At first, the weather forecast was pretty lousy—rain all week, hardly any sun, around 18–20 degrees.
Two days before I left, it changed to the exact opposite: not a single drop of rain, virtually no clouds, and temperatures consistently around 30 degrees in the blazing sun.
That wasn’t what I had in mind for Sweden, but it turned out to be perfect in the end—with all the trees and lakes, one can cool off if needed.
I started in Hamburg, taking the train to Rostock -> ferry to Trelleborg. I took the train every now and then, since I was on a tight schedule and had to catch the return ferry.
But that way, I was able to ride a loop along the Baltic Sea from Kristianstad to Kalmar, then up to Lake Vättern and back toward the west coast/Malmö and south to the ferry.
I had expected it to be flatter, but especially from Karlskrona onward, it got very hilly, and that really took its toll, especially in the heat on gravel.
The highlight was Lake Vättern itself and my first shelter in Sweden: a World War II bunker converted into a shelter (see photo). There I met another bike packer from Australia—it’s a small world!
But i had to fight my way through – what was supposed to be 4kms auf cycling turned out to be 4kms of carrying my bike over rocks n rocks. It was the hardest day by far, it took me 2 hours to reach the shelter. I didnt know its a hike-only passage and yeah i didnt want to turn around always hoping for the rocks to end.
Even better: next day was the same way back – mentally the hardest part of the tour, i just wanted to throw my bike and heavy panniers and run off haha
The drivers were super relaxed, the bike paths never ended, and I didn’t encounter a single pothole or anything like that. Swedish drivers also stopped at every crosswalk—usually even several meters before it—even though I didn’t not signal.
How do we manage that in Germany? 😀
And your English is top-notch, too, and you’ve all been so nice and helpful—love it! 🙂
by FabThierry