Chasing Sunlight: Finding Joy in Danish Winter Adventures

A Sunny Sunday Story

Danish winter days are not only cold, but they are also grey. You wake up in the dark and don’t see daylight until you reach the office. It’s dark even when you leave the office. And in between it’s grey. All grey.

There were days when the weather forecast showed a temperature of -7 degrees Celsius which feels like -13 degrees. Some days the wind and other days the rain make it feel colder. And then there are days with snowfall. I love the snow fall though. It is cold on those days but snowfall makes it beautiful. The wind and rain in low temperatures never felt good to me but the snow always lit the mood.

The best thing about snow days is — you mostly get to see the sun. When the sun’s rays fall on the white surface and reflect, it feels like the most beautiful moment.

Last Sunday was one such day, minus snow.

There was no rain. Temperature at 6 degrees. It was a little windy which felt manageable. It was SUNNY.

When you are used to seeing the grey sky every day, every moment of the sun’s appearance is precious. And when such a day happens to be a Sunday, it’s impossible to sit inside the cosy atmosphere of home.

So, we decided to venture out.

Going to a sea-facing restaurant for a super exotic lunch with a glass of wine. This may feel like the best plan especially when you are in your 40s.

But I guess the age couldn’t put a pause on my energy and I am lucky that my partner thinks the same way.

We made an instant plan — go cycling in the woods.

Time was running fast. The sun might disappear if we are too late. So we made a few quick sandwiches and packed a few fruits, carrots and water. We knew that we would go far and need some energy to come back so the maturity (thanks to age and experience) told us to be prepared. And the enthusiasm in us told us to be quick and not think of executing any exotic plan.

I, my partner and our son ventured out with our respective cycles.

We started with power-packed energy. The wind tried to make us slow and break our enthusiasm, but the sun kept our spirits up. A nice blue sky with white paint without any pattern.

Then came a point where we had to take a turn to enter the woods. It was a resting point near a wooden shade for people to sit and enjoy the vast open fields. We asked our son if he wanted to continue cycling or would like to now sit behind one of us. As expected after riding for a few kilometres, he now wanted to relax behind one of us. So, we parked his cycle at this resting point and continued ahead.

Again, the mature person in us taught us to be prepared in advance and we had made this plan between us because we planned to go quite far, and we knew our son would give up in between. So, we kept the kid’s seat on one of the cycles. Kids like to play more than go for such ventures. They don’t get tired of playing ever.

So, we went on and on. It was a long road with open fields on both sides. We saw lots of birds and ducks. There were many temporary small ponds, thanks to the frequent rains and no sun in the last few weeks. The bushes were without leaves, flowers and berries. Long tall trees were leafless. We could see through the trees. In a few more months, this will change totally when the spring comes.

The cows, sheep and horses were missing today. They are everywhere during summer in this place but in winter you hardly see them. We were talking about all this — more to keep our son awake because he was sitting super comfortably in his seat while we were cycling in the opposite direction of the wind.

And then we spotted a group of deer. There were so many. Before this, we saw 5–6 of them together but today was different. There were more than 10. They were quite far, and we could see one of them was white. I don’t know if white deer exist, but it looked like deer only. I would also be quite surprised if 10 deer allowed 1 other animal in their group. We made stories around it. Was that a sheep? That would be so interesting if deer made friends with a sheep.

After a long ride of more than one hour, we reached the end of the road. We could hardly see anyone there. No one in sight for long distances. Leafless trees lined up at the end making the boundary for the place on one side. The other side meets sea somewhere but it couldn’t be seen from there.

There were two green mounds around 9–10 meters above the ground. One of them had a bench and the other one had a structure made with stones which looked like a lighthouse.

For those who don’t know about Copenhagen’s landscape — it’s almost all over plain which makes it the perfect place for cycling. These small above-the-ground places we see are mostly man-made using construction waste. However, they surely look beautiful and natural.

We reached the top of the mound. It was beautiful from here. There were no buildings in sight. It’s so difficult to believe that such a place exists so close to the bustling residential area. We went to the other mound. Looked around. Sat there for a few minutes. Ran up and down with our son.

We had our sandwiches, fruit and carrots. Everything tasted so yummy, although they were super basic.

The sun was over us and kept shining all the time.

We did not feel like going from this place, but we knew that soon it would become colder, and the sun would start setting.

Cycling home was easier as fortunately, the wind was in the same direction. We did not have to put in a lot of effort, the wind pushed us to our destination.

Happy with the amazing venture out in the woods on a cycle, we parked and started heading home. But my son had started playing in the sand. For another half an hour he played. Remember I told you before, kids don’t get tired of playing ever. Never.

A sunny day in the grey winters of Denmark, well spent.

It was truly a Hyggelig Sunday.