After Middelfart we continued through western Funen and stopped at Båring, a small place where the main reason to stop is not the village itself but the coast. Båring Strand lies inside Båring Vig, a broad bay on the north side of Funen, and compared with the Little Belt around Middelfart the landscape feels much more open and uncomplicated.

We mainly liked Båring as a beach stop. The official bathing area is about 1.2 kilometres long, with a relatively narrow strip of sand and small stones. The bay is generally very shallow, with mostly sandy bottom, so you can walk quite a long way into the water before it becomes deep. Part of Båring Strand has Blue Flag status, and around Molevej there is a public car park, toilets, waste bins, picnic tables, a bathing jetty and a beach-volleyball court. 

That made it much more useful to us than a beach with a nice view but nowhere practical to stop. It is not an elaborate resort and there is not a long list of attractions around it. There are summer houses behind much of the coast, but the beach itself remains fairly open and the shallow water makes it particularly suitable for spending some time there with children. 

Båring Vig actually extends much farther than the beach suggests, from the area near Røjle Klint towards Bogense. Several of northern Funen’s larger holiday-home areas developed along this coast, which explains why the area can feel very quiet while still having quite a lot of summer activity. 

A little farther along the bay is Båring Ege, where the coast continues for roughly another kilometre. That section is also shallow, with a mixture of sand and stones, and has a large grassy area, parking, toilets and picnic tables behind the beach. The western end is relatively stony, while the beach becomes better for swimming farther east.

There is one fairly strange piece of local folklore connected with Båring. A traditional rhyme tells of a giant called Ranke, who is supposedly buried somewhere between Båring and the sea and, according to the story, rides through the area during storms. It is still part of the local identity, although for us Båring was much less dramatic than the legend makes it sound.

That is probably also the best way to describe our impression of the place. Båring was not a destination packed with things to see, and that was fine. After the bridges, harbour areas and busier parking around Middelfart, it was simply somewhere to stop beside a decent beach, spend some time by the water and continue across Funen. The beach was the reason to come; the village itself was secondary.