Day 16
I’m in Kolder, Denmark.
It’s a turning point. I can head east and island-hop to Copenhagen and then up via Gothenburg, or I can go to the north of Denmark and take the ferry to Norway.
Decisions, decisions. If I do the first one it will be a bit of a ferry marathon, and I’ll not realistically bother to go to Oslo as it will be a there-and-back, but should I miss out Copenhagen? Also the wind forecast will make option 1 a lot easier.
Stats: day 130 km; total 1035 km.
Day 17
Carry on northwards to Arhus, which is pretty uninspiring. The Danish countryside is fairly flat and has a nice variety of farmland and woodland but it gets a bit monotonous after a while. These are my only pictures today:
Day 18
The weather has turned quite dramatically. Although I’ve had a headwind most of the trip so far, it’s been warm and sunny. Not today. It’s blowing bft 7 N (againsterly), driving rain, and the wind chill says “feels like -4C”. I’m in lowest gear even downhill and struggling to stay upright. It gets pretty hairy at times, some of the roads don’t have cycle paths and Danish drivers are not used to that, they are the masters of the close pass. This is particularly unpleasant in these conditions when they’re driving an artic.
I knew about the weather beforehand and booked ahead for just 80 km away, but even so it was tough going. I’m glad to have booked a rest day there.
I’m staying in a classic old Danish farmhouse on the coast, it’s beautiful and cosy. The owners are a lovely down to earth couple with home-schooled smalls and we have some great chats. I spend the rest day on walks out to the sea and to the nature reserve, between the frequent showers.
Day 20
Head up to Hjørring to be ready to get the ferry from Hirtshalls. It leaves around midday and so I didn’t think I could get there in time for today, but the wind has dropped and I probably could have done it with an early start. So I arrive in Hjørring at lunchtime. Quite strangely the city centre is all but deserted for a Saturday lunchtime, with a couple of the coffee shops open and mostly everything else closed. Is this a Danish thing?
I have my first equipment failure — one of the clasps on my panniers has lost one side of the clippy thing — but the bike shops are closed too. It should be good for a few days at least.
Spend the extra time cycling out to the other coast to see the dunes, but it’s mostly the same scenery. I think I’ve had sufficient Denmark now.
Danish food is very so-so, and for a right-on/woke population they’ve not heard of vegetarianism. But the marinated herring is absolutely gorgeous.
Day 21-24
Ferry to Norway takes the best part of the day, but it’s raining constantly anyway. Paid a few quid to upgrade to “Business Class”, which isn’t much: free coffee and cakes but no wifi, and the quiet is full of the sound of snoring.
Ride up to Oslo, including yet another ferry to cross the Oslofjord, which confuses me by being free. There’s not a lot to see in Oslo, but it does have a rather good bike shop where I get the pannier fixed.
Then out to Sweden. Crossing the border’s a bit tricky, there’s a short section of motorway on the Norway side which has to be circumambulated by taking a gravel path marked “private”, then on the Swedish side a long section of single-lane which is pretty hairy as everyone else seems to think it’s still motorway.
Norway and Sweden are both very beautiful, pictures don’t do justice to the great cycling experience. There are lakes and fjords everywhere and there’s plenty of climbing but nothing too hard.
Day 25
Årjäng to Kristinehamn, roads are fairly flat, there’s an international cycle route that crosses Norway to Sweden called the Unionsleden but it is unfinished and disappears completely at many places, throwing you back on to the state highway. There are not many roads in this part of Sweden and most of the roads off the highway are dirt/gravel and stop at the first settlement. Where they do exist, they are quiet and straight.
Day 26
The weather in Sweden is so changeable. Yesterday was glorious sunshine all day. Today started with pouring rain, and most of the day was dark, showery and windy. At 5 PM all the clouds disappeared and it’s like it never rained.
Met the first touring cyclist of the trip. A Polish guy with not much English, he’s headed basically the same route as me: Stockholm then Finland, Baltics, Poland. He’s going really slowly though, so I carry on ahead. Some time later he finds his legs and we meet again, just before I turn off to take the back lanes while he continues on the main road. And then again at the supermarket.
The countryside is more populated heading east, so there are more smaller roads, which makes for a lovely day of cycling despite the weather.
Day 27
Stockholm is 165+ km away, that seems like too much, but split in two is too short. I’ll see how it goes. Also the Stockholm Marathon is on today.
When I stop for elevenses I have a puncture. First one in 2000+ km. It takes ages to both find the cause and extract it. That settles it, I don’t have enough slack now for the distance. Also, with the bike upside down (I know, I know) I look to tighten the seat clamp to stop the annoying creaking and find the clamp plate is broken. It might have been like that for years, but now I know it’s there I’ll have to fix it, it would be stupid not to.
I relax, slow down the pace, stop for a relatively long lunch. But I’m still making fairly good time. Outside Södertälje, which has a bike shop and guest houses, I have an argument with myself: I’m not in a hurry, just stop here, go to the bike shop, chill out tomorrow. Pull out phone to book accommodation, looked at the time (3 PM) and distance (57 km) and booked a ticket on the ferry.
No idea why I did that, I get quite stressed about missing connections. Obviously the next 57 km are going to be slow at the end of the day, then I hit a diversion, followed by road closed by a car crash, and another road closure… then the marathon to navigate around.
I needn’t have worried, it’s much more relaxed here, no 2-hour check in. Strava tells me that was my second fastest 100 miles. I’m now cruising out through all the islands on the way to Finland.
Day 28
Off the ferry in Turku, Finland, planning to ride north-ish for a day then south to Helsinki. Weather is lovely, but at lunchtime I check and tomorrow is forecast for rain and cold. I change direction to give a shorter distance for tomorrow, and this turns out to be a good move — I’m on the quiet back roads heading for Karkkila, through the forests. Gorgeous.
Day 29
The day starts with nice weather at 7 am, but deteriorates rapidly. The scenery changes to more rocky and the hills more rolling, but outside Helsinki it starts raining quite heavily.
Pop into the bike shop to replace the broken seat post clamp. I think I was lucky to get away with this:
Helsinki is damp and dark, good trams, but only found one Moomin:
Distance so far: 2365 km