Bicycling – Europe'16

A Road less travelled…

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Steven

the better. Once again, I woke to the soft sound of rain on my tent. Actually I woke several times during the night curtesy of drunk or snoring campers next to me.

I am now adept at packing up my tent from the inside so only the fly sheet looks like it just came out of the bathtub. The campsite kitchen was off limits til 8am, and I couldn’t be bothered cook outside in the rain so I headed off in search of a good bakery. 2 coffees, 2 chocolate fidled croissants and 2 almond swirls later I was on my way.

A Rain Dance – Aalborg

Today would have been another 100 plus day but, with the humidity and rain, I decided to take a more direct route to the coast. Now Denmark has really good bike paths and routes, but the direct ones are alongside the main roads so the trade off is that traffic is heavy and the scenery is wee bit monotonous.

Of course I could have hopped on board one of these but that would have been too easy…. Anyway the rain had stopped.

Tomorrow it’s back to Norway via ferry…

The Ups and Downs

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Steven

Every trip has its down moments and with bicycling, it generally is due to a combo of physical and mental fatigue. Today was that day. Having said that I really shouldn’t have had coffee at 9pm last night so a lack of sleep might just have played a part. Luckily my ride today was following a converted rail track just about the entire way to Aalborg, which meant it was flat. Perversely flat can be harder than hills, maybe the unchanged rhythm without the curse of a hill followed by the joy of a downhill. – whatever.

Once again, the friendship of bicycling prevailed as a guy who teaches history at the University of Aalborg guided me thru the bike paths toward the campgrounds.

As I go, I associate each country with mascots, sounds or sights. For Norway it is the mole, as they are forever tunnelling, Finland it was rain and wind ( sorry Finland), for Sweden ,it is potatoes- where else would you see programmes and ads ( that I couldn’t understand) devoted to potatoes but also the moose as I actually saw them on bike trails. For Denmark it is that particular metallic sound of a beer can tab being pulled. At this campground it is like the 1812 overture with beer can tabs instead of cannon.

The view from my tent – not much space here!

Lunch with the Bronze Age Folks

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Steven

For once my bike Dynamo was used to power lights instead of iPhones, camera et al, this was because I arrived off the ferry at 11:00pm. Grenå marks the start of the final leg of my tripping around Scandinavia. It being the furthest south I go and now I head north toward Oslo.

The weather is such a fickle thing, it started by promising fine sun and a gentle wind to push me along, but as the day and I wore on, it started chasing me with heavy showers that I tried to stay ahead of, unsuccessfully of course, and eventually I was completely soaked, but my bike is now clean(er).

Earlier in the day, I stopped by a Bronze Age Settlement – not that anyone still lives there – and ate lunch and made a cup of tea. It’s slightly strange to think that on the very same spot, some 5,200 years ago people went about their everyday business in a world so totally different than to today.

Top left is a the remains of a small round Neolithic barrow. Not much left now and the missing stones are probably part of a cow barn somewhere.

Top right is the remains of a house/temple used for rituals. How do I know? ‘Cos archeologists found 28 funeral clay pots and its structure resembles that of the tombs.

Bottom left is a burial mound, somewhat reconstructed, but it was the biggest one in East Jutland. The big cheeses were buried in the centre and the mere mortals in side chambers (bottom right) The entrance is 10 metres in length so it would have been pretty damm high.

This is my umpteenth ferry and I had it all to myself. The NZ$3.40 fare included a coffee and a chocolate – not bad. You may notice that the clouds had by now outflanked me and were getting ready to have fun.

A final day in Sweden

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Steven

Note to self – avoid Coastal Areas of Sweden during month of July. In all my time I’ve never seen so many motor homes and caravans. I was going to ride up the coast toward Gotenberg, but by the time I reached Varburg, it was a no more of this! The bike trails I followed, for the most part were alongside busy roads or on them. And, whenever there was a beach, it was crowded with shapes of alsorts.

Varburg Castle was best seen from a distance as, close up, it was surrounded with booths, games for kids etc.

So I’ve decided to catch the ferry to Denmark and see if it’s any better there. But on the plus side the weather was sunny, warm without much wind. From talking to locals, the summer so far has been bad, with wind, cold temperatures and rain so I’ve been quite lucky.

I’m knackered but have a new fav city

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Steven

It was going to be a reasonable distance day. It was a calm foggy morning as I left Atvesta.

