Day 24: Silkborg to Haderslev | 112km

22 June 2026

We had planned an early start, but sleep had other ideas. I keep meaning to stop writing about hotel breakfasts, yet here I am again. It’s not just the food itself (though it is tasty), but a proper breakfast simply makes the day’s ride so much better. Camp cooking, though, feels uninspired, especially with limited tools. More often than not, it ends up as a peanut butter sandwich, and at this point, I’ve completely lost my appetite for it. Still, the hotel breakfast was excellent, and eventually, we got on the road.

Just like every other day in Denmark, the sun shone brightly with no clouds in sight. The burn on my arm from yesterday wasn’t as painful as I’d expected, but I still applied a thick layer of sunscreen before setting off. Silkborg, we’d heard, is Denmark’s outdoor capital and possibly its hilliest city. The long climbs out of town weren’t too bad, though. If this bikepacking trip is a spiritual journey, I’ve reached the stage where hills are just the warm-up for a long, rewarding downhill.

By lunchtime, we’d covered around 60 km and stopped in Vejle. A quick online search told me it’s considered Denmark’s most underrated city, according to some forum. That might be subjective, but it was undeniably charming. Just like in many Swedish towns, high school students filled the streets, dressed up for what seemed to be graduation. Or perhaps it was a festival with no clear theme, but the costumes were varied: pirates, cowboys, police officers and all sorts of other stereotypes.

We’d already conquered most of the big hills by the afternoon, so my legs felt strong. Thankfully, some clouds had begun rolling in, which came as a relief to my sunburned arms. We arrived at a campground in Haderslev around 7, put together a makeshift charcuterie board for dinner, planned the next few days, and fell asleep in a stunning spot by the lake, with the town’s skyline in the distance.