Varnæs to Ærøskøbing (via Als and Funen), “Storefærgedag”, Day 2
Storefærgedag = Great ferry day; today was all about ferries and hopping between the islands. About 52km cycling, with 620m of going up and down.
Ferry no. 1. Ballebro to Hardeshøj. Really small and very quick, runs about every 15-30minutes and only takes 5-10 minutes across to Als, our first island of the trip.
The first part of Als was beautiful with lots of small lanes and pretty farming villages. It gets rather industrial around Nordborg, with the Danish industrial giant Danfoss dominating the area. Fortunately it quickly transitions into a large forest running for many km down the Eastern side of Als, Nørreskov.
There are gravel paths through Nørreskov all the way to the ferry terminal at Fynshav from where there are ferries to Funen and Ærø. Our destination for the day was Ærø, but all ferries on the route had been cancelled and we needed a rethink… being on bikes we could see that catching the next ferry to Funen and then a 10km ride would get us to Faaborg from where we could get another ferry to Søby on Ærø and get back on track. As a bonus it got us another isand on our list, and I’d probably now recommend this as the route to take… Funen is fantastic.
Ferry 2, Fynshav on Als to Bøjden on Funen. Somewhat longer and less frequent. Perhaps every 2 hours, and taking about an hour. Bøjden itself feels very isolated and lonely, a small ferry port at the end of a nature reserve. With more time then a good route would be following the coast to south but we had another ferry to catch so used the main road a little (even that was not very busy, a few cars a minute perhaps).
There’s a great “shortcut” to Faaborg through Kimesbjerggaard Vingaard on some nice gravel tracks, eventually taking you right down to a summer house area right on the water.
Faaborg is another very pretty town and worth stopping at, even overnighting (there’s good hotels and a great hostel). A car free town centre with plenty of restaurants.
Our fairytale accommodation.
Fairytale accommodation for someone else.
From Søby there’s about 15km to Ærøskøbing, our destination for the night. The phrases “fairytale town” and “picture postcard perfect” are used about quite a few Danish villages and towns, but in my opinion they’re best reserved for Ærøskøbing. Lots of ancient timber framed buildings and flowers growing in the cobbled streets. Well worth stopping here for a few days.
We stayed at Løkkens Teltplads a km or so out of town for camping and we ate at Restaurant Mumm in town.