Europe'16

Circle Complete

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Steven

Well, when starting this adventure from Oslo, I was unsure how far I’d make it. The body and mind held up and I’m now back in Oslo some 6-7,000 kilometres later having circled thru Scandinavia. Roughly ⅓ by sea, ⅓ by bicycle and ⅓ by train & bus.

The great thing about doing all this is the experiences and learnings along the way, whether history – like the Crimean War was actually fought here – or the people you met along the way- like the road worker who was also an Internet game moderator – or simply that the body could still take it again and again. It will also be nice to met up with the Swedish rowers when they come to Karapiro for the World Masters in the new year.

But a special nod to Steve with whom I shared a table on the Ms Lofoten, I hope we met again, as you set the bar for others to meet.

Cheers all.

Lillehammer -1994

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Steven

Lillehammer, the very sound is of it is Norway- what with the Winter Olympics et al. So I had to go there and I did.

Do you realise there are 934 steps from the bottom of the ski jump to the top of it? -that is after you’ve climbed the hill. Oh well… Definitely worth it.

I watched kids, born after the turn of the century, fly down the hill landing 60+ metres down the hill without effort. Back in town I evaded 50 year olds who needed walking poles to get to the next shop and bargin.

Once Again – Rain

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Steven

Perhaps it was best I headed back to Kristiansand yesterday and to the Budget Hotel as today is decidedly a rain day, pretty much non stop all day. The Budget Hotel is one of the more unique places I’ve stayed. It sits literally in the middle of a car park next to the ferry terminal and train station. Not pretty but basic. This is the view from my window.

But, it’s fine and I’d stay here again. So with not much to do, except get wet, I wandered around the centre which didn’t take too long and found a kid’s dream shop.

This is less than a ¼ of the shop.

Apparently it’s been a wetter summer than normal. But on whole I’ve been lucky with the weather. While it has rained a fair amount, either through luck, planning or being prepared, I haven’t suffered from rain that much. The wind though has been a bit of a bastard at times.

Almost Done

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Steven

In more than one sense. I’m back in Norway having taken the morning ferry to Kristiansand. They really pack the cars in. Not a place for those with claustrophobia.

It was a beautiful warm (actually hot) day and I decided to head up the coast. But….. Neither the legs nor brain had any energy and after some 15 kms of rather steep ups and downs I headed back to town. After all paying $60 to put my tent on a patch of grass beside some motor homes really didn’t appeal and the roads aren’t quite as scenic though well built.

Another Folly

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Steven

My quick trip to Denmark is over. It doesn’t take long to cross the country. This morning before catching the ferry to Norway, I meandered around part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall.

This particular bit is at Hirstall in northern Denmark. It cost the Danes about 10 billion kroner at the time ( yes, the Germans paid for the construction but pulled the money from the Danish National Bank). There were about 70 bunkers, anti aircraft platforms etc with three and a half kilometres of tunnels. Field Marshal Rommel even came and inspected it. Along the Danish coast there were some 6,000 bunkers built.

For the most part the German troops here were “Dad’s Army” – being 45-60 years old. There’s a certain irony in that this area is a tourist destination for older Germans due to its beaches.

On more pleasant matters, how’s this for a wholesome breakfast?

The full sugar load

And it’s goodbye to Denmark.

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.

Kalmar

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Steven

So it’s goodbye to islands, at least for awhile. I would have liked to bike the bridge from Öland – it is one of the longest in Europe at 6 km, but bikes ain’t allowed and so I had to take the bike ferry to Kalmar.

Somewhere I read that Kalmar is Swedens favourite vacation place. Last time I was here I won’t have agreed, but that was probably my mood at the time. The 17th century town is quite lovely. Check out the Cathedral – not your normal looking one.

On a slightly different and smaller scale, there was a couple of kittens looking out at the big wide world from the safety of their den.

The rest of the day ended up being a bit of a long one as I experienced miles upon miles of forest so just kept going.

Of course, having just pitched my tent. I expect it to start raining!

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.