London to Stockholm

We set out less than an hour later than planned. who would've thought?! No one according to all the encouragements we received the days running up to the beginning of our trip.

Thank you all for coming to our leaving do in the Carpenters Arms, and thanks for all the brilliant gifts! All but the filofax (with all your addresses) have been used on daily basis. So don't think you're the only one who hasn't received a post card. Oh, we haven't used the butter, we're saving it for a special occasion.

Day one still holds the longest distance we've cycled in a single day. 102 km. 6 hours 22 minutes. Seems inconceivable today. As soon as we crossed the border to Essex it went uphill. London is flat, very flat! Sal got a fly in her eye just before we crossed the M25, first of many for us both. Bikely.com gave us our intended map for the first leg; London to Colchester and Colchester to Harwich, thanks big Anne and little Anne for printing, cutting and pasting. The map turned out to be misleading and sometimes useless: the very first turn outside Victoria Park led us on to the A12. We chose to abide to the law and stay off the A12, get a new map and try to find our own way. After ten minutes of cycling in the completely wrong direction we realise that this can take some time.

We stayed at a camp site in Colchester, had chinese take away for dinner and slept very well.

Day two still holds the shortest distance we've cycled in a day. Approximately 38 km. We came to Harwich in good time. Well on the ferry we'd met a few fellow cyclists. Three british chaps cycling to Prague in six days, and an older, english couple who were cycling across Denmark. We'd ended up around a table in the bar, talking packing, weather and diplomacy in Bavaria, when the UK entry to the Eurovision song contest stepped up on stage. Josh gave us a few memorable numbers. He sang us some Michael Bubble. This was later followed by onstage drinking competitions. Sally fed a welsh cyclist beer from a babies bottle, watched by a very bemused scandinavian audience.

We're at the moment realising how much time and energy this blogging takes.

The rest;

We cycled Esbjerg to Fredrikshavn in five days. Denmark offers close to a thousand free camp sites (nature camping), mostly running water, toilet and showers are available. Sally has perfected her skills in making camp fires and Carl his skills in cooking over them. The wind in Denmark is mental, you should not have to pedal to go downhill. We would like to thank Mikkel Venge (and family) for his fountain of knowledge, generosity and use of facilities. A truly wonderful guy!.
Sally has from early on had pains in her left knee, but persevered with some help from deep heat, ibuprofen and shitloads of chocolate. Carl hasn't had a cigarette yet, so just don't push me all right.

London to Fredrikshavn, Denmark: approx. 524km.

Took a night ferry to Gothenburg, after sleeping a couple of cold hours on the concrete floor in the ferry terminal. On board we met a couple of drunk cyclists from north London, one heading to Västerås, to fly home. The other settling in the county of Dalarna in Sweden to work as a kayak instructor. We ended up staying up all night, drinking beer, listening to their anecdotes from their 23 days on the road.

In Gothenburg we stayed at Carl's old class mate Amanda's. Thank you for a lovely floor space, very refreshing showers and your great company. Best of luck with your studies, doc-to-be.

We set of midday the following day. We were heading towards Katrineholm, 350 km northeast. We booked train tickets from Katrineholm to Stockholm and had five days to get there. After two days of cycling and two nights of camping by lakes, Sal's knee had resigned. We packed our bikes in bin liners and jumped on a train straight to Stockholm.

London to Falköping took us eleven days. a total of approx. 682 km.

Quote: "That doesn't seem much at all". Sally, a minute ago.

Two days until Carl's brother's graduation. twelve days until we're supposed to cycle a race of 150 km. Then many many more days of cycling back and forth through Europe, over a long, long summer.

At least we got here earlier than expected!

Until next time,

Lots of love

Cally and Salle