Our journey to Stockholm, Sweden began on June 28, landing in Sweden on the 29th. Currently we're at our halfway point in Hamburg, Germany on July 13. So far we've covered over 600 miles by bike and because of an injury and some sickness we did another 240 by train. It's been an amazing adventure so far with a lot more excitement to come.
Day 1-3 were travel days and acclimating to the strange differences in Sweden. The Sun wouldn't set until 11pm, the Sun would rise at 3am and it never really got dark. It was tough to fall asleep our get tired at night. We stayed with an amazing family of 6 (2 girls 1 & 3, and two boys 11 years old) as well as a fellow cyclist biking around the world, Matt.
Day 4: Stockholm to Södertälje, 48mi. Spent the night camping in the woods overseeing a canal. Rained a good part of the day.
Day 5: Södertälje to Skarblacka, 105mi. We had a late start the first day and a ton of trouble finding our way out of Stockholm so we added some unnecessary miles by mistake and had a host to reach by nightfall. All of that lead to our first (and hopefully only) century of the trip. It was great to have a warm (and dry) place to stay. Met a 68 year old guy named Louw from Holland who rode with us the rest of that day and for several days after. Again more rain...
Day 6: Skarblacka to Vadstena, 66mi. Camped on a beautiful lake, Lake Vätten, weather finally cleared in the later part of the day.
Day 7 Vadstena to Jönkoping, 66mi. Rode into rough head winds all day, but finally got a break from the rain. Ended up doing a fair amount of climbing again but were rewarded with beautiful views of the lake. Camped on a small piece of land overlooking the lake again.
Day 8: Jönkoping to Bollebygd, 79mi. Stopped in a small town on our way to Gothenburg and camped in a park. Went into a restaurant to watch Holland play Costa Rica and rooted for Holland with Louw and celebrated the victory.
Day 9: Bollebygd to Gothenburg, 44mi. Stayed in a hostel in a room for 4, with Louw for his last night with us. (We're supposed to pass through his town as we travel through Holland so a reunion is in order!)
Day 10: Gothenburg, 0mi. First day of rest, went out to see the city. Took a ferry to explore the islands with some people from the hostel and ventured around on foot. Interesting fact, Gothenburg is really Göteborg in Sweden). As we said bye to Louw, we gained a new companion Pedr a 19 year old cycling from here to home in England solo. We invited him along to ride with us the next few weeks.
Day 11: Gothenburg to Falkenberg, 81mi. Took off at 11am with Ped, rode all day into head winds. We were feeling pretty good after resting, but didn't quite make it to our destination because we got lost a few times. Camped on a beach overlooking the sea. Beautiful.
Day 12: Falkenberg to Mellbystrand , 56mi. Had a late start, rode for a while but stopped for a few hours on a beach to rest. Finally made it to a campsite in the woods way short of our destination and far from stores. No dinner tonight.
Day 13: Mellbystrand to Copenhagen, Denmark, 60mi. Felt awful today as a whole. Must be the incessant head winds and lack of hearty meals. Rode as long as we could and stumbled into Helsingborg, the last city in Sweden before the ferry to Denmark. We opted to take a train the last 30mi to Copenhagen and couldn't have been happier to do so.
Day 14/15, 15mi around town. I (Gottfried) got a stomach bug and stayed in most of the two days in the hostel. Had to switch to a hotel for the last night in Copenhagen and went out on the town just to experience it. We had Ethiopian for dinner with Henry's friends and went to a concert under a bridge which was very cool.
Day 16: Copenhagen to Hamburg. We opted to take a train to Hamburg because of health, but more so to be in the big city for tonight's world cup championship. We couldn't bee more excited to be in Germany while they play Argentina in the world cup final! What a once in a lifetime opportunity! Staying with a host for the night in the city.
Looking ahead we have another 10 days of riding, and either a day of rest tomorrow or sometime later in the trip as well as an extra day in Amsterdam. We'll be biking through the Netherlands along the north and west, through Belgium to Bruges, then our end date is ideally the 25th in Paris, the 26th at the latest. The Tour de France ends on the 27th in Paris, can't wait! Hopefully the second half is easier than the first, but equally as exciting.
That's all for now, stay posted for more pictures to come (when WiFi allows).
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