You’ve probably seen the pictures by now, but this is the first time I’ve had a chance to write about it. Last month I cycled from Oslo (Norway) via Sweden (including Gothenburg) to Denmark (Aarhus). Ok, yes we did get the ferry for the last bit - we did only have a week off work, after all!
We were completely underprepared, having bought £1 tickets a couple of weeks previously in Ryanair’s flight sale, which seems to happen every other day at the moment. And yes, their business model did end up making them a profit, because we had to pay for the bikes on top - £25 each bike each flight. My friend also checked in luggage (another £16, and watch Michael O’Leary’s eyes light up), but I decided that since my mountain bike hasn’t got a back luggage carrier, I’d just keep everything in my small everyday rucksack. Watching my friend struggle with two loaded panniers every time we stopped for a sandwich, or rather a smörgåsbord, I was pretty pleased with my decision.
Though we didn’t have any books (and none seem to be available, at least that we could find), many a happy hour was spent on Google trying to find out what the terrain was like, what the weather forecast was, and how many kilometres two city girls could expect to manage in a day. The weather was easy, a bit of creative googling eventually sorted out our mileage, but nowhere could we find anything about the number of hills. Eventually a man from Sustrans told us the route probably wouldn’t kill us, which is all you can ask for really. Our first obstacle (of surprisingly few) came when we tried to book the shuttle to Stansted Airport. Bikes? On a coach in England? You must be joking. A friend of a friend kindly drove us to the airport at 4.30am instead. Once there we had a great time with Allen keys, bubble wrap and packing tape, trying to make the bikes plane-worthy. I don’t think anything we did actually protected the bikes, but they got through Ryanair’s checks, as well as an X ray machine! Ryanair looked after them very well actually - there are lots of horror stories on Google, and I was worried we’d arrive in Norway with two crumpled heaps of ex-bike, but they were perfectly ready to go, apart from having to put the pedals back on and twist the handlebars straight.
For navigation I imagine most people embarking on a cycling tour would buy a cycling map, a normal route map, or maybe even GPS. Not for us! The night before I downloaded Nokia Maps for my phone (which doesn’t even have GPS) and it actually served us very well. I’ve never knowingly met anyone who uses Nokia Maps before, especially since Google Maps went mobile, but I would have had to pay roaming fees abroad, so Nokia it was. The user interface is a bit clunky, and the search function doesn’t find small villages very well, but the level of detail is excellent, and the file sizes are very small - I’ve got all of Scandinavia on my 1gb card, as well as England and lots of mp3s. Legal mp3s.
The cycling itself was not too bad at all - I was worried we’d end every day absolutely exhausted and begging to stop from the safety of our respective hot baths, but I had absolutely no ill-effects, not even a twinge. Most nights we arrived at our destination while it was still daylight, which was lucky because my wind up lights were a pain to use. There was cycle path probably 50% of the way, which was amazing considering so much of it was countryside. My bike to work in London is about 10% cycle path, and that’s after a cycling campaign. Thanks for nothing, Boris. We didn’t take much of the North Sea Cycle Route because it was not very direct and we had a lot of ground to cover, but we still had a lot of amazing views, as well as getting to see the non-touristy side of Scandinavia.
Our insight into the ‘real’ Scandinavia continued with our sleeping arrangements: we slept in hostels most nights (all beautiful, and one had a sauna!), but two nights we couch surfed with very kind hosts. Anna and Majoy live in just about the middle of nowhere, by a beautiful still lake. In the evening we walked rounded it and then went back to cook for them. They gave us their bedroom while they slept in Anna’s art studio. Karolin lives in Gothenburg and gave us her entire flat while she was on a night shift at a women’s shelter. I hope all three of them come to London soon to visit.
On our last day we woke early and got the morning ferry over to Grenaa, from where we biked to Aarhus airport. We had plenty of time and took a winding route through lots of tiny Danish villages. On the way we stopped at a garage and begged them in a combination of Danish and French (needs must!) for something to wrap our bikes in for the home journey. They kindly obliged with a wad of huge plastic bags, which we cut open on arrival at Aarhus and taped round our bikes once more, causing rather a spectacle in the tiny airport.
Having had the experience, I may now be slightly fitter, but the cycling was probably cancelled out by the vast quantities of Swedish bread and cheese I consumed. If nothing else though, cycling has given me two new skills: preparing cheese sandwiches with one hand, and removing my camera’s lens cap with my mouth. You never know when those things might come in handy. I can’t wait for next time!