Happy Cows

I think the highest I reached in crossing Sweden was 210 metres above sea level and today it felt like over half of my day was following converted railways like this, nice and flat.

trail

Which was fine, just like the weather, except that I reached my intended destination by 2pm, so, being not too smart, I pushed on toward the coast and ended up doing 160 kms ( or about 40ks more than I’d recommend.

however ther’s always a light at the end of the tunnel as I discovered my new favourite city – Halmstad.

Halmstad

Maybe I get a photo or two tomorrow, but there’s about 30 rowers from here coming to the World Masters in New Zealand next year. Yes I managed to find the local boat club.

Along the Way

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Steven

Going slow and on country roads affords the opportunity to find pleasant surprises like this seemingly nondescript bank just outside of Gemla.

I noticed a small sign so stopped to check it out. Turned out to be a early or late Bronze Age burial chamber surrounded by a cairn of stones. Originally it was 11 metres in length and about 7 metres high but it was damaged when they broadened the highway a few centuries later. Below is the burial chamber (at least what is left of it). I’ve highlighted it for more easy viewing.

Burial chamber

Apparently there’s some 90 of these around here and I often wondered whether the piles of stones as I rode along were from a farmer clearing a field or cairns.

Another pleasure is the bountiful supply of raspberries beside the road.

There’s interesting difference between the countryside and city. On the whole I find modern Swedish towns rather stark in architecture. Below is the town of Alvesta on a Monday afternoon.

While the country has a more pleasant architecture, below is an old country bridge beside a mill.

Just another day

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Steven

The middle bit of southern Sweden is flat and boring. It must be where IKEA design their furniture. However a giant or troll spent time wiggling their toes here as the road was a roller coaster of short ups and downs. There was the occasional visual relief from the pine trees.

I even stopped for the ritual drying of the tent.

Although this is still a more comfortable place to dry the tent out 🙂

I know that summers are short up here in Scandinavia, but it felt like autumn had arrived today what with the cool wind and grey skies. The feeling was further emphasised by the deserted streets of Vaxjo on a Sunday afternoon.

I am curious

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Steven

I’m truely intrigued as to why, like lemmings, Swedes go en mass to Öland and Gotland so they can pack themselves into caravan puarks like sardines, then visit the same “attractions” en mass, whike ignoring much of the countryside around. The main road on Öland was a long traffic queue yet I was cycling empty roads a short distance away.

On the side road, one has the chance to meet with fellow slow travellers,

And discover ancient history like this pile of rocks which could be

A pile of rocks
Where I lost the key to my bicycle lock
A convenient rest stop

The answer is of course – some of the above (I found my key) but also it’s a Bronze Age Burial Mound circa 1000-1800bc. All I can say is they must have hated the guy to have piled some many rocks on him.

I almost met the Adams family, at least, I think this was their summer house.

Öland – we all make mistakes

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Steven

One of the things Öland is famous for, is its limestone, and, for a while,it seemed that the north west coast was a discarded quarry, ironically quite a scenic cycle ride that was interspersed with shaded wooded areas.

There was even a camel farm along the way to entertain the kids.

However all good things must come to an end. Having spent the day in calm forests and with seas views, I decided to head toward Borgholm where there were at least 5 campgrounds. After all Borgholm touts its Baroque (ruined) Castle as must see and the King and Queen are in town for some event today.

Well, this is what 300 kroner (NZ $51) buys you at a campground here. A patch of grass next to the main road, oh, and it’s started to rain and the camp wifi doen’t work…. And you pay extra for a shower.

At least I get to share this with enough motor homes to solve Auckland’s housing crisis for years to come.

Circling Gotland

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Steven

I’m not one for churches, or temples etc, but Gotland has so many you can’t avoid going into some of them. This was my church of choice, somewhere in the north of the island.

It was the inside rather than the outside that I liked as it had the original , faded, medieval wall decorations.

As ever the wind was hovering around 35 km so I was either gleefully freewheeling or grinding slowly along.

tomorrow evening I’m going back to the mainland as Gotland at the peak of the tourist season is not really my cup of tea.

Slow Travel

Posted on July 8, 2016 by Steven

The wind has quietened to a zephyr, probably because it knows I’m getting the 00:45 boat to Stockholm. It’s a beautiful warm late afternoon. I’m sitting in a wood typing this with just the sound of seagulls. For the last three days I’ve been doing the cycling version of slow food. Not travelling far but stopping frequently and sampling the local fair, be it museums, food and attractions or whatever.

