Distance: 7.80km (no GPS)

We cycled a few kilometres to the train station in the morning, rolling our loaded bikes straight onto the train and enjoying a smooth four-hour journey all the way back to Copenhagen.

We dropped the bicycles back at the rental store, and met up with Elana’s cousin for a visit to one of her family’s favourite pubs in the world, Floss! This was a proper old-school, punk bar with graffiti and stickers covering every inch of wall, fantastic rock music in the background and the ubiquitous grungy toilet!

Floss!
Elana enjoying a beer at Floss
The grungy, graffiti-covered jacks

We spent the next few days hanging out with Elana’s family in Copenhagen, having been kindly put up by them for our time here.

In between we did some sightseeing, visiting the Little Mermaid, Amalienborg Palace and Christiania, a fascinating commune with its own laws and flags.

Some of the interesting architecture in the lovely suburb of Nordhavn
The Little Mermaid
Amalienborg Palace
Standing guard outside Amalienborg Palace
Frederiks Kirke, an 18th-centure Lutheran church with the largest dome in Scandinavia
Entering Christiania
Elana in Christiania
Photography is frowned upon within Christiania as there is a lot of open drug selling and use. This was the only photo we took inside, trying to capture the unique houses and shelters here while not capturing any people in them

We ended up really enjoying our time spent with Elana’s family in Copenhagen, as well as all the sight-seeing in between. Before long though it was time to board our flight back to Dublin. Little did we know this would be our last cycle trip for a very long time with Covid being just around the corner. Looking back, we were really glad we did this trip when we did. Sweden and Denmark couldn’t have made for a more peaceful introduction to cycle touring, and I would highly recommend this region for someone who wants to dip a toe into this way of travel.

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