Sweden 1984

After our cycling tour in Denmark the previous year I started with a schoolfriend our first trip to Sweden. We took the ferry from Kiel to Gothenburg, and were slightly better equipped than the previous year. We set off on 26 June. My camera worked well this time but the art of keeping a diary was not very well established beyond a short list of things for some days.

26 June Kiel – Gothenburg

View of Kiel as we leave. Looking carefully you can still see the remnants of the Weipert cable car.

Drydocks in Gothenburg, very similar to Kiel.

Island in the bay in Gothenburg

27 June Gothenburg – Trollhättan 103km

After leaving the ferry we hit the road. We were surprised by the hilliness of the roads towards Trollhättan. We also had the first broken spoke.

28 June Trollhättan – Lidköping 79km

29 June Lidköping – Mariestad 60km

30 June Mariestad – Karlskoga 126km

1 July Karlkoga – Arboga 118km

2 July Arboga – Strängnäs 105km

3 July Strängnäs – Uppsala 115km

4 July Uppsala 30km

We stayed for a day in Uppsala, one of the two university towns in Sweden, the other being Lund in the South. We had a look around the cathedral and the university which features Sweden’s largest library.

Uppsala Cathed

5 July Uppsala – Stockholm 105km

The trip to Stockholm was ok until we arrived in Stockholm which we needed to cross to reach the the campsite south of the city. Most bridges and tunnels were closed for bicycles and also our maps were not detailed enough for city level navigation. Nevertheless we found the campsite.

6 – 9 July Stockholm 0km

We stayed four days in Stockholm site seeing. We saw the royal palace, Gamla Stan, Drottningsholm, the Vasa and other things. We used Stockholm’s excellent public transport for our exploration.

The royal palace

Gamla Stan

Stockholm

More Stockholm

The Vasa

10 July Stockholm – Mariefred 90km

11 July Mariefred – Trosa 60km

12 July Norrköping 115km

13 July St. Anna Söderköping 30km

14 July Vestervik 100km

15 July Oskarshamn 82km

16 July Oskarshamn 0km

We stayed here for a day to repair my bicycle that needed a new rear axle.

17 July Kalmar 103km

18 July Helsingborg 0km travel by train

We travelled from Kalmar to Helsingborg as we needed to be back home before the end of the school holidays.

Helsingborg

19 July Hornbaek 14km

20 July Nykøbing S 64km

21 July Korsør 92km

22 July Kiel

We arrived in Kiel by ferry from Korsør.

In total we covered at least 1593km by bicycle.

That’s me somewhere.

Runes

A big canon

We managed to repair our bicycles on the trip and our main conclusion was that we needed a better cooker and less clothes.

Map

Advertisement