"SO, have you come for a glass of Bernie?", the barman asked through a toothy grin, pointing at a wooden shelf packed with different-coloured spirit bottles.

Yes, I was definitely back in Denmark. Back in my favourite drinking den, Pepper's, and back in my favourite town, Ribe. Still, it was the first time I'd ever been toasted in a glass of a liquid named in my honour.

The last time I rolled into Ribe, I was on my marathon two-wheeled slog around the 6,000-kilometre North Sea Cycle Route, the basis of my book, Cycling Back to Happiness.

Ribe is a small town of 8,000 people, on the Danish Jutland peninsula, less than 50 miles north of the German border. It was a place I had fallen in love with straight away. A maze of hemmed-in, cobbled roads and fairytale half-timbered houses, Ribe could have leapt off the pages of a Hans Christian Andersen story.

I'd been invited back to Ribe by friends met on my travels, Gudrun Rishede and Jens Philipsen, who run the town's immaculate green hostel. The excuse was a book signing, but the trip ended up being about much, much more than that.

The main inspiration for my cycling journey was the untimely death of my dear mother, Marylyn from a brain tumour. She was only 56. I ended up doing my cycling trek to raise funds for Cancer Research UK and collected £3,600.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would inspire strangers in a foreign land to follow suit and take up the cancer cause in their own country. I spent 48 hours with Gudrun and Jens, as I passed through their town. Yet not only did they invite me back for a book signing, they planned a whole day of events around it, with all proceeds going to Danish Cancer Research.

I was stunned and a little embarrassed when they told me - all the more so when I arrived in Ribe to find my ugly mug on posters plastered across the windows of pubs, gyms and restaurants. I felt like Forrest Gump when he starts running across the world and random people tag along behind!
But it was a very enjoyable day – conducted in glorious sunshine. Apparently, the weather is always good when I am in town. So that’s three great days a year then!

First up, was a 25km cycle ride, with a pack of sprightly pedalling pensioners, back along the North Sea coast, which preceded the book signing at a local store. I sold books to a Viking with a twisted knot of a beard and the town’s legendary night watchmen. It was a good session, when you think this is an English language book being sold in a Danish town. I think the free red wine and nuts also helped tractor beam people in!

I was given an official guided tour of the town before being guest of honour at a dinner where I had to stand up and give a speech. Again, I was lucky that everyone speaks such good English, as my Danish stinks. Meeting people and hearing their stories was a humbling experience.

After the meal I was approached by an Irishman and his Danish wife. Sam worked on the North Sea oil rigs, operating off Esbjerg, and had read about me in a newspaper. A Geordie rigmate had recently lost his wife to cancer and it had been just like with my mother, the doctors were slow to realise the truth until it was too late. Sam bought a copy of the book for his friend, asking me to write a dedication: "I hope this helps you on your own difficult journey." I was choked.

No sooner had Sam departed than a Danish woman confided in me. She had lost both parents at an early age and like me, she said the experience had changed her life.She got the travel bug and, in her sixties, rode right across the USA on a Harley Davidson.

And so I ended up at Pepper's, my favourite bar, with its ever-smiling owner, Thomas. This drinking hole for farmers, Vikings - and on my last trip, a bunch of hard boozing Faroe Islands fishwives - was also in on the charity act.
Thomas not only named a drink in my honour, but decided to give all profits to the cancer charity, as did all the other event organizers, from the book store to the restaurant.

It was so satisfying to be involved in such an event, joining up with the Danes in such a good cause. After all, it doesn't matter if it's Cancer Research UK, Denmark or Mongolia which makes any medical breakthroughs. We'll all benefit!

It had been an overwhelming and emotional day and I was in a right spin -hardly helped by a few too many glasses of Bernie! And the ingredients? Well it was 40 per cent alcohol and looked like a rainbow in a glass! You’ll have to go to Ribe and find out for yourself!

Greetings from another UK blogger! Congrats on getting your book published. I know it isn't easy. I got really vlose with the first agent I contacted and it didn't work out so have to start all over again looking for another. I've a couple of bravenet blogs so pop by and say hello!