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Sweden


On deck. ... Helsingborg. Looking back to Denmark. Kronborg. That was impressively efficient. 43 minutes from being on the road in Denmark to being on the road i... This street looks like an artist's impression. The bus shelters have grass on top. There is still some construction work going on. Wherever a path is closed, there is one of these str... Helsingborg. I've been told that as well as there being an app which lets people pay to use these scooters, there... Workers on a roof. Google suggested quite a convoluted route through Helsingborg. Part of it probably looks quite like ... I think all the grey slats in the windows are blinds to keep the sun out. The windows which face in ... A water tower. Some kind of double-ended Swedish elephant? Helsingborg seems remarkably quiet. I've just come between some quite large blocks of flats but the ... Even where people are around, there's not much noise. Hello? Would you buy a spa bath from this? Aha! Proper cykelparkering. The corridor carpet has a road theme. There are two bunk beds folded away, which explains the ladder. The long shoe horn next to it is a s... There seems to be a hint of French about this hotel. The entrance was labelled as "entré".... The next few days are going to be sunny. Oh. It seems that they've changed the coins since I was last here. The nickel ones that I've brought... That's where the charging port is on an Audi. Really? This far South? By the way, after walking along ... A shopping centre flying the flags of Scania. I'm in Sweden, don't you know? ... Some scenery. There are three roads crossing this scene so in real life, I could see vehicles gliding along all of... I know you might have seen enough windmills already but this one has a flag next to it. Hasslarp. A mailbox. This stone is dated 1864 and is marked "1/4 MIL". I remember from my previous trip here th... Warning markers in Swedish colours. This is how I remember Sweden: hot with lots of red barns and a feint smell of wheat everywhere. Las... A house. A dead end which I came down by mistake. A hospital. A bridge in Ängelholm. Ängelholm. Here, I increased the air pressure in the rear tyre and put some more oil on the pedal crank in an a... Ängelholm. About every 10 metres, there was a name in the road but with no obvious explanation. Ängelholm. Ängelholm. I've seen a lot of cars in this kind of style yesterday and today. This is weird. The road contracts and there are bus stops for buses in both directions in the narrow... A plane comig out of Ängelholm Airport... ... and another coming in. I would later learn that the airfield is also where Koenigsegg is based. The view ahead towards what will probably be the biggest hill of this whole trip. A view. Förslöv. The church looks like a giraffe. The only place I could find to sit and eat my ice lollies was in the car park of a school. It's Sund... A dam on a little stream. Going up the hill. Another view. Barns. A rather tattered flag. Wood. I remember scenery like this from my 2003 trip. In fact, whenever I'm anywhere like this now, it alw... These have just reminded me that I also saw pink flowers at the roadside all over Sweden on that tri... A patch of cleared forest. A better view of some blue and yellow warning signs. I wasn't intending to go this way but it's too smooth to resist. A view of Halmstad, my destination for tomorrow night. In 2015, as set off from Blackpool one mornin... Another streamer flag. The sign prohibits camping, which I can't imagine anybody has ever wanted to do here. I'm glad nobody asked me where I was going to today because this is the name of the town. Actually, I'm staying just outside Båstad, in Riviera. There are two bike parks out here, another in the courtyard, and bike parking in the underground gar... The hotel is enormous. It's a 150 metre walk from reception to my room, with pink flamingo footprint... Fairground mirrors in the corridor as a distraction to break up the long journey. There's a seating area outside my room... ... oh, and one inside. Very strangely, the bed is in this room where it only just fits so you have to come in through a dif... I pulled back the curtain on the left and found another bed and a bunk above it which can fold down. My balcony with a view of a cycle route which goes through to woods and into the town. I can see the sea. It's over there between the land and the sky. That joke makes more sense if you k... Another shoe horn. These aren't something that I remember from 2003. The only bike parked in the courtyard is a Brompton, whose owner has folded it up to save space. A small path to the beach. That's the hilly peninsular which I crossed earier. There's an almost uninterrupted sandy beach all the way from here to tomorrow's destination. I won't... A dabbling bird. The sea is remarkably calm, even though this isn't a particularly sheltered bit of sea. It's the Kat... The sun setting behind Båstad. Shells. A bird's upper jaw and beak washed up on the beach. View with jetty. Another bird. "Shallow" The water is clear and calm enough that even from the end of the jetty, I can see the ripples in the... View from the jetty. Båstad. A small beach hut. I think they may have built this hotel far too big. It's on the beach and this is a hot sunny week i... The breakfast room. So far, the two Swedish breakfast buffets which I have experienced live up to th... The view from