One could become extremely accustomed to the comforts and benefits of flying Business Class just as long as your bank balance contains lots of zeros , mine does but there's no figure in front of them .
After being herded in with the rest of the cattle at the Tulla holding pens we took off and after what seemed like about 3 weeks I emerged bleary eyed and a smidge tired at Copenhagen to meet up with the 2 Mikes .
They showed me no mercy as DMike had a familiarisation ride of around 50 km planned for the next morning. The first thing you notice is how incredibly cycle friendly Copenhagen is with an extensive network of lanes and paths , even with their own traffic lights . Melbourne has a little way to go but we do have Wellington St - wow .
When walking you need at least 4 sets of eyes looking out for cars and gazillions of cyclists and regularly a yobbo roadie who thinks he's Mark Cavendish going 3 times the speed of the other riders .
I came very close to reducing the population of Copenhagen by 2 when I stepped out onto the road to visit the ". Little House " on the other side , aptly named the " Pissoir " . I turned 180 deg to give Mike my camera when I heard a bell ring followed quickly by a 2 wheel blur in front and one from behind . The first cyclist gave me the " Dirty Look of the Century " , they've got no sense of humour . Didn't need to visit the toot after that .
The huge number of bikes in Copenhagen might have something to do with the Government taxes imposed on cars .The Government force people to buy small economical cars of 1.2lt or less and if you want anything bigger you pay the cost price of the car plus a tax penalty of 180% of that cost plus 25%VAT and any safety extras you order also attract 25%VAT . A car costing for example KR10,000 plus extras could cost upwards of KR35000 , may not catch on in Australia .
I needed some minor gear adjustments on my tourer and was told there was a bike shop close to our hotel . In I went but they were too busy , another shop 100 Mt away , again too busy ,another 300mt away , same story . I walked this main road for about 3km and had visited 8 bike shops , the 9th one i had success . This proliferation of bike shops is apparently the norm all over the city .
On the ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo we noticed a wine price list on a restaurant wall .There was an Australian wine on the list which we thought wasn't that expensive at A$27 , that was until we looked closer and saw it was per glass . Don't think there would be too many wine alcoholics in Denmark.
We are about to dock in Oslo and the weather looks a frag miserable . DMike has planned our Swedish leg and has included 4 days out of 8 of 100km plus with lots of hills . Doesn't he realise he's dealing with a couple of lard-arse geriatrics .
Thank you so much to everyone who expressed their condolences to myself and my family on the recent passing of my Mother . I know everyone says their Mum is the Best and I'm no different, my Mum was up there with the Best of the Best .
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