We will be staying in central Copenhagen and I was interested in doing a short cycle trip somewhere outside the city. We will have 2 small children with us and my wife doesn't have the cycling experience or desire to ride in an urban area. We did a fair amount of this along the Mosel in Germany recently and was interested if there was something similar close to Copenhagen. We'd like to take the train or metro to a scenic bike path where we won't have to share with motor vehicles. I know probably unlikely, but ideally we'd be able to rent the bikes with the child carriers when we exit the transport and not take them on. And this would only be for a few hours or half a day. Bonus points if we can view one of the "Forgotten Giants". I'd appreciate any recommendations. TIA
My first idea is to take the S-train to Klampenborg (You can take the bikes on the train) and visit Eremitagen; a former hunting area with a hunting lodge (royal measure) in the middle.
- You can bike around the park and go back to Klampenborg,
- You can bike around the park and go to Bakken, before you go
back - You can bike through the park, find the stream (Mølleåen) north of the hunting lodge and follow it to Lyngby, where you can take the S-train back.
On this route you will see no Forgotten Giants nor Trolls.
For Giants and Trolls use https://trollmap.com/ to find an area with a few close together and the use Google Maps to actually find them. One off-hand suggestion is to go by S-train to Albertslund Station and find "Lille Tilde" and "Thomas på Bjerget". It's a nice area and there is a nice restaurant close to "Lille Tilde".
Here is a Giant-specific day trip that combines bikes and public transit. There are more Giants now than there were then (2017), and it's likely there are newer blogs about how to see them by bike. The ones I saw (by car) were in areas that I would not describe as scenic, except for Oscar Under the Bridge, who lives at the beach.
https://oregongirlaroundtheworld.com/copenhagen-2/day-out-in-denmark-finding-giants/
I asked a similar question a few months ago, because we thought we might spend a day biking when we were in Copenhagen in May. I found this map, but maybe you've already seen it since you use the 'forgotten giants' terminology:
https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/activities/six-forgotten-giants-bike-route
This might just be me, but I have a hard time using trollmap to find precise locations. Apparently the trolls are also on google maps so that could be helpful in locating them and planning your trip.
Visit Copenhagen also has this list of bike rental options, although it might not help with your preference for renting after exiting transport since iirc most of them are fairly central to the city:
https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/activities/copenhagen-bike-rentals
(In the end, we didn't do much biking while in Denmark. We did use Donkey Republic bikes one day, including a trip to Sanka Suttetrold.)
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. After a little debate, we will skip the bikes this time and use the trains to go go troll hunting for our oldest daughter. The deciding factor is to avoid bringing the bikes on the train. If it was just the bikes, no problem. But 2 bulky bikes with (a) child carrier(s) and 2 small children (1 and 5) is a little intimidating navigating transport in a capital city. I searched for rental places near the suggestions above, but didn't find anything suitable. Thanks again for the responses.