Day 18 – The Scenic Route to Næstved

Ringsted to Skelby, 22Km

The pilgrim setting off from Ringsted is soon presented with a choice of route. There is the cycle path along the main road direct to Næstved, 25Km or the Danish Pilgrim Trail to Næstved, which is over 40Km. Few people walking thousands of kilometres to Compostela can be bothered with scenic diversions along the way but I’m in no hurry so I chose the official trail. That means first walking 22Km to Skelby and then continuing tomorrow. But Skelby is not a place brimming with hotels and restaurants. There’s a community hall where you can sleep if you let one of the volunteers know in advance. It has a little kitchen and you can buy food in the village, I was told. I declined that and caught the bus to Næstved. I booked 3 nights in the hotel and will shuttle backwards and forwards on the bus to complete the walk in Zealand. It’s surprising how little accommodation exists in this region.

The scenic route was dull. I wish I had walked directly to Næstved on the cycle way. You would see interesting things like other people, shops and houses. The official trail could only offer fields of barley and rapeseed and just to upset the purists, it was all tarmac. There were some horses at one point and a few villages with locked churches and immaculately maintained graves. Tomorrow it will be more of the same when I return to Skelby just to walk all the way back to Næstved along the scenic route.