Detour #274: Island hopping from Copenhagen to Møns Klint, Denmark

Photo Shutterstock

Nik Berg gets misty-eyed as he recalls a childhood road trip through Denmark.

It’s one of my earliest motoring memories. Sitting in the back seat of a Citroën as my dad drove the family across Denmark from the ferry port at Esbjerg on the Jutland peninsula. We’d cross one bridge to Fyn then and then another to Sjaelland as we headed for Copenhagen and my mother’s many relatives.

Photo Ivan Berg

After a few days in the capital where I would badger my parents to let me go to Tivoli Gardens with my cousins, we’d inevitably be back in the car to head down to Møn, another of Denmark’s 70-odd inhabited islands (apparently there are over 400 in total if you count the unoccupied ones).

We’d drive south for what felt like forever through flat farmland, but was in truth, barely a couple of hours, before we’d once more find ourselves at a bridge – named after Queen Alexandrine, and opened back in 1943. It was across it on Møn that my grandparents lived and an aunt had a crumbling summer house. Holiday highlights would include hotdogs from the stand in Stege and ice creams at the beach at Klintholm Havn.

Photo Shutterstock

And there’d always be a trip to Møns Klint – the stunning four-mile stretch of limestone cliffs that tower over the Baltic and mark one of the highest points in Denmark.

Despite knowing exactly what was coming from previous visits, the stark contrast between all those miles of unbroken arable land, mostly empty aside from cyclists, with the ancient forests and the road’s sudden departure from the straight and narrow would always be exciting.

We’d climb slowly up through the trees, the gravel chattering beneath our wheels, and the path snaking left and right until eventually we’d reach the parking area. Then the real work began, mounting hundreds of wooden steps to reach the cliff tops and a vertigo-inducing view.

Years later, returning with my own children they too felt the anticipation on the Møns Klint Road – especially with the added promise of dinosaur remains at the visitor centre.

Words Nik Berg Twitter/X | Instagram
Photography Shutterstock / Levin Kort

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ROADBOOK

CLASS: ISLAND HOPPING

NAME: KLINT, southward

ROUTE: COPENHAGEN to Møns KLINT

COUNTRY: DENMARK

Distance: 92 Miles

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