Where the days are long and the weather is warm....
After a long 24 hours or so of travel we've arrived safe and sound in Denmark. We landed at 7.30 this morning and now, 13 hours later, I think the jet lag is starting to set in! A good night's sleep should see that off though.
It turned out that the New Zealand team and one member of the Australian team were on the same flight as us from Singapore to Copenhagen, so it was quite the invasion of the Paras.
On arrival at Copenhagen we cleared Customs and Immigration pretty quickly, then were fortunate enough to have all the bike gear come into the terminal from the plane in one piece and at the same time as the other luggage. We picked up the other Aussie, Mel's, gear for her so she didn't have to manipulate luggage, hand cycle and wheel bags from her wheelchair. This brought our total luggage to three bike boxes, a hand cycle, two wheel cases, two wheel bags, four wheelie suitcases cases, two soft bags and various backpacks! Not surprising then, that we had a bit of fun getting our four trolleys and a hand cycle out of the baggage collection area with only three people pushing, but we managed with the help of a random stranger! We handed Mel off to the Australian crew there to pick her up and set about finding out where to get taxis and where we could make a pickup after we picked up the hire van.
Jing and I set off in a taxi to downtown Copenhagen to get the van, leaving Jenny a forlorn figure on the side of the road "guarding" three bike boxes, two wheel cases and various assorted other pieces of luggage.
We returned in record time, with only one wrong turn on the way, and without ever straying onto the wrong side of the road (given they drive on the 'wrong' side over here). Jenny and all the gear were safely waiting, so we set about loading up, only to be accosted by the Kiwis, whose van hadn't turned up to pick up their gea. A few minutes later we set off for Ringsted with a very full van loaded up with Kiwi equipment. Had we not just stepped off a long haul flight and been a little more alert we could have enhanced the Aussie hopes of medals significantly by conveniently losing a truckload of bikes. Oh well, lucky we're nice people!
Once registered at our hotel - the Scandic Ringsted, the bikes obligingly went together without any hiccups and we all set off for a ride to blow the cobwebs out, Jenny on a townie bike borrowed from the hotel. The law in Denmark is that if there's a bike path running along the road (separated by a narrow grass verge or a concrete gutter) bikes of all types have to use it - apparently that rule applies to motorised scooters as well, because we encountered quite a few of those on the paths as well as bicycles. Fortunately the lanes appear to be well maintained, wide and uninterrupted for the most part, and bikes have right of way at intersections with side streets and the local motorists seem to be very well behaved.
Jing and I managed nearly an hour. Jenny lasted really well on the ton-of-lead townie, but turned for home at the first sign of the road going slightly uphill. Who could blame her with only one gear, tyres twice as wide as ours, and a bike that probably weighed more than all the bikes we transported from the airport put together!
A reccie of the course is planned for tomorrow morning, but now it's time to give in to the need for sleep. More soon.....
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