Cycling: Sweden (30 July – 6 August 2009)

After a half hour train ride across the Øresund bridge (the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe – no bicycles allowed though) we arrived in Malmö and had a wander round to see the sights (including an enormous and somewhat terrifying supermarket, and yet another fort). Then came the afternoon thunderstorm that seems to be typical of summer in Scandinavia. More meandering took us to Lund, and then onwards north through gentle rolling hills and crops.

 

Twisting Torso

 

 

Malmo fountain

 

That night we had our first experience with the rule that stands in the Nordic countries, of Everyman’s Right, or the Right to Roam. Roughly speaking, it’s legal to camp anywhere that’s not cropland or fenced in. If you want to stay for more than a couple of nights, you must get the landowners permission, and you must be at least 150 metres from the nearest dwelling. This made traveling through expensive Sweden and Norway a lot more affordable – as most of our budget went on food every day.

 

Heading out into the Swedish countryside on a lovely sunny afternoon – well it was sunny for this 20 minutes anyway, there’d been crazy rain squalls earlier.

 

 

Bikes lurking in a mossy forest – we set up camp here on our second night in Sweden – the thick dry beds of moss covered everything and made for a ridiculously comfortable nights sleep

 

The next day we cycled further north, and as the crops were replaced by forest, the hills became steadily steeper and we were shifting into granny gear for the first time since England. We then discovered the second perk to cycling in Sweden: the Bad Plats. A nice setup that could often be found on the many lakes, with a boardwalk looping out onto the lake – creating a convenient spot for having a swim and washing yourself and your clothes (with eco-friendly soap of course) when you were camping wild every night.

 

The Vaetteryd Grave-field

 

There are lots of barn-like houses, and barns, painted in that reddish-brown and white combination that I always thought of as American, but must be really a Scandinavia import to America. Bales of silage are covered in white plastic, looking starting against the bright green of the fields. As well as the farmland, lakes and forest, we visit quite a few old standing stones and grave fields – and notice that a lot of the towns have an interesting variety of statues, beyond the simple ‘model of relevant famous person’. The Swedish colours are everywhere too, blue and yellow flags not just on all the houses, but also on road signs, through town, on boats…

 

Moose! (For the next 0.2 – 1.0km… lots of very specific warning signs in Scandinavia)

 

 

Bad Plats – here we met Swedish bogans, and cooked dinner, and camped nearby

 

 

The statues aren’t getting any less strange

 

Cycling through Göteborg, I realise my perceptions of a place are greatly influenced by the weather. It’s hard to fall in love with a city when you only see it in the rain, and most cities seem at their best when it’s sunny. As a result I’m unimpressed with Göteborg, but Trollhätten on the following day seemed like a lovely place (it even had a girl with a ferret on a leash). I’m still not sure if the perception would hold if the weather had been reversed.

 

Out in the countryside

 

We spend our last night in Sweden at the oddly named Ed, camping in a real live pay-actual-money campground, having actual warm showers and getting all of our electronics charged up again. Tomorrow, we should be in Norway by lunchtime.

 

Leaving Ed

 

 

Roadsign – decisions

 

 

Emus in Sweden! What are you guys doing here in the rain?
They didn’t even speak Australian.

 

 

Standing stone

 

 

More beautiful lakes

 

Distance cycled: 668km
Flaginess levels: Extremely high!
Public toilets: Available
Wifi availability: Good
Groceries: Not cheap, not cheap at all
Mooses: Our time in Sweden was entirely moose-free, despite the signs advising of their presence.