Through Sweden on day 2+3+4
It’s roughly 650km through southern Sweden from Stockholm to Trelleborg. I’m not sure at this point whether it’ll take us 3 days or it would be possible to ride the whole distance in two. If we’d try in 2 day, it would be probably a hell of a ride, 300+km per day… this should still be holidays, relaxation from work n’all.
Let’s say, we do it in 3 days. The first is going to bear quite a bit of variety. The Silja Line ferry arrives at 6am in Stockholm, with breakfast before that at the buffet, oj oj, early wake up there. A pre-rush hour ride through the city center, we shold get to Södermalm in about 15mins and out of the area with most traffic by 7am. However traffic in Sweden is not problematic, drivers are nicest towards other participants in traffic. Try Germany or Finland, and you know the difference. A sign for a pedestrian crossing seems to say “step on the gas, you can make it before this older person gets in the way”, quite effective management of a countries retirement pension fund.
South of Stockholm we’ll face an area of rolling hills, but with a bit of luck the wind comes from the right direction. A couple of small ferries connecting the roads over larger bays provide places to rest and enjoy an additional sandwich that was sneaked out from the breakfast buffet German style or to chew happily on a tasty Power Bar. It’s either Söderköping or a place further south for a first night in Sweden, need to still find a good place and give them a call. Valdemarsvik would be good to get to, about 270km for this day.
The letter needles in the map below don’t mean anything, they were inserted to adjust the Goolge calculated route to a reasonable path. The “walking” option is an approximation that avoids motorways, but it then suggests to take the ferry to Visby on Gotland.
For the second day in Sweden the scenery changes and we head inland. Passing by Astrid Lindgren’s world in Vimmerby - a place i surely will get familiar with in coming years once the little princess gets wind of it - and the concert arena of the Hultsfred festival. Only smaller places along the way, as long as road conditions, wind and weather are ok, we should get pretty far, to Älmhult or even Osby.
The last day in Sweden would then be quite easy. Somewhere north of 100km in a rather flat area until we reach Trelleborg. The ferry to Travemünde leaves at 10pm. Anything going on/worth visiting in the southern tip of Sweden?
The days 4-7 in Germany tomorrow.
Go to part I
Go to part III
today’s training: easy run 14km, 1:06h
Tags: bike tour
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