breakfast. A small river flowing into the sea, which is still amazingly calm. I've found a designated cycle route going from Helsingborg to Gothenburg but it obviously doesn't go... This road with a cycle lane runs for several kilometres a few streets back from the beach. The beach at Skummeslövsstrand is firm and flat enough that it's also a car park. The tidal range he... Skummeslövsstrand. Skummeslövsstrand Skummeslövsstrand I followed this man and his deck chair for a couple of kilometres. He was going quite slowly but I'm... An old van at a hotel. A grass-covered garage. Looking along the road to the beach. I really would expect this area to be busier on a day like this... This is a restaurant, although that's not very obvious. I had to look it up later to find out what i... The cycle route. There's moss growing right upto the roadside. My route takes me past a motorway rest area. The horse was just standing there. It briefly glanced at me but showed no great interest. It's as if... Today's ride is only 40 km so I will arrive too early unless I waste some time. I thought of going a... I parked my bike and started walking towards the beach but I didn't like to let the bike out of my s... Looking towards Halmstad. Tracks in the sand. Some cows. Birds on a stony part of the beach. I've now reached the only rocky part of today's section of coastline: the villages of Laxvik and Påa... This house has huge windows facing the sea and is pretty open-plan inside, meaning that I could see ... I have moved from Scania to Halland but when I looked it up later, I found that this is actually the... This road is only for bikes. A level crossing on the bike route. This won't have a typical Swedish look when it's finished. I've come into a supermarket. It has what looks like a bottle recycling machine. In 2003, I ate Piggelins the whole length of Sweden. A Swedish-coloured car wash. The Max hamburger chain, to the right of centre with the pale blue roof, is something else which I u... I am coming to like the self-service screens at McDonalds. They give a choice of languages and then ... I ordered something called a "Big Truffles & Onions". I still don't know what the truf... The first of quite a lot of strangely-dressed people that I would see in Halmstad. Here are some more. Most of the people heading in my direction were dressed link this in white teeshirts, black shorts a... Halmstad. This counter shows that 2655 cyclists have crossed the bridge today and about 540000 in a year. I do... Halmstad. A clock in the main square in Halmstad. Halmstad. The Family Entertainment Park is shut. Here's where I'll be staying tonight. A few days ago, I mentioned that on my 2003 trip, I was impressed at how German hotelliers could spe... 1. It's not necessary to tell people that if they are having difficulty remembering a number, they s... The hotel car park. Some of the streamer flags in Sweden, like the one here, have the right colours ... One of the apples. Evening sunlight on the front gargen and the road outside. I sat out here for nearly two hours writi... It's quite warm fot 7:24 in the evening, with the sun about to set. Hey look, a shoe horn. My laptop's disk activity has been at 100% for about 13 hours now. It looks like it's unpacking a ne... Ready to go for another day. On the back of a German car. It looks like this was once a water feature. The road North. A golf course. A path across the golf course. As I approached this junction, my plan was to coast round the corner, come to a stop in the shade of... Garden furniture made from old cable drums. A large group of walkers who emerged from a field as I was approaching. To the left of the trees, you can just see the sea. One of a pair of touring cyclists going the other way. Another bit of coast. A hotel, or possibly just a restaurant. I'll go onto the road to avoid it. Coastline. The top of a distant ship. There's a man sunbathing on top of the rocks. Hungry cows. Even the weeds here are blue and yellow. Two lorries which happen to have arrived at the same narrow bridge at the same time. A little dam. The church at Skrea. A converted railway line. Okay, so I've got 77 hours to go 67 miles. Shouldn't be too hard. The path temporarily leaves the old railway. My journey into Falkenburg was mostly on paths through the woods but here's a brief glimpse of the s... Some of the roughly shaped gravestones look quite Nordic. I also saw a few here which were lying aga... Falkenburg. A very small recycling bin for bottles and cans. You might be able to see some old stone bridge supports in the river. They used to carry the railway... Falkenburg. It looks like it must be a sundial but I couldn't see how it worked and thought that perhaps there w... At the crossroads, there is somebody going up the hill on an electric skateboard. Falkenburg. There's so little wind today the most of the turbines aren't turning. These two were both turning sl... The little hut says that it is tourist information and looks like it does have some useful informati... ... and the Moon. Scenery. This is the kind of thing that I was thinking of when I said those gravestones looked Nordic. One wh... Several of the other guests at the place where I was staying last night were cyclists on an organise... Given how deserted those lovely sandy beaches were when it was really hot and sunny yesterday, I'm s... The sea. Birds. The path on the left looks like it was probably once a branch