The German couple with the camper van had been so kind as to fix us a thermos full of coffee the evening before which came in handy for Ralf (I don't drink the stuff) during our 6:20 start to catch the 8am ferry.
Got to the ferry terminal with plenty of time but were not allowed to jump the queue. Had a very smooth ride from Sassnitz to Trelleborg on Scandline for 20 EUR per person including our bikes. Got a fairly nice introduction to Swedish food as I participated in the breakfast buffet, which turned out to be the best deal on the whole boat.
During the 3.5h crossing I managed to catch up on some diary writing which had been neglected throughout the preceding few days.
On arrival in Trelleborg we commenced our trip in Sweden by cycling into the town centre on the lookout for a guidebook (preferably Lonely Planet) and some maps, which we had not bought in Germany. Found a reasonably equipped bookstore which only sold hugely expensive maps and only stocked the Lonely Planet Scandinavia, which cost almost 50 EUR, a price far beyond any reason. After this sobering experience we decided to cycle to Malmo, where we hoped to find a better and larger bookstore. Followed the GPS and found an excellent route with hardly any traffic and managed to spot the Oresund bridge connecting Malmo and Kobenhavn in a distance.
In Malmo our luck concerning decent and reasonably priced guidebooks didn't improve, so we ended up buying a Swedish map book for SK 69 (8.5 EUR) which was neither very light nor very handy but CHEAP!
After we had looked at the distances and possible destinations for our first day, we decided to cycle to Höör and spend the first night in a youth hostel there. After some 3 hours of afternoon cycling reached the very secluded and nice hostel, where we managed to get one of the last double rooms. Unpacked and had a quick shower before cycling into Höör - a VERY quiet little place with only one Pizzaria and one bar/bowling alley serving (alcoholic)drinks after 10pm. (After a few more pizzas in Sweden the one in Höör actually turned out to be quite a good option.)
Shared the table with a very nice Swedish couple - Roland and Jasmin - whom we joined for a couple of drinks in the Lucky Bowl after the pizza place kicked us out at 10pm. Almost fell asleep on my chair before we cycled the 5km back to our hostel outside of the city, a trip which seemed miraculously shorter than the one into town earlier.
640m
99km / Avg: 21.4km/h
Church in Ingelstad
Church in Lund
Old University in Lund
Castle in Skarhult & Ralf
Late start from Höör
Sat 02/08/2003
Woke to the sound of pouring rain, and shortly after tried to not get too wet whilst hobbling over to the breakfast buffet in the main house in flipflops. The buffet was again of very good quality and offered a wide selection of typically Swedish food.
With no sign of weather improvement we packed up and waited around the common room for the better weather which had been forecast to arrive. Luckily the prediction was accurate and the rain died down just after lunchtime. We hence started cycling on wet roads back to Höör where we (barely) managed to abstain from a tempting train ride and started cycling towards Älmhult our chosen destination for this second day in Sweden.
With the weather improving slowly we cycled through some pretty country side whilst catching the occasional glimpse at the sun through the clouds.
We stopped for lunch at a little town in the middle of nowhere, and had snacks on a bench outside of the main road watching the empty streets and the odd pensioner rolling by with the aid of a little trolley-thing. Whilst watching this rather sad display we were wondering where all the Swedes had gone - never got an answer though.
Stopped again some 20km short of our destination to buy some supplies for an evening BBQ, which turned out to be a rather expensive undertaking in Sweden.
Once in Älmhult we spent about 15km and close to an hour cycling around one part of town looking for the youth hostel which in the end turned out to be part of the campsite and was very poorly signposted. This turned out to be inconsequential as the hostel was full anyhow, which meant Ralf and I were again going to spend the night in the tent.
Luckily the guy at the reception was quite sympathetic towards "two cyclists" and we got a couple of shower tokens for free after we had informed him about our days' progress and our plans for the proceeding days - nice move.
The BBQ dinner at campsite worked out rather well, all considering and we ended the evening with some beers on the patio of the campsite restaurant overlooking a lake where the sun was just setting and the light of the evening made for a magical atmosphere.
700m
104km / Avg: 21.9km/h
The Wrong Train
Sun 03/08/2003
Had a hearty camping breakfast and started off cycling on side roads for the first couple of hours before turning onto the A23 towards Växjö. We stayed on that road for almost 50km making excellent speed with each of us taking 2 minute turns at the front (this tiring test would leave us with the fastest daily (moving) average of 24.8km/h)
Unfortunately our excellent progress was hampered again by a defect, luckily for me it would be Ralf's turn. One of the spokes broke on his rear wheel, and we had to replace the spoke and re-align the wheel. This whole procedure cost us almost 2 hours, which we spent on the side of the A23 with traffic happily racing by.
Finally made it to Växjö and stopped for a burger lunch before before catching the train in the general direction of Almhuest - at least so we thought. The train turned out to go towards Alvesta instead which should have occurred to us the minute we pulled out of the station in the wrong direction. Even if that had not alerted us to our faux pas the incredibly cheap tickets should have rung some alarm bells. But no - we were both quite happy riding along the short distance to Alvesta where we got off to re-check our bearings. At this stage the error was revealed and we debated our options and how to continue our journey.
Whilst weighing our possibilities we found out that there was no train returning to Växjö for another 3 hours and even if there had been it would have been unlikely for us to find a connecting train that would allow us to take our bikes.
A Change of plan seemed in order. We decided to cycle to Värnamo, a pretty decent afternoon leg, and spend the night at a hostel there. Then on the following morning we would take the train to Jönköping and start cycling along the Vattern lake from there.
The plan worked quite well, yet it took us longer than anticipated to reach Värnamo and there were quite a few nasty climbs towards the end making this a rather difficult journey.
In the end we were rewarded with a very nice room in a newly built hostel slightly outside of town to the Northwest. (There seem to be two hostels in Värnamo though and none appear on the map outside of town!)
Quickly had a shower and hung the tent up to dry before heading to the pizzaria just down the road, which unfortunately didn't serve very good pizzas.
640m
99km / Avg: 21.4km/h
