2008 Rediscovery Tour
Day 35 - June 27 - Slagelse - Køge, 80 km (2421)
I reluctantly left Valdemar Slot feeling a little
bleary-eyed after a gourmet breakfast and a quick
kiss on the head for Josephine and Alexander (who
very cleverly had managed to end up with three of
my ReDiscovery Coins!) Unfortunatly I could not
convince Mads to join me for a second day of
riding, perhaps because he did not want to leave
the fun group gathered at breakfast, or perhaps
because he had looked out the window and seen the
rain pouring down outside. Regardless, I am glad
that he awaked to see me off, as I was worried
that when the Castle opened to the public in
another hour or so the first tourists would be
surprised to find a body soundly asleep
underneath the sheets in the “King’s
Bedroom”.
Arriving back in Slagelse our first stop was the
new in-line skating track recently built by the
municipality. This includes the only parabolic
skating track in all of Northern Europe. It is a
great track and I was impressed to see “Team
Slagelse” take to the track and show me their
stuff. (The rain of course slowed things down a
bit, and I was somewhat relieved that it gave me
an excuse not to embarrass myself by trying to
skate with these young folks.) I enjoyed visiting
with the team and their coaches over coffee and I
wish good luck to Nicolai and his teammates in
their quest for the Gold.
The 15 km ride to Sorø Academy was without a
doubt the wettest of the entire 35 Day tour. My
guest riders, including Martin Lykkegaard
Mogensen from the Gerlev Sports Academy, Sergeant
Cates of our US Marine Corps Detachment, and
several members of our Public Affairs staff, rode
through the most severe deluge I think I have seen
in the three years we have been here. We were all
soaked to the bone when we arrived at the historic
Sorø Academy and were greeted by Senior professor
Lars Kelstrup. Sorø Academy is the oldest
academic institution in Denmark, going back 1200
years to when it was a Cistercian Monastery. Its
Cathedral was the first brick building in
Denmark, and its headmaster, lives in the oldest
building to be continuously occupied in the
country. Sorø was founded by King Frederik II in
1586. The first football came to Denmark here 150
years ago next year. Archbishop Absalon is buried
here in the Cathedral. All this grand history,
however, was relegated in importance for the
moment because today was GRADUATION DAY! I felt
really guilty that Lars had missed the graduation
ceremony in order to receive us, and I will be
forever greatful to him for giving me the
opportunity to participate in the Graduation
exercise. When the formal ceremony in the
Cathedral was completed, the 150 graduates filed
down to the grand steps in front of the library
for the ceremonial photograph. With lightbulbs
flashing and cameras clicking, I was invited to
address the students, which I did with relish. I
ended with a hearty “Congratulations” in my
best Danish-English, wishes for a Great Truck
ride and an invitation to ‘Come to America”!
It was great fun watching the young graduates hop
on the elaborately-decorated trucks for the
traditional Truck Ride. Our daughter Cameron
just graduated last week from the Copenhagen
International School and we had really enjoyed
hosting her “Truck” at the Residence for a
good-old American hamburger and hot dog cookout.
But I did not get to see the inside of her Truck,
so it was a real treat when one group of
graduating students offered me a Tuborg and
invited me to hop up on the truck to join them
for a commemorative photo.
We left Sorø following the Truck brigade and
headed down the road for Ringsted. Miraculously,
the rain had stopped almost the moment the
students headed out from the Graduation
ceremonies so the rest of the day’s ride was
much better than the morning. In Ringsted mayor
Hermansen and Freddy Svane, director of the
Agriculture Council, and former Danish Ambassador
to Japan, led us in a discussion of Danish
Agrucultural policy. It was great to be joined by
4 young Danish farmers. They are facing the same
problems as American farmers, and we talked of
the challenges of high prices, particularly on
the price of soybeans in America which are an
important import for Danish feed for swine. We
spoke of the differences in rules and regulations
between America and the EU, the growth of the
organic movement, and the increasing importance
of genetically modified crops if we are to meet
the needs of the growing global population for
healthy food. Freddy and I agreed that it would
be great to initiate an exchange program between
young farmers in Denmark and America.
Two of my favorite responses to my First Question
came from the discussion with the young farmers.
