To Copenhagen with Bean Coffee [Part 4]

Across the Øresund on an electric ferry

On the morning after the 160 km tour I got up at 10:00 a.m. - contrary to my expectations - without any sore muscles. Since I had pitched my tent pretty much directly in Helsingborg, I wanted to go have breakfast in the city. The destination for this fourth day of the tour was Copenhagen, and I hadn't booked the crossing from Helsingborg to Helsingør across the Øresund in advance, so I was very flexible (the route isn't long and the ferry runs every 30 minutes).

So I packed up my tent and loaded my bike once again so I could get going quickly. At first, my plan was to have a coffee before going for breakfast. I wanted to drink the coffee at Koppi, a coffee shop in Helsingborg's industrial area. But when I arrived, I realized that this place is purely a coffee roastery; in conversation with the very friendly owner, he managed to convince me to buy a 250-gram bag of Koppi coffee instead. I was also able to refill my bottles and, fully equipped again, hop back on my bike and continue into the city center.

Once there, I sat down in a bakery where I sampled my way through the selection with three smaller items. After that boost, I quickly stopped by a Swedish supermarket to get some snacks for the afternoon.

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At 12:20 p.m., I was standing at the ferry terminal in the rain, trying to get to Denmark - less than 15 minutes later, I was already out on the water.

The ferry I took was powered entirely by electricity. So even compared to the catamaran ferry, it was almost eerily quiet on the water. In return, the ferry wasn't all that fast either; it took me 45 minutes to cover the 17 km. At least I could spend that time under cover, because it kept raining outside for the entire crossing.

https://p3g3.de/content/media/2026/04/faehre_oeffnung-1.mp4

At around 1:20 p.m., I set foot on Danish soil for the first time - greeted by drizzle and big roads, a picture that would repeat itself quite a few times over the next few days. So off I went, after all, the 65 km to Copenhagen should be easy enough. After I managed to fix a few issues with my luggage (the bag holding my sleeping bag and tent together had unfortunately torn), the drizzle turned into proper rain, which soaked not only my jeans but also my shoes.

Slightly demotivated and a bit chilled, I gathered up all my motivation for Copenhagen once more and first rode 30 kilometers along a coastal country road before turning off onto somewhat smaller paths. Unfortunately, there was no proper bike lane on the country road, so I had to ride a lot alongside cars overtaking me closely - quite an adjustment after Sweden. Before Copenhagen, things got really unpleasant once again when I was caught in a heavy downpour along a narrow bike path. With no way to take shelter, I got completely soaked yet again. Slowly, I started worrying about my clothes, which were exposed to the elements with only the textile bike bag protecting them.

Once I arrived in Copenhagen, the rain stopped. For five minutes, I was able to move through the city without being hit by rain. But 20 minutes and 3 kilometers before my hostel, which I had reserved for the night, the sky opened up once again - this time with such force that I had to take shelter under construction scaffolding. I have rarely experienced such heavy rain in my life; even the cars stopped in the streets. For 20 minutes, the world stood still, and more and more people joined me under the scaffolding.

After the rain, however, the sun came out immediately, as if it wanted to apologize for the rain, and accompanied me all the way to my arrival at the hostel. I was very relieved when I got there, and I was immediately able to deal with the next problem: my hostel reservation had been made for a day later. Thanks to the nice staff at the desk, though, this mistake was quickly fixed, and I received the key card for my bed in the shared room. After three trips between the room (located on the 8th floor) and my bike, I had all my things back in one place and could begin the charging apocalypse - being supplied with electricity again for the first time in four days meant trying to charge two power banks, a drone battery, a tablet, a phone, a watch, and a pair of headphones as efficiently as possible, one after another.

Once the devices were plugged in, I quickly took a shower and changed into fresh clothes before heading out to explore a bit more of Copenhagen.

I set out to find somewhere to eat for the evening and ended up at Kristinedal Burgers. Funnily enough, the lovely owner spoke German because he had studied in Germany for a few months. Full and happy, I continued walking through the city, past Tivoli (see below) and all the way to the sea.

All in all, I ended up walking many kilometers through the city during a beautiful sunset. Unfortunately, I was only in Copenhagen for this one evening, but I found the city very beautiful. The architecture in particular is impressive, and the sea right next to it is wonderful as well.

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When I returned to the hostel, I also met my other roommates: a philosopher visiting Copenhagen for a conference and a traveler on her way farther north, both from Germany. We also had a football player from Milan in the room who had a trial with FC Copenhagen.

So we spent the evening talking about God, the world, and Munich's rent index before going to sleep around 10:00 p.m. During our conversation, we also discovered in passing a fascination with the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that we all shared.

That evening, I learned that sometimes a hostel can really help in between all the camping. Being able to charge all your devices and take a relaxed shower has its charm, and in mixed shared rooms you always come across very interesting people. So at this point, greetings to my roommates from that night :).