of the railway line, possibly going to... Varberg Fortress. Looking towards the town. Some heavily-loaded tourists. I didn't really mean to include both of these pictures. My hotel is now open but it seems a bit rude to arrive at the earliest possible opportunity and leav... Varberg. The level crossing gates here are shut for much longer before the train arrives than those in the Ne... The English Park. It includes a bed of cacti. My hotel. There's a painting of a door where you expect the door to be, and a painting of a guest sh... As I set off for the short ride from the coast to my hotel, I noticed that the left pedal seemed wob... My room is tiny and hot but has a selection of books. There are more bookshelves throughout the hote... There's quite a warren of corridors and they all look like this. There are some little flights of st... A sign in the room recommends using the wired Internet connection because it's faster than the wirel... I cleaned the pedal and took it apart to see what the situation was. Comparing it to old photographs... That's not how you spell Båstad. The building on the right is a posh hotel, with a mobile phone base station antenna painted black to... There was some rain while I was inside cleaning my pedal and getting my laptop powered up. The cloud... I don't know what the building is. It's clock is wrong. The door is closed but there's a sign on one... Varberg. Varberg. It's a brass sculpture of some water bottles and buckets but the taps on the bottles actually work. My hotel's smoking room, which smokes even when there's nobody in it because it has candles. The beach hasn't changed much. The toilets have a normal frontage in a row of commercial properties. Sun and clouds. The railway here is quite busy. I can hear the level crossing bells from my room. One of the books on my shelf. Looking along the railway towards the station. I was hoping to get a picture of Jupiter's moons on this trip. Jupiter is now setting quite soon aft... Near the fortress. The streaks are bike lights. Varberg by night. The indoor swimming pool. While sitting in the chair, my foot touched something under the bed. I reached under there to see wh... The shower curtain rail is made of plumbing. The hotel is getting a new sign. Some covered railway wagons in parked at a warehouse next to the harbour. Railways. The visitor centre at a nature reserve. There was some heavy rain and thunder in the night. The sky is quite light now and it's not raining ... A house in a rocky landscape. About half an hour into today's ride, the pedal fell has fallen off again. I put it back on and it l... Looking towards the thunder. A train. the same train. I think that I am on the old single-track railway, and that when the railway was expanded to two tra... It looks like the railway use to go straight on here. Topiary. There's a man in a cycle helmet sitting with panniers at a table next to a small local supermarket, ... I'm not sure what this used to be. It's a similar shape to a windmill but not tall enough. I've seen several robot lawnmowers in the last few days. A football pitch hear here had a large one. Seasore with birds. There's an orange glow in the sky in the West. One of those vehicles is transporting a hovercraft. I'm checking my map underneath the motorway, out of the rain. The main road where I saw the hovercra... Piles of stones. I have just come over the hill on the right. The section of main road which the Kattegattleden avoid... Somebody here has a collection of stock cars. Just after I had taken this picture and got back on th... Kunsgbacka station. My hotel is the building on the left but I'm currently standing by the closet un... The view isn't great but the window opens fully. They're getting bigger! I didn't show you last night's but there was one. That's five out of five fo... The remote control here includes something called an "Air Mouse". My supply of sweets is running a bit low so I was hoping to find somewhere to buy some more tonight.... Kungsbacka. An information board near here explains that the earliest record of the town dates from ... The people of Kungsbacka don't need ... Kungsbacka. Kunsgbacka has far more restaurants that I had expected. Here are some of them. The garden of the library has a meandering path of stepping stones. What I think is funny is that th... I was surprised that the shopping centre and all of the shops in it are still open at this time of n... The library. A labyrinth, and a tree which is festooned with babies' dummies. A band is now playing at the red-fronted restaurant in ... The clock in my room is trying to project the time onto the ceiling but it isn't doing very well. Th... As well as the "Do not disturb" sign, there's also a sign to warn cleaners that there's a ... Going through the flood defences. At frequent points along the river through Kungsbacka, there are lifebouys, poles and also ladders. ... Some soggy yarmbombing on a bridge. A playground. The road below me is the one which I should be following but I haven't realised that yet and am abou... I could go and see where the toilet roll dispensers come from but ... The cycle route, which is labelled as a "tourist route", goes through a motorway junction. This is the beginning of one of Gothenburg's tram lines. Strangely, the trams don't loop around this... ... angered. A river which has been underneath the motorway for a while re-emerges just to the right of this pict... I've