When I asked what “America” meant to them,
Randi said “Big Tractors!” Mie said “Men in
Cowboy Hats!” When I asked her if she had
ever seen a man in a cowboy hat in Denmark, and
she said no, it gave me a great opportunity to
tell my favorite story of the Tour; that immortal
Day 4 when we rode past Jørgen and Doris
Olsen’s “Texas Square Country and Western
Store” in Farendløse. Mayor Hermansen was
thrilled with the story because he knows Doris
and Jørgen, and the store is actually in the
Ringsted Kommune, so many of our guests in the
room had heard the story, and I found out then
that the local paper just yesterday had run a
story about my coming to town on bicycle, and ran
a picture of me with Jørgen when he came to our
“Bamse” Elvis CD Release party at the
Residence and handcuffed me with his authentic
Texas handcuffs.
Leaving Ringsted in the direction of Køge, we
seemed to be going a bit out of the way. When I
mentioned that to Philip, he said he had a little
‘surprise” for me. After carrying our bikes
across a muddy section of road under repair, we
turned a rural corner and there it was: Texas
Square Country and Western! What a delight it was
to return to the site of my favorite experience on
the Tour. This was a surprise visit and
unfortunately Jørgen was not in the store, but
Doris was there and the store looked just as I
had remembered it, and it was great to have
Alistair and Michael and others from the Embassy
riding with us so that they could confirm that I
was not exaggerating about this amazing place.
Doris proudly showed us the photos from our visit
last year, mounted along with the ReDiscovery
Coin, and also the photograph of Jørgen and me
in yesterday’s newspaper. We took a few
photographs for posterity, and headed back on our
bikes. (Philip, this was a brilliant surprise.
All of the wrong turns, gravel roads and
misdirections of the past 35 Days are completely
forgiven!!)
The last long ride of the day was 25 km ride to
Køge. I had a burst of energy after about 5 km
from all the pastries I had eaten in Ringsted so
Rico and I hit sprint speed and flew the last 20
km at an average of around 40 km per hour (we had
pretty good wind most of the way). We arrived in
Køge at Hastrup, a community with a large ethnic
population, and stopped at Hastrup Skole where I
was greeted by my friend Mayor Marie Stærke and
my new friend Louisa, a teacher dressed in
festive ‘Spanish’ attire, representing the
teachers who were celebrating graduation with a
Spanish-themed party. I do not think I have ever
seen a more fun group of teachers. But before
joining with the teachers in celebration, I first
needed to meet a remarkable young lady named
Cecilie Hallev. Cecilie is an avid football
(soccer) player. Last year, at the age of 15,
Cecilia was troubled by the fact that young
Muslim girls in this neighborhood did not have an
opportunity to play organized football. So she
started a team of young girls, and called them FC
Hastrup. I was greeted by the cute young girls in
their pink football jerseys with “FC Hastrup”
on the front, along with the name of their sponsor
Spar Nord Bank. Two of the young girls were in
their traditional headscarves and Cecilie
explained to me and to the local media in
attendance that she was leading a campaign within
the Danish Football Union to allow girls to play
in headscarves. Cecilie is a remarkable young
lady, and she has been nominated by the commune
to receive the Ministry of Integretion’s Annual
Integration Award (the one that Reverand Torben
Hangaard and Imam Abu Hassan received a couple of
years ago.) I can think of no better example in
Denmark of the combination of the spirit of
volunteerism and the spirit of cultural diversity
than Cecilie. She would be an excellent recipient
of the award.
The visit with Cecilie and FC Hastrup gave me a
chance to tell the media and the Mayor about our
Taking the Lead summer leadership camp for young
people from ethnic backgrounds. I am a firm
believer in the Power of Team Sports to bring
people together, and the Leadership camp this
summer at the Gerlev Sports Academy will showcase
that power. I am hopeful that some of the young
ladies from FC Haslev will join us for the camp.
After kicking the ball around with the girls for
a few minutes on the field I made the obligatory
stop by the teacher’s party to wish them well
for the summer. Wow, do those teacher’s know
how to party! As Philip said as we were leaving
“If my teachers had been like that, I would
have stayed in school for a lot more years!”
I am really sorry that we could not stay longer
(and I think Team ReDiscovery was equally sorry
to have to leave), but we headed for the last
stop of the Day, the Køge Town Center, which was
about 4 km away. I was honored to have both Mayor
Marie Stærke and Cecilie Hallev join me for the
final ride and was really pleased when Cecilie
committed that she would join us on July 4 in
Copenhagen for the final ride of the ReDiscovery
Tour. That is now only one day’s ride away.