Denmark-Sweden-Norway

My road : Hillerod, Helsingor, border with Sweden, Helsingborg, Angelholm, Bastad, Halmstad, Steninge, Morup, Askloster, Asa, Goteborg, Stenungsund, Holm, Brandala, Brodalen, Hamburgsund, Tanumshede, Nasinge, border with Norway, Fredrikstad, Moss, Horten, Skien, Ulefoss, Strengen, Vradal, Dalen, Valle, Berdalen, Roldal, Odda, Kinsarvik, Norheimsund, Bergen, from 4 to 2004-05-24.

My stay in Denmark was shortened by some days, not that I did not take pleasure it but to avoid kilometres towards Copenhagen and then retrace one’s steps. On the first of May, I was in Hillerod located just a short walk from the crossing to Sweden, it’s however the meeting with a Danish, which allowed me to see Copenhagen because working there, he drove me there the time of a day. Arrived in Sweden, I intended to make a way by train, at least until Gothenburg to devote myself to the north part. To my surprise, this is a country where it is impossible to carry his bike through this means of locomotion. Receiving help from someone, I tried the bus and it's similar, except to put the bike in a box and for a high price. I do not linger over Helsinborg and took back the road immediately.

My satisfaction to ride would come of a weather more than clement, temperatures of 25 degrees and a well-being in itself. It would also allow me to swallow Sweden with stages from 85 to 110 km per day and find me in Norway in a week. Previously it was a delight to roam the coast and the islands much many that border it. Riding without detailed map or what I could recover at the tourist offices, it was necessary to rely on cycling signalling, to find it on my way, but rarely saying me on which direction I could be. In the interior of the country, it was a pleasure to go, borrowing small axes, often only to go through them. This led me to find myself between forests and lakes, pine is the master in Sweden. I felt the impression to travel in regions of mountain pastures, with these isolated farms and some wooden workshops. The meadows were yellow of dandelions flowers. The passage in Norway is by the crossing of a bridge which steps over a fjord, moreover the border is situated on its axis.

The arrival in this country was marked by a clear refreshment, losing more than 10 degrees, and by rain. From the border, the rallying toward Moss is a laborious dreadful, bring me toward Fredrikstad where it will be extremely difficult to get out. Then road toward west since my destination is Stavanger. I fixed the first point to Dalen but also find myself in the mountains. I make the rise of a series of lakes connected to each other by a channel on which several series of locks are to be crossed. A masterpiece of architecture dating back more than a century.

The next step, that of Dalen, I am required to branch away my itinerary because to rally Stavanger to go to see Prekestolen would force me to cross summits totally covered with snow, with a road open since just 3 or 4 days and probably with a icy temperature. I would then route toward Bergen. I will spend 5 days to rally it, I would describe as exceptional this trip so much the nature fill with wonder me, but also made me suffer by the pushes of the cycle, le most at 8 to 10 kilometers, the cold and even the snow. I do a section of mountain by bus which safe me of many miseries because it is zero degrees at the top and it snow. Besides lakes support still ice on its surface. Very numerous are the crossings of tunnels, curious effect by bike when you are 5 kilometers before to see the exit. The supplied efforts and the time spend on the way up are fast compensated in the descent with 60 kilometre speeds per hour. Since these mountains and until Bergen, is a series of fiords that I go alongside with a road following their contour. Magnificent moments between fjords and snow-covered mountains reflected inside, the orchards in flower, the sun income and the meeting of a couple, David and Marit who receive me at their home. Today is marked a pause in Bergen to have a rest and enjoy the pleasant side of the city before to go away to the heart of fjords.