After not a very dramatic journey through the North of Germany into Bremerhaven across the river and more farms, to Kiel, we took the ferry to Langeland, being one of the smaller islands of Denmark. After camping out after arriving, we headed north then across one of the many large bridges, to Svendborg, Denmark. It was most fortunate that whilst cycling along one of the cycle ways, we met Ole Mortensen who stopped us to have a chat as he noticed our New Zealand signs on the bikes. He invited us back to his family home where we spent two glorious days of great hospitality with his wife, Tina, & Peter & Jacob (their sons) Rob forgot to take photos of them (typical). They cycled New Zealand and we actually passed them whilst we were cycling in the opposite direction near the Haast Pass in February 1996.
Copenhagen was our next destination so after cycling north to the new bridge which is in fact the longest bridge in the world but because it has an island in the middle of it it is surpassed by the one in Tokyo. It was completed just two days prior to our arrival and having missed the huge celebrations there, we plodded on leaving the island of Fyn and crossed over to the island of Zealand and finally to the famous city of Copenhagen.
Meeting up with Britta and Angela at Britta's B&B was a gem and another stroke of luck. We had a great time the four days we were there. Britta took us all for a tour of Christiaania, a free town in the suburbs where the government leave them alone to do their own thing, which they do very nicely too. Complete with their own statue of liberty at the gates, oh and their own flag (three yellow dots with a red background and to say nothing of the hash and marijuana for sale over the counter at the shops, It was like The Netherlands all over again but not quite.
Copenhagen was an easy city to get around and they pay a lot of attention to the requirements of cyclists by continuing improvements of the cycle roads. A long way to go to catch up to the Netherlands however, but they will. Of course being in Scandinavia now it was a new world where everything is very expensive. They all like their wonderful social welfare programs such as great dole payments and free health care however they certainly lay the taxes on everything with average income tax being 50% and GST(VAT) being a good 25% on most items, much more on cars, booze & smokes and less on food.
We learned that Norway was by far the most expensive country in Scandinavia, god knows why when they are debt free and have huge oil revenues and a small population. Never mind we decided to give that a miss and head straight for Sweden until Britta, very kindly, offered us the use of her summer house on the north coast of Zealand. Well frothing at the bit we cycled north after a very pleasant stay of six days in the very communal old housing area with internal gardens and lawns surrounded by what were to be condemned 18th century three level houses of which Brittas' house was one of about twenty.
60kms later on a cloudy windy rainy day (how unusual, Not!) we arrived at the summer house where for three days we enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the pleasant countryside.
Next it was off the Sweden, taking a ferry from Helsingor to Helsingborg (only 4kms) diving into the tourist office to be charged the earth for a cycle touring map of Sweden of which they only had a map of that province, we spent the next two hours trying to find the beginning of the route. What a hassle but finally all was Ok, but using the old faithful 1:1,000,000 road map of Europe we carry, is generally the preference as one page covers days of cycling so no changing pages twice a day and also road signs are much better than cycle road signs which tend to suddenly stop without warning. Many days of very pleasant cycle touring was in store for us although a little too sterile for Rob and the odd yawn was in store. Extremely shy people especially in the country side so not many hello's were in store for us unlike many other countries we cycled.
Heading north east, just like we have for the past five months, through rather ancient forests and days of camping out in the wild, as usual, suddenly late in the day after Mary's chain came off, this happens now & then as we suddenly hit a steep hill unprepared, there was an oasis, or was it a mirage? This camping spot next to this idyllic lake and meeting up with Yan, who sat and chatted with us for hours. Yan works for Volvo (how unusual) so he filled us in on lots of Swedish ways.
As with all cycle maps we have used, the cartographers never think that the cyclist might actually have a destination so rambling on we did go, up and down the countryside going in every direction but where we wanted until we reached the south coast of Sweden. We were actually wanting to go to Stockholm which of course is half way up on the east coast when we started on the west coast. Never mind we ended up in Ronneby on yet another rainy day but all was ok as we asked this chap Lars, (a real gentleman from Stockholm) some directions. After talking with him for awhile and learning he had traveled by sailing ship to Australia and New Zealand during the Australian 200 years anniversary celebrations, he asked us to stay at his hostel where he and many others including (Ritchie, Scot & Marianne) were on a EU business management course. Well yes we did and it was great. We met a wonderful bunch of people from around Europe and we all talked our heads off.
