Copenhagen-Rodbyhavn

Having enjoyed an excellent few days with friends in Copenhagen it was time to start moving again. I cycled late into the night to reach Rodbyhavn. In the morning I met a German Guy called Timas who was also cycling south into Germany. Timas was a historian writing a Phd on a brigade of Hindu and Muslim soldiers who fought in the German Army during World War 2! He was a really interesting Guy and had a radically different approach to cycling which centered around beer and cigerettes. Pictured here is us cycling over the bridge onto the island of Falster and Timas in a field of Hemp on the island of Lolland.

Copenhagen-Amsterdam!

Due to time constraints I have been racing across Europe to get back to London for a friends wedding and have not had time to do the blog justice. I will be finishing this blog of in Blighty with pictures and tails from my travels so have another look in a week's time for the complete story. In brief: its been emotional.

Helsingor-Copenhagen

After a late crossing into Denmark from Helsinborg to Helsingor I made my way down the coast to Copenhagen.
Copenhagen is a city of bicycles and on entering the city I asked at some traffic lights if anyone knew how I could get to Christianshavn, the district of the town where I would be staying with some friends I had met at Ting. A really great guy called Jesper said he would show me the way but ended up giving me a tour of the city, taking me to Christianshavn and having dinner with me and a friend of mine from Norway, Daniel. Christianshavn (Christania) is unique. In the 1970's a group of Hippies moved into an abandoned military barracks on an island in the East bridge area of the city. The community grew, 900 people currently live there, unfettered by planning laws and property tax in a semi-autonomous state. The Danish Government eventually recognised the area as a social experiment although there have been moves by authorities recently to reclaim the area.
Pictured here is the spire of Vor Fresers Kirke, Our Saviours Church which stands at the entrance to the Christania enclave, a stunning building. My friend Sigve's house where I stayed. The entrance to a commune housed in a converted munitions battery. The bicycle entering the gatehouse was made in Christania and is typical of the bikes found here made by a local co-operative workshop. The bridge tower's were designed by Rudolph Gtlob and are good examples of early modernist Architecture (I was shown them years ago during a lecture on my BA). Here is also a small clip of Lek, a wonderful woman from Ting also staying at Sigve's and singing in Greenlandic.
Copenhagen is a very is a very interesting, pretty, madly expensive city. A blend of Scandinavian calmness and European bustle. I ate delicious vegitarian food and the best Curry Daal I have ever eaten there (Go to Tasty just outside Christania if you ever visit you can get a meal for the equivalent of two pounds eighty!). Also check out the bathhouse and Sauna in Chistania (make sure u by some Morrocan Rasul to smother over your body, it looks like mud but it's great).

Halmstad-Bastad-Ängleholm-Helsinborg

This area of coast has very rare habitat called dune heathland where woodland and sand dunes mix. I camped just outside a nature reserve at Mellbystrand and cooked a beautiful dinner of scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and rye bread on the beach. Pictured here is the new library at Halmstad by Buro Happold, the sea turning red at sunset at Mellbystrand, some bronze age burial mounds near Forslöv a vast and elegant barn near Kattarp and some pictures of Helsinborg where I got a ferry to Denmark from at night.

Saro-Kungsbacka- Falkenberg-Halmstad

I sorted out all my stuff in Kungsbacka and finally managed to get my phone working. Orange are useless. When I arrived late at night I chanced upon Reading football club centre half Alex Pierce as I was trying to use the payphone at the station and he very kindly let me use his mobile to ring home. Reading FC were on a pre-season tour there. I wished him all the best with the club's promotion next season.

Pictured here is Maria who was mowing the lawn near where I pitched my tent outside Kungsbacka. She suggested I have a go. It was great fun until I tried to park the mower in the back of the truck.
A converted windmill I think. A cool truck I tried to upgrade to. An island off the beach at Särdal (near halmstad) at sunset.

Vicks Torp to Saro: Escaping Ting

I had kept trying to leave Ting and continue my journey but everyday something kept me.
Days at Ting could be spent in the forests, lake of water lillies, doing workshops on meditation, Sin Do, Tai Chi and so on. It was totally inspiring. The Forest at Ting had glades of Moss so thick it felt like you were lying on a duvet. You could easily go here during the heat of the day and fall asleep.
Evenings involved a group helping to prepare the dinner which was then eaten in a large circle in a forest clearing this was then followed by announcements, thoughts, songs and music.
Anybody could adress the Ting by taking hold of stick from the centre of the circle next to a fire. The music was incredible. A mass rhythm section accompanied a harmonica, accordian, violin, guitar the list goes on in long renditions of everything from Nordic folk songs to Thriller, each rising to an ecstatic often improvised crescendo! These setions lasted long into the night and dotted around the lake and forest were many smaller fires each with their own groups, stories and dreams.
Ting is very small festival. Only 160 people attend and you quickly get to know everyone. It is not an architypal 'hippy' gathering either. Drugs and alcohol are banned and the the people that attend range from the quitly counter-cultural to magnificently eccentric.
One of the highlights for me at Ting was going into Gothenburg to busk with the musical group. 14 of us squeezed into the back of a windowless van in the baking heat and drove for 45 minutes to the city centre. We warmed up on the way, a cozy experience to say the least. The hippy's had come to Gothenburg and everyone stared mouths open, laughing as we made our way down the main boulevard, semi naked and unwashed playing multi-instrumental Nordic folk, our hearts blazing. We set down our pitch in the main square, an 18 strong ensemble of jugglers, dancers and musicians and set about energising the experience of those passing by. I was playing two logs and a saucepan! We were well recieved, made lots of money and quite a few passers by joined in. It was the first time I had ever busked and it was a real privilige to support such accomplised musicians.
When I left Ting, Emma gave me a beautiful necklace she had carved out of an avacado seed of a tree with the hammock in it.
I felt horrendous as I made my way west to the coast, it was so strange being back in the 'real' world.

Pictured here is the sunset over Saro on the coast. Saro was the residency of the Swedish Royal family in the 18th century and the cycle route there follows the railway line they had specially built to take them there from Gothenburg. The place is now full of mansions and tennis courts.

Ting: As close to Paradise as I have ever been

Some very helpful people with a house by the lake helped us in the morning with showers and water and directed us to the actual location of Ting which was about 10 miles south-west next to another another lake and a house called Vicks Torp.

We cycled through more pristine Forest and up yet another endless winding dirt track before finaly arriving.

There is no photography allowed at Ting and when I have more time I will write at more length about what happened in those proceeding 5 days which I spent there. For now all I will say is that the most extraordinary, beautiful group of people I have ever met had gathered together in the most idyllic place I have ever been. It took me quite literally to another world.