happened across another theme park. That's the third on this trip so far. My plans for the rema... Some of the tram lines go into those two tunnels on the left. My map says that the building above th... ... it looks like a new tunnel is being dug. A musuem with one of the theme park rides looming over it. The bollards are seals. I checked later. It's about air pollution, not just deodorants. Ullevi, the venue for the final of Euro 92 and a semi-final of the 1958 World Cup. Ullevi. Nearby is this statium, which is called Old Ullevi even though it opened in 2009. It has that name b... Pram parking at a library. Gothenburg. When choosing a hotel in Gothenburg, I considered the Opera. What I don;t understand is why its logo... Gothenburg. From here, I can see three different brands of those scooters. I guess these must be what ... There's a cat in the pink box. Gothenburg. "This flag isn't working" Gothenburg. I'm going to go and have a look what that is. Gothenburg. Gothenburg. The four-masted ship is the ... Gotheburg's actual opera house. Tourists on board the old battleship HMS Småland. There's also a lightship. Well, I've seen the rest of ... I'm trying to avoid going to my hotel because I won't be able to check in yet but I can already see ... The harbour. I think that's the boat to Germany, with the Älvsborg Bridge in the background. Boarding doesn't sta... The River Göta. The ship on the right goes to Frederikshavn in Denmark. I don't know what the catamaran is for. The ... Steps. The steps are on the left in this picture. The long green building is an interesting shape. Its left... I'm now going to wait here by the river for half an hour. Hire bikes and one of the river ferries. It's a pretty frequent service. A tour boat. Another ferry. A detail of the green building. This white T-shirt? Well, I have brought three T-shirts for cycling in and so far, I've worn this on... My room has a view over the area where I've just been sitting. Passengers getting off one of the ferries. I've seen a few of these. They have very wide wheels and also look like they have battery packs. Sunlight on the water. It went so dark earlier that I thought the sun had actually set. I know it's been setting well after... The round characters look a lot happier with the stairs than with the lift. The lift has doors on bo... The river just before sunset. A building whose neighbour has been demolished. It looked like the child was pedalling so there must be another chain that we can't see. This city has engulfed whatever rock formation used to be here. Feskekorka, a fish market built i n 1874. Its name means "Fish Church" because it looks li... Gothenburg. Gothenburg. A bare shop with a few racks of clothes and a man lying on a couch browsing his phone. At the very b... Gothenburg. A closer look. What's going on there? The shop under my room is called Mr. Cake. My view at night. Is that a ski? My room isn't particularly big but there's enough room to sleep on the windowsill, behind the curtai... The ferry from Denmark arriving and turning in the river. I'm currently in the place where I was waiting yesterday afternoon before checking into my hotel. I'... On the beach. A signtseeing boat going past the foot of a large crane. I'm surprised because when I looked up sign... A group of these birds were on the beach for the whole time I was there, which was nearly three hour... A little boat, which was flying a German flag although you can't see that very well in the picture. A large grey boat going up the river. It looks like there's a large shed being constructed on the roof of that collection of buildings. Two round towers. The information that I've seen suggests that the catamaran is still used on the route from here to D... The Gothenburg seafront. The road, the cyle lane and the ferry terminal are all squeezed into the narrow strip of land betwee... I've been seeing this monument in the distance since ... Here's my boat. Tractors and heavy machinery which must have just arrived from Germany. This ship has a special room for bikes, like trains sometimes do. Somebody walked part of the way to the bike room with me, then pointed where it was and left me to i... The back of the boat pointing towards the Älvsborg Bridge. A very large crane for working on boats. The gantry is labelled as being able to support 450 tonnes ... Next to the gantry is a boat slipway. Another view of the bridge but with flags. Under the bridge, we can see some of the rocks in the mouth of the River Göta. This is ... There was a large battery symbol painted on the side of that boat, and that looks like a large batte... Bye! I paid for a buffet dinner and breakfast along with my ferry ticket. I've used Stena ships several t... Normally, check-in for the ship opens about two hours before departure. Throughout the high summer s... This place has got busier. The gangway to the ship for foot passengers. Strangely, there are two barbecues and a gas tank on th... Gothenburg. On the way out through the islands. Looking back towards Gothenburg. I did get some dinner, by the way. They just checked my name off a list. Gothenburg is still visible in the distance. Rocks and boats. The green lighthouse marks one edge of the safe route in and out of Gothenburg for large ships. I di... More rocks. A close-up of the buildings which were on the horizon in the previous picture. The near ship is one which we are overtaking. The other one is parked.