September 19th Skive - Viborg

Cycled today 36km
I can seriously recommend Jutland for a cycling holiday. The roads are smooth and mostly empty. The cars that are there give you plenty of space and there's a few hills, enough to get me standing on my pedals a few times but not enough to make me get off and push. The weather stayed good, bright sunshine and less wind than the last couple of days.

The route out of Skive towards Viborg across the edge of the estuary

I did the journey in one hit - there were only a couple of small places en route and they were empty. I arrived into Viborg in time to see the marathon runners. It made me think of the runner and having promised him I'll do the Edinburgh marathon next year. Even though the start of training is a few months away yet I felt a bit sick in anticipation.

Big road - little road. One for cars, one for cyclists. It's that easy.

I found my couchsurf host, Mona or rather she found me. She lives right in the centre in a beautiful flat with wooden floorboards, high ceilings and an eclectic decor. I have a whole room to myself with a comfortable mattress on the floor.

We went for a walk around Viborg and Mona told me the Town's history and acted as the perfect tour guide. It has beautiful gardens, two lakes, lovely medieval architecture and an embarrassment of churches (originally it had 14 and 4 monastries). In the Cathedral the entire interior is painted with images from the bible. The story goes that the artist spent ten years just doing the sketches and used all the townsfolk as models. There is a naked Eve and this caused a big stir with people rushing to see it first when everything was finished to see who it was.

My favourite story is of the wheel on the tower of one of the buildings. It was put there to attract storks (they like to nest on them) but they never came. The Mayor, who's idea this was, (ten years ago) was so disappointed that he dressed himself as a stork with red tights and a big yellow beak and went and sat on it himself.

The Latiner Garden, named for the latin language school (the white building) who's teachers were given it so they could grow food to eke out their wages. It's divided into four one of which is the 'Snapsgarden' full of planst used to make snaps (like scnapps) more palatable

Mona confesses she know nothing anout construction or energy which is a relief. I was going to write about Danish energy laws and building standards but I am having the day off thinking about it instead - I think that was probably why my head hurt this morning to be honest - not the potten pilsner at all. Back to it tomorrow.