Catching an early morning flight makes me very anxious, and apparently catching an early morning ferry is no different. I woke up several times to check the alarm before it went off, worried that my phone would break or die or that I had set the alarm for the wrong time or not at all. Waking up on time, we cleaned out the fridge of our AirBnB for breakfast and then cycled to Rostock’s Überseehafen harbor, slightly confused by the signage but not really getting lost. As cyclists, we got to load the ferry first and then we watched all the big trucks get loaded on. At the top deck of the ferry, we saw Warnemünde’s famous lighthouse and beach and waved goodbye to Germany for the next two weeks. Finally having reached another country, we were approximately half way to Copenhagen. If you’d like to read about the first two legs of our journey on the Berlin-Copenhagen bike trail, you can check out the Brandenburg part and the Mecklenburg part.
Gedser to Ulslev (Falster)
In Gedser we unloaded from the ferry and rode through town. I very quickly decided I would love to have a Danish house and this decision was reinforced the entire time we cycled through Danish countryside. “Hygge” is the famous Danish word for “coziness” and all of the houses reflect hygge to the fullest.
At midday we took a break in Nykøbing Falster, a very adorable little town with a summer market going on. We sat on the square in front of the church and had our lunch. When we arrived at our first Danish campsite, we knew it would be expensive, but it shocked us to pay around 31 euros for one night. Little did we know that this would be one of our cheapest nights in Denmark.
Nykøbing Falster 
summer market in Nykøbing Falster
biking on Falster 
camping in Ulslev
Ulslev, Falster to Keldby, Møn
The ride out of Ulslev was one of my favorites on the whole trip. For nearly 15 kilometers we cycled through the woods at the edge of the beach. We were protected from the sun and wind by the trees. The gravel road had nearly no traffic whatsoever. And we had a view of the beach and Baltic Sea peeking through the trees most of the way.
Before I knew it, we were in Stubbekøbing. When we stopped to have a snack, a curious dog who was bored of watching his owner fishing came over to hang out with us. In town we waited for the ferry and had our first of many Danish soft ices. The small ferry was full of passengers. I was shocked to see 4 cars get off the tiny boat! Luckily for its return trip to Bogø we were just two of the five passengers, complete with four bicycles and a motorcycle.
Bogø
Bogø is a small island connected to nearby larger islands with long highway bridges. Unfortunately we needed to take a five kilometer stretch of highway and go over a two kilometer long bridge to get to the island of Møn. This section was as unpleasant as the morning in the forest was pleasant. Cars whizzed by us as we tried to stay close together crossing bridge. Just off the shore of Bogø is an even tinier island which is home to just a few cows, who appeared much more relaxed about the traffic than we were.
Møn
On Møn we were greeted by a cute white church and another pasture of cows (no wonder there can be so much ice cream in Denmark!). The rest of the day was rolling hills and farm landscapes. Once we reached Bissinge, we left the Berlin-Copenhagen trail to look for a campsite at a school near Stege mentioned in the guide book. Unfortunately, the school no longer offered camping, but had a sign forbidding campers and a robotic lawn mower which seemed to chase us off the property.
We left to head back on the trail, hoping that we would see some more campsites which were not listed in our guides. A little while later, we came across a nature camp site. Nature campsites are all around Denmark. They offer a place to stay for wanderers for free, but no running water or amenities. This one had a map of other nature sites, so we decided to venture on a little further to the next one. Having taken pictures of the map and trying to follow it exactly with the help of our other maps and phones, we had no luck in finding the second nature site. Annoyed, tired, and ready to get off my bike, I googled the nearest campsite and found Keldby camping. It was a little bit off of our route, but a confirmed open campsite.
Keldby
Unique at this campsite, cyclists and hikers aren’t sent to the furthest corner of the camp to pitch their tents, but are placed in the very first field – closest to the toilets! Yayy! For dinner we cooked up an enormous zucchini and some onions we had gotten at one of the many farm stands we passed along the way. They all have a box where you can leave money and most of them have a mobile pay number, which I’m guessing is for some kind of mobile pay app in Denmark.
Keldby to Koster, Møn
Having loaned some other campers our bowls in the evening, we woke up to having our items returned along with some thank you vegetables. The camp owner was nice enough to let us leave our luggage at the site to pick up later as we would be cycling around the island of Møn and passing by Keldby again on our return. I would be so grateful for this after the exhausting struggle in the wind we were about to have.
The trail started out lovely, going through Råbylille Strand and then following a footpath through a meadow. The footpath coming from the beach was so narrow that the brush and weeds hit us along the way. Both C and I got Brennnessel, stinging nettles, when we moved to the side to let a jogger run by us. Not nearly comparable to poison ivy, the nettles leave your skin itching and burning for about an hour or so without a rash to validate your whining.
Next the exhausting part of the day began. It was one hill after another with no end in sight. Riding eastward along Møn’s coast, we had nonstop headwind the entire morning. It felt like I needed more than double the energy to pedal. The only slightly good thing about the hills is that they would block the wind until just before reaching the top. The end of the torture came with a final enormous hill to get up to Møns Klint. It was so steep I got off my bike and pushed it to the top.
Møns Klint
The tough morning would be worth it. Møns Klint are beautiful white chalk cliffs which rise over 100 meters out of the sea. We locked up our bikes and walked along the tops of the cliffs, looking down at the very tiny people below walking the lengths of the cliffs on the beach.
Knowing we still had 15 km back to our luggage and more kilometers after that to our campsite, we didn’t spend very long at Møns Klint or visit the very expensive GeoCenter. I wasn’t looking forward to completing our circle of the island considering how difficult the first part had been. Leaving the cliffs, we went through a beautiful section of woods. It would have been cool for a downhill mountain biker, but even without the extra weight and stress of our bike bags the steep declines were a bit scary. Once we were out of the forest, it was back to the hills I was dreading. For some reason this time it was muuuch easier. I just assumed it was because now we were riding without wind. C assured me though that this time it was so easy because we had tailwind. I hardly had to pedal the whole way to Keldby…maybe it was a tailwind after all.
We picked up our bike bags, ate avocado bread, and continued mostly downhill to Stege. There we stopped for some mandatory ice cream. I had seen the Mønis (Møn Ice Cream) sign everywhere and was dying to try it before we left the island. The design of the logo is just so cute I wanted a poster of it. I had Mønboeskimo, blueberry with chocolate chips, while we wandered briefly around Stege.
The road to our campsite was very busy and dangerous. Nearly at the edge of the island, the campsite itself was very windy, but has some protected spots where we were able to pitch our tent. The advantage of the wind is that it protects you from feeling the heat of the sun and keeps the mosquitos away, but it makes cooking, setting up the tent, and enjoying time outside really difficult. On the way to this campsite we bought a large bag of potatoes for just 20 DKK (about $3). We used the salad dressing donated by some campers to make potato salad! It was a nice change to our usual meal of rice and lentils.
Being in Denmark proved so much different than Germany, even though they’re right next to one another. You can check out the rest of our adventure on the Berlin-Copenhagen bike trail here.
Photo Credits: C.O. and myself