Searching for Cycling in Denmark

Why does your page not come up for “Cycling in Denmark”? asked Sandra. Because my page is not about Cycling in Denmark I answered. It’s about “Cycle Touring in Denmark.” As a matter of fact ‘my page’ is not even about that, but our cycle tour in Denmark. And there are two pages as we’ve done two tours. The pages do actually come up (in Google) for ‘Cycle Touring in Denmark’ and I proved it there and then on my smartphone: this page on my personal website and this one here on this website. I explained that cycling is a different thing to cycle touring and that people searching for one are disappointed if they only find the other*. Not that she wanted to find ‘my page’ in the first place. She already knows about the cycle tours she has been on and besides, she has never read any of my pages on anything, let alone cycling.

2012 was the wettest year in the UK for 10,000 years, or at least since records began. This takes into account that the first three months of 2012 were the driest since records began, with East Anglian farmers near bankruptcy and hose pipe bans for 35 million people. So I reckon the last nine months must have been the wettest ever. Of course North West England – one of the wettest places on earth – remained unaffected by drought. We are immune. There was mention of selling water down south but that has gone by the wayside. 2013 has started with more rain but by May, when we hope to go cycle touring in Denmark again, the Jet Stream (whose fault the bad weather is) may have returned northwards where it was in the drought – and where it should be. The trouble is, Denmark is northwards, level with Scotland where it’s wet even when everywhere else is dry, and we’re planning to camp. Well, Sandra is. I’m suggesting we take the tent but plan on hostels and B&Bs.

If The Killing is anything to go by, the month of November is the one to avoid. May is usually the driest month. It is fun anyway, researching and planning the tour (to the northern part of the Jutland Peninsula). Unless you are equipped with a cycling machine like Titanium Man or boring gym membership, when the weather is too wet for cycling or, in Canada, too cold, the next best thing is planning to cycle. To get me in the mood:

Sandra on a Danish bridge, 2010

Camp Denmark

The wind in her sails

*In practice, people searching the web for information about cycle touring in Denmark use all sorts of search terms. Sandra had not included the word ‘touring’ although that is what she was interested in. The titles I chose for my two pages were Fine cycle touring: cycling round Denmark and A Cycle Tour in Denmark, both with the ‘touring’ or ‘tour’ reference in the page title (search engines know the difference but also the similarity). The whole thing is debatable. I took the view that cycling in Denmark is a much broader topic than cycle touring and I wanted to attract users who are more specific with their search terms. Someone who is not interested in the touring aspect may simply not bother reading the page they have arrived at, and those that are probably will.

Meanwhile, she has bought ‘The Rough Guide to Denmark’ in book form – the maps are no good for Kindle (I’ve realised that a Kindle is a cycle touring essential).