Leaving Ronneby and heading northeast, Bla Bla Bla, 250kms later and Oskarshamn where once again it was stressed to us that we must visit the island of Gotland, so onto the ferry, actually a huge ship, one of two that travel to the island twice a day. Ok Gotland was nice and pretty but it was no Rarotonga but it was to the Swedes. Camped out and cycled around then off to Stockholm by the outgoing ship.
Stockholm, and the prices keep rising, let me explain some of the weird things.
,Liquor stores are all government owned and run, and open 9-5 Mon-Fri and look like old fashioned Russian customs offices, oh and everything is kept behind glass doors so no touchy the product and to add more injury, a 700ml Jim Beam is 244 Krone which is $31 USD ($60NZD) that is four times the price of the US and twice NZ. And as for cigarettes well same thing. Beer at least, is allowed to be sold in supermarkets but only to a maximum strength of 3.5% acl.vol. Mind you nothing but wine is allowed in NZ but then NZ is the place where one is treated like a child, I thought Scandinavia might be a little more mature, but oh no, and the same sort of silly rules apply in various ways to the rest of Scandinavia.
Staying at a Youth Hostel is a play on words, as it was actually the Columbus Hotel just the top floor and less facilities for quite a high price. By the time we had spent a couple of days in Stockholm we were, quite frankly, pissed off, with being ripped off all the time by their high prices so we hopped on the Viking Star (one of the huge fleet of Finnish ships that tour the Baltic Sea) and whow! only 100 Krone to Turku in Finland. 25% of the cost to Gotland and four times the distance. The trick of course is like the British Isles to France ships, Germany to Denmark and so on, it is the so called tax free shopping one can do whilst on board that entices thousands to travel the return journey. Still the goods were incredibly expensive and besides all that tax free drama is abolished 1999. Coming back to the Viking Star however, what a great twelve hour trip. There are twelve thousand islands between Stockholm and Turku, very scenic and a great load of bars, restaurants, shops & things to do on board and YES There is sunshine up here, quite a lot of it, admittedly only for three months a year of summer but what's wrong with basically nine months of cold to freezing anyway.
Finland, Oh we're here then! well lets get cycling again. For a day there we thought we were on some sort of cruisy holiday and that would never do as there is the 9-5 cycling routine to get back to. This is not a holiday, it is an adventure, a journey, an expedition so get on with it. People would faint if they saw Rob & Mary having a holiday.
Well if we thought Sweden had forests and lakes and forests and lakes then look out here comes 600kms of guess what? Nilsia was the destination and our companions on this leg were to be mosquitoes, big ones that bite. Don't dare stop for too long or else. Apparently nothing compared to Lapland. We'll forget lapland, especially as the further north we went the less shoulder there was on the highways and the more hilly it became. Why travel the highways one may ask, well a couple of times we didn't and one was a gravel hilly forest track for 10 kms and another was making up dizzy with the rolling hills, up down up down for 33kms. When the forests gave way to openings containing lakes it was just perfect. Getting closer to Nilsia, in the north east,(150kms west of the Russian border) it became even more dramatic, then when we reached Nilsia, to keep a long story short, Whow! The northern most point on our four year journey was reached. This was the time when we had planned to consider the first leg complete. Arriving at the water tower home of our friends we met in Spain, Matti & Maria, was magic. The sauna by the lake, the jump in the lake after perspiring profusely and seeing nearly six months of grime and car fumes slide off our bodies, was heaven. It was worth the journey, the hard hill climbs, the mountains, the heat, the cold, the head winds, the rain, the bugs, the dirt. Check out the Tahko site. It is Matti's & Maria's Company. It's wierd watching the sun set in west then rising again two hours later from the south west.
Leaving Matti & Maria's we cycled back 54kms to Kuopio where we took the train to Helsinki. There is only so much forest and lake a pair of cyclists can handle, besides, there is still concern about catching the rest of the northern European summer so timing is of the essence. Helsinki, by the way, was not exactly a blow out. A good walk around and a look see merely revealed more of that clash of old and new and like many cities where it is covered in snow for so much of the year, construction was going on everywhere, not very pleasant. Took the Silja Line ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. What a basic ship, nothing like the great Viking line vessel we took from Sweden to Finland.
An observation: Rob has noticed that wherever you go in Western Europe if you want to know the exchange rate to the US Dollar then have a look at the cost per litre of premium petrol and you will see that it equals almost exactly the rate of exchange....Don't tell Rob there isn't a cartel happening!
