I never counted, but I have easily spent more than 1.000 nights in hotel rooms during my work and leisure life. For the first time ever, I had to evacuate from the hotel at ca. 4am due to a fire alarm. All the guests were allowed back after ca. 30mins after a check by the local fire department. Luckily, I managed to fall asleep again, and was on the road an hour later than I had planned, at 9am after breakfast.
Today I walked ca. 35kms east to west, from Odense to Fjelsted. The day started grey, and stayed grey all day. My feet were sore after yesterdays marathon, but after a stiff start I got them going. I left Odense over the new foot bridge and past the harbour, before taking a small path next to a Lidl, that led to a path along Stavis Å. Both the walk to and from Odense were very scenic.
I passed Caroline’s holy spring from 1664, where water with a constant temperature of 7 degrees was popular with royalty staying at Odense Castle as well as a meeting and market place. The spring is named after Caroline Amalie, later King Christian 8’s wife, who held her 35th birthday here in 1931. Today only tap water runs through the spring.
From Stavis Å I continued along Langesø path, that would eventually bring me to Langesø (Long lake). The path passed along a mixture of housing on the outskirts of Odense and forest and fields.
After walking past the Christmas trees on a gravel path, I met a lady carrying a backpack and tent, in bare feet. I could feel the stones with shoes on. I cannot at all imagine what it must feel like without shoes. Langesø is surrounded by forest and obviously a popular tourist destination. The lake has a castle at one end and a chapel at the other and plenty of paths, both close to the lake, but also further away. Well worth a visit.
From Langesø I continued through the countryside and intensive agriculture towards Padesø.
I ate lunch overlook the rolling landscape, before reaching Padesø and its church dating back to 1881.
On towards Fjelsted, todays end destination, where I met my wife who had driven from Copenhagen. I had hoped we could time it so she could pick me up in Fjelsted and I could get a lift to the hotel, a couple of km outside town. But of course she timed it so she arrived 5 mins after I’d made it to the hotel. What’s 2km when you’ve walked 82 km in 2 days? My feet were hurting.
