Touring in Sweden

Bottom line: I haven't seen this many Volvos since I last shopped at La Encantada. They are pretty much everywhere. We got away from Copenhagen late morning on Monday. Apartment was all cleaned, Federico and family were on their way, and Florencia was left in charge. We headed north following a route along the east coast of the island towards Helsingor, Denmark. A short way out of the city we met a young German cyclist named Robert touring by himself. We stayed together and chatted until we made it to Helsingor and boarded the ferry to Helsingborg, Sweden in the early afternoon. Following a group hunt for the tourist information site and loading up on Swedish Kroner we parted ways with us heading north and him south.

Our northern trek took us to the little coastal town of Angelholm. We had a very nice stay in a small hotel and a very nice breakfast this morning. We weren't sure on whether we wanted to ride some or take the train to Goteborg to be able to see more of the northern coast. When it started pouring down rain during breakfast it was an easy decision. A nice 2 hour train ride north we were in Goteborg around 11 AM. After a bit of a hunt to find our way out of town we used as many bike paths as we could find before resorting to the GPS to find the way. As usual it did a fine job. landing us in Stenungsund in time for a little walk around town before dinner. It's getting hillier and rockier along the route and the scenery along the coast just keeps getting more beautiful. We're looking forward to even better stuff as we head up towards Norway.

We could tell a difference in the bike culture as soon as we rode off of the ferry in Sweden. It's still bike friendly, but a step down from Denmark and The Netherlands. I read somewhere that it may be in part due to the fact that Denmark and The Netherlands do not have car manufacturers, so when someone proposes something pro-bike you don't have the aggressive auto industry bribing, er... I mean lobbying the various lawmaking bodies to vote down anything that is not pro-car. Just a fundamentally different attitude. Sweden is about halfway between Denmark and the US.