Sweden (and Norway)

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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AndrewLynn
Posts: 17
Joined: 24 Apr 2008, 11:14pm

Sweden (and Norway)

Post by AndrewLynn »

Thanks to my boss, all my carefully laid touring plans for the year will have to be delayed 12 months. I'm off to Lund, near Malmo in the south of Sweden, for a 6 month 'Short Term Assignment'. I'm planning on taking my touring bike across on the ferry from Harwich.

So, instead of a weekend camping on the IoW for the Randonnee, a week in Brittany and an assortment of other weekend trips I have Scandinavia to explore! From the little I've seen of the area around Lund (taxi rides to/from Malmo, train across the bridge to Copenhagen airport) it's pretty flat and featureless. For my holidays I'm thinking I need to get a train north to find some more interesting scenery. My last tour started with a fairly miserable day cycling into a Lincolnshire headwind (fortunately rewarded with my mother's cooking and a good bed in Grantham) and ended up playing in Snowdonia. As you can see, hills are considered good.

Assume I have two weeks of holiday to play with and managed to get my camping gear as well as 6 months of everyday stuff on my bike+large rucksack, where should I go, the Norway stretch of the North Sea Cycle Route? Finland? Stay in Sweden?

More generally, are there any gotchas I should be aware of cycling in Scandinavia? A recent-ish Cycle tells me wild camping is allowed but this will be my first camping tour, previous trips have been light B&B affairs so I'm slightly hesitant about diving in at the deep end in a foreign country.

thanks
Tony
Posts: 408
Joined: 28 Jan 2007, 2:48pm

Post by Tony »

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/3503
Links in to my trip to Sweden. May be some useful bits there.
Local Swedish trains have an odd dropped vestibule, which can take bikes, but at the guard's discretion.

Where to go depends, of course, on what sort of cyling you like. Norway is canalised and hilly in many places; the narrowness of the valleys can make alternative routes difficult to find.
The East and North of Sweden is a bit repetitive, in the sense of lots of beautiful views of little lakes in the woods.
Bohuslan, North of Gotheberg, is gorgeous, and has a lot of history. There are many delightful islands to explore up the West Coast. I love it.
My friend's comment about the size of the country and the nine million population made me say "You lucky, lucky, bas......"

Drivers not too bad, big American cars very popular in the countryside, great swimming, and cycle route signs so small as to be almost invisible.
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syklist
Posts: 1243
Joined: 19 May 2008, 6:43pm

Re: Sweden (and Norway)

Post by syklist »

AndrewLynn wrote:Thanks to my boss, all my carefully laid touring plans for the year will have to be delayed 12 months. I'm off to Lund, near Malmo in the south of Sweden, for a 6 month 'Short Term Assignment'. I'm planning on taking my touring bike across on the ferry from Harwich.

[snip]
As you can see, hills are considered good.

Assume I have two weeks of holiday to play with and managed to get my camping gear as well as 6 months of everyday stuff on my bike+large rucksack, where should I go, the Norway stretch of the North Sea Cycle Route? Finland? Stay in Sweden?

More generally, are there any gotchas I should be aware of cycling in Scandinavia? A recent-ish Cycle tells me wild camping is allowed but this will be my first camping tour, previous trips have been light B&B affairs so I'm slightly hesitant about diving in at the deep end in a foreign country.

thanks

Which ferry are you taking? Harwich Esbjerg?

Sweden is pretty good for touring. Norway too with generally considerate drivers. We've done both the Swedish Ginstleden and NSCR routes in 2007 and all of the Norwegian NSCR in 2005. Plus several National Cycle Routes in Norway. Check here if you are interested in other routes. A circular route might be better as trains and boats around there can be relatively expensive.

Pretty much anywhere in the interior of Southern Norway would satisfy your climbing urges. The national cycle route 3 which runs North from Kristiansand would give you a major climb (2-3 hours at 5km/h) a day for a few days. From Voss you could take a train back to Oslo and travel to Sweden. Or you could head up from Voss up the Rallarvegen, and then pick up the Numedalruta down to Larvik. The hilliest bits of the NSCR in Norway are between Sandefjord and Egersund and further West between Stavanger and Bergen.

As for gotchas, some tunnels are closed to cyclists in Norway, usually there is a route for cyclists but sometimes not. There is a map available from the SLF. I can dig out the ISBN number if you are interested. In Sweden you can find places with plenty of mosquitos although we've not had that problem often in Norway. If the weather turns nasty it can be surprisingly cold. Conversely if the sun shines you have to us sun block and watch out for heat exhaustion.

If you want to know the exact rules for wild camping in either Sweden or Norway then just ask at the first Tourist Office you find. Campsites in Norway were generally a bit cheaper than Sweden at between NOK 90 -150 for two people and a tent, in the places we visited in 2008. Facilities are usually excellent although there are exceptions to this rule.

HTH
Stan
So long and thanks for all the fish...
AndrewLynn
Posts: 17
Joined: 24 Apr 2008, 11:14pm

Post by AndrewLynn »

Thanks both of you for the info. There's quite a lot there so it's going to take a while to get through it all, especially when I'm busy getting myself out to Sweden in the first place. Still, it'll give me something to read in the evenings before they get light enough for cycling. Call me a wouss, but I prefer my recreational cycling to be enjoyable.
Tony
Posts: 408
Joined: 28 Jan 2007, 2:48pm

Post by Tony »

Re the camping, I would get a camping carnet, which you can get at your first site. Some sites don't ask for them, but most of the ones I used did.
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