Denmark!

Approaching Denmark, weather is crap, when I got off the ferry I could not escape the rain, but a couple of hours later the sun came out again. I'm in the outskirts of Copenhagen now, have not decided on the sleeping arrangements yet...

Goodbye Sweden...

...and good afternoon Denmark!
Taking the ferry from Helsingborg to Helsingör in 5 minutes!

Made the local newspaper in Stockholm.

The day I left, a reporter from the local paper in Stockholm came and took some pictures and talked to me some more after having interviewed me on the phone the day before. It is now in print, in Swedish though, and distributed for free.

 

http://www.mitti.se/index-mitti.php?p=tidn&t=solna

Hailstorm in Viken

First milage free day. Staying with some old friends in the south of Sweden. Tomorrow I'm taking the ferry over to Denmark, hopefully the sun will show itself again before I cross the boarder. More to follow!

Time for bed!

The tent is up, great place in the woods, it is however quite dark outside, the sun will be up in 2 hours. I will not.

Midnight Brompton express, dinner included

In Ljungby now, eating some dinner before continuing through the darkness. The town is dead quiet, so I have the bus stop all to myself.

After a rain and thunderstorm...

...there is sunshine, even after 9pm. It's gotta be my good karma finally kicking in!

Crazy storm and head winds!

I found some refuge in a burger joint off the highway south of Värnamo. Just had dinner but think that I'll only manage another 2 hours or so in the rain before I set up camp. Other than that today has been good. I've seen three or four bikers out on one man tours, so I'm not alone on the roads!

Day 3, 387km (yesterday)

Nice and sunny yesterday, and another 52km to the plus account. Good speed during the day, averaged 16km/h, when I reached Husqvarna and Jönköping it started to go a bit slower. Good roads and friendly people. It was a pain getting out of town though, so when I finally found a decent hiding place I quickly got off the road and hung my hammock. At 11am I woke up because it had started to rain. I had cover beneath the trees so this was not a problem. My water just finished heating up so it's time for brunch!

Data:
Distance: 152km
Average speed  15km/h
Temp: 27C

Sleeping in my hammock tonight

Done 158km today, but it all went really slow the last couple of hours. Very hard to find a decent placd to sleep, and now the sun is on it's way up. Will update data in the morning/noon.
Good night!

No rest for the wicked

All night on the saddle, just got to Jönköping where the whole town is out partying. Not me, my bike looks like a Christmas tree with all the lights pinned on it.
Safety first.
135km so far today, 16 degrees outside so nice and fresh.

Pit stop

An ice cream and some more sun by the lake Vättern, closing in on the town Gränna with speed. Beautiful scenery now all the way to Jönköping.

Dinner time!

It's hard to find good shade in this part of Sweden, all you see is open fields for hours at a time. 67km so far today. Now I'm just waiting for my drytech food to warm up, then it's back on the road :)
Temperature is around 25 degrees, if there was a lake nearby I'd go for a quick swim.

Back on the road.

Late start, done 20km so far, 26 degrees and very sunny. Good roads and not too much traffic.

Day 2, 235km

Change of plans. Instead of pulling an all nighter on the road, I decided to stop in Linköping. I went for a swim after my first ferry ride and was later invited to go and drink a beer with a new found friend in his recently bought summerhouse. Tack Andreas! The water was nice and warm as was the weather. I managed to do 35km more than my daily minimum, which is 100km, so I can add those to my "plus account", and use them on a rainy day if there is one. So far my Helly Hansen bike clothes have kept me nice and dry, so no complaints there! Tomorrow I plan to reach Husqvarna or Jönköping, so stay tuned. Good night!

Data:

Distance: 135km

Average speed: 15,7 km/ h

Top speed: 47km/h

 

Göta Kanal

Famous Swedish landmark :)

Shopping with a Brompton in Norrköping

Passed Norrköping and hour ago and bought some energy bars for tonight. I'm planning to stay on the road until dusk and then get some sleep, we'll see how it goes.

Day 1, 100km

I left Gamla Stan Cykel (the bike shop) at 9am and getting out of town took some time. It was hot and sunny all morning so I considered stopping to rest and cool down for a couple of hours but that never happened. The GPS knows the way all the way to London, so if everything goes according to plan and technology doesn't fail me, all I have to worry about is pedaling on. I only slept 4 hours last night, so I'm going to bed early tonight. The tent is already up but it's still quite warm outside. Sometime during the day, the thermometer showed 26C! Time for bed!

Good night!

 

Data:

Distance: 100km

Average speed: 13km/h

Top speed: 49km/h

 

Less than 34 hrs to go!

Now rolling on a six-speed!

With less than two days until I get going there is still some preparations left to do. Today I spent all afternoon fitting a new back wheel, the bike is now a six-speed Brompton, a M6R. I've also fitten new handles and a GPS tracking device that will update my position every 10 minutes when I'm on the road. Other than that, my new clothes from Helly Hansen fit perfectly and I will post a detailed review of each piece of clothing as I go.
My good friend Karl Hallin has kindly lent me his Garmin Edge 800 GPS for this trip, with that, finding good bike friendly roads to London should get a whole lot easier.
At the front I've also fitted a 1400 lumen head light, at night, it looks like daylight in front of me.
To power up my iPad, GPS, MP3 and phone I've mounted solar panels (860mAh) on top of my new front bag, they charge up a 6600mAh battery which in turn charges up my electronics on the road.