Day 1 1st June.
Gothenburg to Stenungsund
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| The first off road section |
I thought my tour had ended just after we left the hostel as I was crossing a road and the bike just didn’t want to go forwards. I got off to look for the problem and saw what I thought was a broken gear hanger sticking into the back wheel. Immediate panic set in as I thought I was going to need quite major repairs. In the event, it was the luggage strap that had become dislodged by the rear pannier. In turn this had become entangled in the back wheel. It took a few minutes to get everything free, but it was do it yourself job rather than looking for a bike shop.
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| Lyngdal |
Our hostel was south west of the city centre and the course in the sat nav started near the railway station. The easiest way to get into the city centre was to drop to the waterside and ride along with the water on our left. It started well, and I was thinking how great that, firstly, there were marked segregated bike paths along our route and, second, that where there were road works there were signed diversions for the cycle paths. The it all seemed to go wrong. As we got close to the city centre there were major road works and somehow the signs disappeared. We met a young lady who was almost in tears as she was struggling to find a way across the road works to get to work. Ricky asked a chap, “Which way to Norway?”, and his directions just gave us enough to be able to link into the course in the sat nav, and we were away. It took us two hours to get out of Gothenburg. Getting through the road works brought to mind a quote I’d heard applied to Lancashire the year before – “Aye, lad, I’ve ‘eard it’ll be nice once it’s finished!”
Now, once we got out of the city it was another story altogether. Let me say there's no doubt Sweden is finished. It is stunning. We stopped for some food in a small village and after that we went on some unmade roads that were incredibly steep uphill. We were not happy. We then spent a couple of hours cycling through forest and by lakes passing houses made of icing sugar, then to arrive at the equally stunning coast at Stenungsund. We even found a small takeaway pizza shop for lunch.
We stopped for the night at a Youth Hostel / camping ground right at the side of the sea. It had been a beautiful sunny day and the evening was similar so we had a walk around and talked at length with the chap who ran the place together with his wife. We reflected on life and the privilege we had in being able to immerse ourselves in “proper” Sweden and away from the tourist trail. One of the things that struck us was just how whole families came out to play in the beach / park areas. This was as we walked into town and through a park area where there was much going on as youngsters played volleyball and generally enjoyed themselves.
We had not achieved our desired mileage for the day but we were mindful that accommodation was not abundant and we were well satisfied with our overnight stop and the opportunity to talk with others.
Lots of photographs were taken.
Day 2 2nd June
Stenungsund to Lysekil
We had an early start as we were most disappointed to find that there was no breakfast at the hostel. It proved to be another hot and sunny day of very pleasant cycling, and we were pleased that we had (almost) achieved the daily mileage that we were aiming at without any difficulty.
We rode out of Stenungsund on the main road crossing high bridges well above the fjord below. We then left the main roads to spend most of the morning on quiet roads. We had our first stop after ten miles (Skapesund) where we took up residence in a car park with spectacular views and picnic tables! After breakfast we moved on another three miles before stopping for lunch at Varekil where we found a shop selling a kebab salad. We shared one for lunch – there was a lot of it, enough to feed us both quite royally. The roads were becoming ever quieter and we had two small ferries at various points in the afternoon before arriving at Fisbackskil where we caught the ferry to Lysekil.
We had a lovely evening in Lysekil staying in what was quite a nice hotel that was very 1940’s in its furnishings. In it’s heyday it had hosted Swedish royalty. There was a painting of King Oscar keeping an eye on us in our room. In the evening, we were sat outside the hotel watching the local kids going round and round the town driving quite big cars. Most of these were big old fashioned things - we saw a ford Thunderbird from the 50's amongst them. All were being driven within the speed limits although the decibel limit might not have fared that well. When we arrived we had asked about somewhere to leave the bikes. Just leave them outside was the gist of the answer. So we have. It's a nice society where you can do that.
Day 3 3rd June
Lysekil to Grebbestad
We had a good breakfast in the hotel before going out to find the bikes exactly where we had left them. We loaded up and set out in hot and sunny weather once more. Today, we were more inland but we had wide open roads with very little traffic. As always, fuelling was a priority and, after 13 miles, we found a roadside shop at a crossroads where we stopped for coffee and cake. This was followed a mere 17 miles later with a lunch stop at Hamburgsund where we sat at a picnic table watching the small ferry go back and forth.
The afternoon continued. We had various discussions about where to look for overnight accommodation. We had found a couple of hostels / camping places on the map, the first of these being at Fjallbacka. Had we stopped at Fjallbacka then we would have done about 40 miles, so we pressed on towards Grebbestad, but we took the long route around so we could pass the camping ground outside Fjallbacka – just in case. This did rather add to the miles as we sort of went around three sides of a square, as Ricky pointed out when we landed back on the direct route from Fjallbacka to Grebbestad and he saw how many extra kilometres we had pedalled.
The Garmin again took us straight to the door of the hostel in Grebbestad and we were given an external room with four bunks as that meant it was easier loading and unloading the bikes. The hostel was quite full as there was an art event of some kind taking place. We talked briefly with two ladies who were sat outside sipping wine; one had just sold a house somewhere and was feeling quite flush! We talked a lady who was in the next room to us, and we shared how impressed we were with the weather in Sweden. She advised coming back in the winter when it was dark, cold and rainy. Hell, she called it!
We were also visited by Jürgen the yachtsman who was sailing his yacht more or less along our route.
We bought food from the local supermarket and then had a walk out along the waterfront in the evening. As always, it was beautiful. This was going to be our last night in Sweden and we wondered if Norway could be as beautiful. It was going to be our last night as we had decided to take the ferry from Stromstad to Sandefjord. In effect this saved us a couple of days riding towards Oslo where there was a ferry between Moss and Horten. The decision came as we were concerned about the amount of miles per day that we were managing and also concerned that the hills in Norway may slow us even more. By taking the Stromstad to Sandefjord ferry we were giving ourselves more time to get to Bergen at a slower rate. It seemed a good plan at the time although, with hindsight, we may have done better sticking with plan A. More on that later.
Day 4th June
Grebbestad to Stromstad
There was no food at the hostel but our host had recommended a bakery just down the road. He wasn’t wrong. As much food as you could wish for with copious amounts of coffee to wash it all down. Who needs bacon and eggs? I’m getting quite acclimatised to the idea of continental breakfast!
Today was a functional ride. We abandoned the North Sea Cycle Route proper and took the most direct route to Stromstad to catch the afternoon ferry for the four hour crossing to Sandefjord. That said, we were still riding through magnificent scenery on quiet roads and we were struck by the amount of lupins growing wild along the roadside.
We passed through a number of resort type towns, all with camping sites and we also passed by the “Daftoland” theme park. It looked fun but we resisted temptation!
All went well with the ride and ferry crossing although we had some difficulty in finding accommodation when we arrived in Sandefjord, eventually settling for a night at the rather posh Scandic Park Hotel.
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