My lunch spot

There was a delightful little museum displaying the paintings of a artists colony from the early to mid 1900s – it reminded me of the paintings in Mogs flat!

Art Colony Museum

Then I spend the better part of 2 hours at a small café run called Lumparby Ollas by Peter. By my reckoning it was out of the way, by his reckoning it was close to town, of course he had a car. It was only open in the summer and in the winter, he runs his sled dogs as a hobby. Apparently when the sea freezes, you can get to to the Finnish mainland in about 8 hours by dog sled.

Lumparby Ollas Cafe

The harbour where I catch the boat is Långnas. It’s about 30 kilometres from Mariehamn and only used because of Alcohol. To explain, the EU banned duty free between member countries. This slashed the revenue that the ferry companies made. But because Åland is a self governing body it was declared an exception so all ferries stop there and people travelling between Sweden and Finland or Estonia can load up on Booze.

Last Leg to Tromso

Posted on July 3, 2016 by Steven

Well, today was going to be either great or grating. The winds were still stronger on the south (the route mostly east) and there was rain looming. But there there was also a couple of relaxing ferry rides……

Turned out to be a great day despite the early rain, the views, as ever magnificent.

The final run into Tromso was a breeze, I was free wheeling on the flats – I just felt sorry for those going the other way – not really.

So after 540 kilometres of riding from NordKapp, I’ve completed a circle of the top of Norway.

Two Unusal Highlights

Posted on July 2, 2016 by Steven

Now you’d expect the highlights to be the views, fjords, etc etc of Norway but today it was first, finishing the days ride (‘cos I was knackered) and secondly a Thai Penang Curry with Reindeer Meat – spicy and with no pasta, no cream no potatoes.

Last night I camped north of Burfjord and about 2-3 kilometres away along the fjord, the local camping ground was having their annual music festival, starting at 10pm and going to 3am. Hearing Proud Mary sung with a heavily Norwegian accent at 2 in the morning will have to be one of my more humorous moments.

Tomorrow I cycle to Tromso.

The Characters you meet.

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Steven

It was much too hot for the young guy holding the stop sign at some road construction, after all the temperature was nudging 17 degrees C and the sun was about to poke thru the clouds. He had recently returned from Salt Lake City. He had gone there after meeting some fellow Norwegians and Americans on the Internet. No, Not what you’re thinking, he moderated an online game and all of them often played against each other so they decided to get together in Utah and actually meet in person.

Last night I stayed in an AirBnB along with two effervescent Israelis who had shops in Alta and Tromso selling Dead Sea Salts. But the important thing was they had real coffee from Israel. The first decent coffee I’d had since New Zealand. There are two things Norway could do to improve its standing in the world (1) learn to make coffee, it should not come from a machine with blinking lights and (2) be less expensive.

Actually, while on the subject of Norway, although I’ve seen quite a few reindeer, I have decided that the Norwegian national mascot/animal should be the mole as they are tunnelling everywhere. Today I passed quite a few on my way from Alta. I think the purpose of these tunnels to ensure drivers have some darkness during summer, and are not distracted by the stunning scenery. However the government has been very thoughtful of bicyclists as we are not allowed in many of them and are required to cycle around the hills and mountains while admiring the views.

To end the day I dutifully followed Will’s (Physio back home) instructions to ice my knees, well, it wasn’t ice but it was crystal clear and icy cold…

Onto Alta

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Steven

Had a rather good breakfast at the Smarthotel – I am not sure why it is named a Smart hotel, possibly it had technology so advanced I couldn’t operate the coffee machine. Anyway it was nice and comfortable. I then took the fast ferry 2 hours south to Alta, leaving a sunny Hammerfest

for a grey wet Alta

However the journey was, as ever, a visual feast thru the Fjords and the skies cleared up in Alta where I did the tourist thing, visited the Museum with its World Heritage Rock Art, as well as the Cathedral, which, to say the least, is unique in design and was closed, thus relieving me of the obligation to go inside.

Okay so the sky wasn’t really that colour. Opposite the Cathedral at the Scandic Hotel was yet another coach loading up with folks about to tame the journey up north to see the midnight sun at NordKapp