays

Our go to to Endelave, on the Kattegat Sea between Denmark and Sweden, was a detour off the nation’s different riff on “camino”, the Fjordmino. Opened final yr, the 35-mile round cycle path and (partially overlapping) 38-mile strolling route make a circuit of Horsens fjord in East Jutland.

We started within the small metropolis of Horsens. With an early begin it’s potential to get there by prepare from London in a day. We took the 7am Eurostar to Brussels, then trundled by way of Germany and throughout the border, arriving late at night time for the brief stroll by way of Horsens’ quiet streets to Jørgensen’s lodge, an 18th-century baroque mansion constructed by a rich service provider.

We quite fell for the immense outdated metropolis maps on the partitions of our big room and the frilly cornicing, that includes an orchestra’s value of golden musical devices.

Within the morning, our rent bikes have been delivered by Dennis from Cykelsmeden Odder and, after a lunch of a scrumptious melange of asparagus and different regionally grown greens at harbourside bistro Nior, we headed out of city on a roadside cycle path, searching for the Fjordmino’s frequent “route 87” waymarkers. There are just a few sections of light off-roading alongside the principally flat route, nevertheless it usually follows metalled cycle paths and really quiet roads.

Travelling clockwise (you may go both method), we quickly discovered ourselves passing peacefully by way of a tunnel of bushes on a disused railway line strewn with purple alliums and yellow loosestrife. We have been on Jutland’s east coast, not fairly midway up the peninsula, and the panorama round Horsens was all arable fields, small well-groomed villages and picket church spires. Crimson kites and buzzards patrolled the skies, leaving the water under to avocets, geese, cormorants, oystercatchers and rafts of eiders. Our solely disappointment was not recognizing the fjord’s white-tailed eagles.

Our first port of name, about 10 miles in, was a B&B referred to as Reballegård close to Søvind owned by a pair referred to as Tine and Magnus. Tine mentioned their mansion-like 150-year-old residence had belonged to her grandparents. It had additionally been a retirement residence (“As a baby,” she mentioned, “I used to roll cigarettes for the outdated folks”), a boys’ residence, a rehab centre, a psychiatric clinic and a commune. It was a wreck by the point the pair purchased it in 2022. Their work in restoring the home is “a lifelong mission” however the elements they’ve completed are immaculate. And they’re clearly happy to be welcoming company, of whom we have been among the many first. We handed a convivial night collectively, sitting in a shed making pizzas from scratch, including toppings from the couple’s kitchen backyard.

The following day, one other eight miles on, we dropped in on Lone and Søren at their Brandbygegaard winery and orchard, which is correct on the route. For 30 years they’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to make their natural enterprise as eco-friendly as potential, rewilding 90% of it.

“It took Søren seven years to dig the lake,” Lone mentioned with a chuckle. However international warming has hit them badly. They’ve 1,000 vines, however two years in the past they needed to give away all of the vegetation of 1 selection that might now not deal with Denmark’s hotter autumns. “We will solely stay optimistic in regards to the local weather,” Søren mentioned, “by making this place higher.”

We sampled certainly one of their scrumptious glowing wines and a few very moreish apple gin constituted of their very own cider and botanicals, the latter altering with every classic relying on what has harvested properly. “It’s the style of the yr in a bottle,” mentioned Søren. Unsurprisingly, their annual summer time three-week pop-up restaurant, specialising in homegrown elements, had offered out.

In fact, for those who’re going to cycle round a fjord, the time will come when you must cross its mouth. Our free vacationer workplace map of the Fjordmino route took us over a bridge on to the massive island of Alrø, from the place we caught the dinky “cycle ferry” (March-October) to a a lot smaller island, Hjarnø.

Because the writer of books on tiny islands and tiny church buildings, I used to be thrilled to have a poke round Hjarnø’s bijou place of worship (the second-smallest in Denmark) with its intricate mannequin Viking ship hanging from the ceiling.

A quick ferry journey to Snaptun accomplished the crossing of Horsens Fjord, as per the official Fjordmino route. Nevertheless, we needed so as to add an off-route bonus island, so an hour later we have been on Endelave, residence to the bunny hordes. There we spent two nights on the newly refurbished Endelave Kro – a pub with price range rooms (doubles £75 B&B) which are small however cozy – within the island’s solely village.

On our tramp across the Kanino, Birgit instructed us the rabbits’ origin story. “In 1924, some hunters ordered a few pheasants from the mainland so they might breed them and allow them to unfastened. Nevertheless, when the bundle arrived, they opened it to search out it contained two rabbits …”

Within the afternoon – below blessed blues skies finally – we took in a “seaweed safari” with Tanggården’s Bjarne Ottesen. Having climbed into huge waders, we clambered on board a powerful museum piece of a trailer that Bjarne hitched to a tractor to tug us alongside pleasant sandy tracks to the shore. As soon as we’d all waded into the ocean, he plucked numerous species of seaweed and revealed their mysteries.

“There are 350 species of seaweed in Denmark,” he mentioned, “and 50 of them are forms of bladderwrack – the most effective seaweed on this planet!” We realized about omega-6 and omega-9, amino and fatty acids, and the way bladderwrack cleverly explode their spore homes exactly three days after the primary full moon after the summer time solstice. After which, after all, we sampled a few of his spouse Mette’s succulent fried dulse – “the vegan bacon of the ocean,” Bjarne quipped – and blue potato salad with bladderwrack.

On our ultimate day, we took an early ferry again to Snaptun and cycled the previous couple of miles to Horsens, stopping for a stroll on Borre Knob, a slender peninsula with views up the fjord in direction of town. Checking again into Jørgensens lodge, we pedalled throughout city for a considerably uncommon tour.

“When the jail opened in 1853, it introduced jobs to Horsens,” our information, Anne Katrine, instructed us as she took us round Fængslet, a forbidding former jail. “Nevertheless, it additionally gave town a fame as a tough place, someplace you’ll go provided that you have been visiting a prisoner.”

She confirmed us cells the place infamous inmates had languished; cells from which courageous resistance members had escaped; and the 18-metre tunnel Carl August Lorentzen dug with a spoon in 1949, leaving a word for his guards: “The place there’s a will, there’s a method.”

For the reason that jail closed in 2006, Horsens has proven Lorentzen’s word to be true: it has sloughed off its grim fame and reworked itself into Denmark’s premier reside music location, attracting international stars reminiscent of Harry Types. That it’s now attracting cyclists too is solely an indication of the instances.

Rail journey was offered by Omio. London to Horsens return by way of Eurostar from £225. For more information go to Kystlandet.com and kystlandet.com