We spent our final day in Denmark amongst the summerhouses at Rørvig. The sun almost shone, the schnapps slipped down, and the lunch table in the garden bloomed with the colours of herrings, salmon, two shades of rye bread, and blood purple beetroot.

It was tempting to sit, and to sit a while longer, eating even more as we soaked up the birdsong, but, as the wind chill turned chillier, we picked ourselves up and set off on bikes through the woods to the beach. It did not take long to reach the curve of white sand, deserted apart from a few other bikers, and a sail, dragon-flying across the waves beyond.

We admired it for a short burst of pétanque, and then headed inland again in search of the mid-point of Denmark. This we found marked by a lump of stone. It is a large lump, but not as huge as the next great chunk of granite which stands not far away, alone in a grassy spot. An inscription on one flank of this encormous stone states its role as the coronation rock of Viking kings, Harald Hen (1076) and Niels (1104), while a statement on its other side records that it was King Frederik IX who positioned the rock in that spot in 1940.

The final leg of our route took us on, through the characterful houses of the town, to the harbour. We pedalled out along its pier to the very end and faced out to sea. Behind us were the restaurant and bar, and in front the dark grey ocean, inviting us to imagine Viking ships on the horizon carrying their kings towards the shore to be crowned.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023