Hey everyone, first post here.
I'm planning to cycle from Aalsmeer (just outside Amsterdam) up to Umeå in northern Sweden this summer. Roughly 2,700km, solo, self-supported, through Germany, Denmark, and up the Swedish east coast. Aiming for about 28 days on the road.
A bit of context on why: I lost my job a year and a half ago and haven't been able to get back on my feet since. I also lost my home in Italy and everything in it along the way. At some point I just decided to stop waiting and start building something, so I'm launching a YouTube channel around this trip, a video every single day on the road plus one full documentary at the end.
I'm still sorting gear, currently in talks with a couple of bike brands about a proper touring bike, and figuring out the route in detail.
Has anyone done this route or parts of it? Particularly curious about:
Best way through Germany, coast or inland?
Ferry crossings, Puttgarten to Rødby or worth going further east?
Wild camping viability in Denmark and Sweden?
Anything that surprised you that I should know?
Any advice genuinely appreciated. Happy to share more about the trip if anyone's curious.
I've also set up a Go FundMe to help cover the costs of the trip if anyone wants to follow along or chip in: gofund.me/7f6e32cd3
This is a personal goal.
by AlexModernFreedom
10 Comments
Just read your gofundme bio and the above.
I’ve been unemployed and struggling to find work too. It sucks.
That said, parts of this are unrealistic bordering on delusional, and somewhat manic.
You don’t need to contact bike brands to give you a “proper touring bike”. Not only will they *not* do that, it’s just unnecessary. Any old bike will do. It’s not a particularly long journey in the grand scheme of things, and it’s a generally well built up and serviced route. Eg, it’s not the middle of Mongolia or the Andes. This isn’t some grand expedition. It’s effectively a standard cycling holiday. The notion that a bike brand would give you a free bike for this trip is absurd.
In your gofundme you again mention “contacting bike brands” for gear. I’m not sure what your goal is here but there’s not much gear you really need and they’re not going to hand out free gear for someone who effectively just wants a holiday.
Furthermore, your expectations that this series of videos would turn into anything viable as some sort of money maker via YouTube, in a heavily saturated market, is unrealistic. And that’s assuming you’ve got good media, filming and storytelling skills.
I know you’re not asking for financial advice, but given the situation, and you mentioning you would have to stop freelance work while you’re cycling… this sounds like a bad idea.
Having been in your situation, I’d apply the energy you’re putting into this, into how to make a living instead. That’s the most pressing thing for your survival.
Sorry to be a downer but that’s the reality IMO. Find work as a priority. Treat finding work as your full time problem solving job. Use your weekend for rest or local bike rides.
I’ve done what you’re planning on, as in going on a long cycling trip while unintentionally unemployed, instead of finding work, and it delayed me finding work for a lot longer than necessary. Although I didn’t ask strangers for handouts doing so.
Camping in Denmark is fairly easy. There are plenty of campsites and shelters where you dont even need a tent. There are also many public toilets and churches and cemeteries where you can get water. So far I’ve not used a water filter once here. Some free camp sites have a water tap too. The shelter sites can be booked in advance and during the summer they are fully booked, bit dont let that discourage you. People book them and often don’t show up, so I would just go there. You are allowed to pitch your tent there even if someone is there. But good to have a backup plan. There are also some forests where putting up your tent is allowed without being at a designated camp site.
Good luck on your trip.
Just fyi, any bike will do as long as the parts are decent. People are even touring for thousands of kilometers on small folding bikes. Sure, a 40€ euro bike might not be the best right off the bat but if you service it and maybe upgrade a couple of parts, then it’s totally fine. Old steel bikes are awesome and indestructible.
I sympathize with the job search situation, it totally sucks looking for work and not finding any. It can be demoralizing and mess up your self esteem. The entire global economy has taken a dump, everyones betting on AI futures and no one is taking risks – don’t take it personally and keep working on it.
I admire the confidence in your charisma, but if you’re looking to make any money off this endeavor you may be in for a rude awakening. Bicycle touring is a vacation, that *costs* money – not a vocation that *makes* money. Guys are literally crossing the darien gap on their way from alaska to argentina and biking through the andes, or crossing the steppes of asia on youtube and not earning any money. Biking through the flat and civilized parts of Scandinavia may not entice a ton of viewership.
It seems as well you have come up with the idea, but haven’t done the research. A quick google search will probably yield more useful results than this post for your questions.
Reg. that 40€ bike comment you made… Well, tbh? I’d much rather watch a dude struggling on a f*cked up 40€ bike doing such a nice journey through civilized countries than one doing that on a 4’000€ bike, unless you try to do the 2’700km in 4 to 5 days, or such a crazy stunt.
It’s not gonna be all that hard to do what you want with a proper bike. But seeing someone “fail” on a 40€ bike and recovering and seeing what he does to recover: _THAT_ **might** be a story. Ah… And I do **NOT** want to see the person *really* fail. The recovery and how to fix stuff, that’s what might be interesting.
While I agree with the comments that asking bike brands to sponsor this vanilla trip without much of an edge, seems rather unreasonable, asking never hurt anybody
That said; if money is so tight you can’t spend 1k on a 2nd hand touring set up; I would reconsider the heavy Nordic component of your trip. Sweden and Denmark are expensive places. To eat, to stay, to take ferries, … everything costs more money than you’re presumably used to in Italy. Wild camping is an option there though but unless if you intend on trapping a moose and foraging berries; you’ll still be spending a lot of money on groceries
This resource will help you with wild camping in Denmark: [https://eng.naturstyrelsen.dk/experience-nature/sleeping-outside-in-nature](https://eng.naturstyrelsen.dk/experience-nature/sleeping-outside-in-nature) Notice that its nothing like the free for all (allemands retten) in Sweden. Also, [Ruter.dk](http://Ruter.dk) will show the national biking routes of DK (some of them overlap with most international routes as well. )
Regarding the route on the baltic part, are you following the EV10? [https://en.eurovelo.com/ev10](https://en.eurovelo.com/ev10)
Quick update, woke up to a second donation this morning from a complete stranger. Didn’t expect this. Thank you to everyone who’s engaged with this post, it’s keeping me going!
https://preview.redd.it/0cgcu8eyf5ch1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99bb9536b76993b1349af3c72012069b297ca987
You can wild camp pretty much anywhere in nature in Sweden, excluding fields with crops and gardens, unless there are signs saying otherwise. Look up “Allemansrätten”.
Hi biking neighbour! I live in Amstelveen, sounds like it could be an amazing trip!
Wild camping in Sweden will be EXTREMELY easy. You can pretty much camp anywhere. Plenty of gravel roads you can just pop down and camp by a lake. It will get a bit repetitive with trees and lakes but it’s nice. You get to Stockholm and need anything, happy to help since I live there!