- 206160 km on the bike
It would be an easy thing to bike over the Fehmarn Sound Bridge and then onwards via the Puttgarden - Rodby ferry to the Danish Island of Lolland. But I am not here to ride boats (especially not with today's force 8 gales blowing), I am here for biking. For this reason I am taking the long way round this morning and head westwards around the river estuary near Kiel, over the Kiel Canal on a ferryboat and around the inlet of the Schlei near Schleswig.
The wind is very strong due to a storm out to sea, but I have deliberately plotted my course for today a bit inland, so I am not getting the worst of it. Aside from the wind the weather is sunny, though very chilly for the time of the year, no more than 14 degrees Celsius.
A few miles north of Flensburg I am passing into Denmark, into the Jutland province. Supposedly more than 80 people live here per square kilometer, but the road I am driving on could just as well be in the Alaskan outback; no traffic, no people and all the small villages are bypassed by the road. At Vejen, more than 50 miles inside Denmark I finally leave the road and drive into the town to get myself a few Danish Crowns out of a hole-in-the-wall.
From Vejen I continue due east, back to the coast and the bridge over the Little Belt. Of course I take the Old Bridge and soon find myself on the island of Funen. My plan is to continue straight away over the Great Belt via the Belt Bridge. However, big signposts announce that the bridge is closed for "light vehicles" due to the storm - and that includes motorbikes. Approaching the coastline I can see that this precaution makes sense; the wind is nearly blowing me off the bike as it is, not to mention crossing the open sea on a bridge 200 feet above the furious waves.
So I call it a day at 4.30 pm and check into a hotel at Nyborg - with a view of the bridge. This snapshot I did through my hotel room window:
I have a walk through the picturesque town in the evening - the wind is slowly dying down, so hopefully I will get more than just a view of the bridge tomorrow. The prices in Denmark are hefty; a pizza and a coke in your regular downtown pizza joint will set you back by about twenty Euros and I am told by a local couple that this is one of the more reasonably priced places around. Marcellus knew it already several centuries ago; something is rotten in the state of Denmark...
- 206570 km on the bike
Next morning the wind is still blowing from the North, but the bridge is open for motorcycles now. That ride over four miles of open water is not really that impressing. The Danish Island of Zealand is not overly awe-inspiring either - flat country, open fields, no curves and fairly crowded. Most tourists are in haste to get to their destinations. They ride on the motorways. I however prefer the more scenic northern route along the Isefjord on narrow country lanes. That's why it takes me over two hours to reach Helsingør. Again, most tourists heading for Sweden take the new Oresund bridge to Malmö, while I take the slow ferry boat into Helsingborg on the Swedish side.
Once I am out of the urban area the fun begins. This is the Scania province, the southernmost part of Sweden. Green country, small villages and great, empty roads. This picture (which is stitched together from three photos) gives you an idea of what to expect out here:
I have also already noticed a couple of other things I very much like about Scandinavia and where other nations, especially France, should very carefully note the difference:
- Shops are usually open until 9 pm, even in rural areas
- Breakfast is always included in the hotel room price
- Breakfast is usually the best of both worlds put together; always fully cooked as well as continental
- Petrol stations are open all weekend
- Petrol stations outside business hours take bank notes as well as any type of credit cards
Another thing I noticed is that the many speed cameras they have out here all take the picture of the speeding motorist from the front. So unless in your home country bike license plates are also mounted on the front of your bike you could in theory pass them at any speed you like, just don't forget to smile into the camera. For me of course the legal speed limit of between 90 and 110 kph is more than enough. I am here to enjoy the countryside, not to set a new land speed record.
Swedish being a Germanic language means that I can also read most of the road signs, though understanding the spoken language is next to impossible for me.
I end the day at the coastal town of Kalmar in the Småland province at the local airport hotel, the Sir William.
- 207550 km on the bike
Motorbiking is harder work than most non-bikers will appreciate - I slept again liked a rock last night and after the above mentioned mega-breakfast Scandinavian style I am ready to tackle more of this glorious countryside:
I am biking through Östergötland this morning. Rich pastures and curvy roads - this is biker paradise. After a lunchbreak at Linköping I ride on and do not even stop to take pictures. The compass rose on the GPS is pointing due North, so after another 500 km I finish the ride at the town of Hedemora. There is only one single hotel in town, the "Stadshotel". The place is big, old and made from solid stone. There is a sign at the reception; walk through corridor and check in at the Kings Arms Public House. Very strange. The room is fairly cheap at 540 crowns. Even stranger. I have a beer in the pub and turn in early.
At about 11 pm an enormous noise starts outside. Have the Vikings invaded the town? Impossible, everyone usually is a Viking around here. I find out that the racket is caused by hundreds of drunken Swedes that are starting to have a party in town.
It is Saturday, and apparently Hedemora is the party venue for all the hillbillies from the surrounding outback. Swedish people also have an affinity to old bangers build in Detroit or Milwaukee - lots of old Chevy's and Harley's cruise the roads, usually featuring an exhaust system which by looking into the exhaust pipe allows a clear view of the exhaust valve mechanism; they are infernally loud. The racket goes on until 3 am - and for the first time I do not sleep like a rock.
- 208100 km on the bike
Below is the usual map with my GPS tracklog.