NORTH SEA SUMMER

In the summer of 2015 I cycled around the North Sea. I started in Bergen on 25th May and finally reached the northern tip of Shetland on 28th September having stopped in London for a month or so in the middle of the trip. I say it was summer, but it was snowing and raining in Bergen at the end of May, and it was so cold in Denmark at midsummer that I needed gloves and a wooly hat to walk on the beach.  Then, when it did get hot in Germany, there was no sea deep enough to swim in.  Nothing but mud and more mud.  But more of that another time. The website dedicated to the North Sea Cycle Route has closed down, so I've placed links to the guidebooks I used at the bottom of this post.  The most useful general blog I've found about travelling by bike is Tom's Bike Trip .  I don't want to repeat what others have written, but there are a few things I discovered that might be helpful to you if you're thinking of making this journey, especially if you've not been...

I landed in Sweden at 3.30 in the afternoon and set off southwards. My English friends from a few nights before had recommended a campsite near Tanumshede and I wanted to get there that night. It was further than I thought, but after the first few kilometres the roads were wide and empty and there were no hills.   It slowly dawned on me that I might not see another hill until I reached England.  The NSCR led through farmland – not a holiday home in sight that I could see, but the route was, for the first time, 20km inland from the coast, and no doubt that helped. It felt very empty compared to the part of Norway I’d just left, and the feeling was intensified when I saw four huge grey cranes rise up from a field by the roadside and flap slowly overhead. In the small town of Tanumshede I had trouble finding an ATM.  Norway’s minibank had become Sweden’s bankomat.   Then I had trouble finding the road to the campsite.  I no longer had the detailed map...

From Stenungsund I cycled east at first, over three massive bridges with magnificent views of sea and islands.   Then it was south along the coast for a while, before turning inland on a road into the hills.   The road followed a stream for a while, then went through forests and past lakes, before turning south on fast, empty roads. I reached the long valley that leads south towards Göteborg with its motorways and railways and ships, and I was just congratulating myself on the possibility of camping early and exploring the city when my rear gear cable snapped.   Roadside verge near Göteborg It was my own fault. I should have changed the cables for new ones before setting out – they’d already done thousands of miles before I started.   I’d been meaning to do it, but then I’d done a trial pack-up of the bike that was so good that I’d thought I might as well leave it packed, and so cable-changing went by the board. It had, of course, happened at the worst pos...

I enjoyed strolling around Göteborg in the rain. It was Westpride weekend. All the public buildings were draped with flags and there were bands playing in the square near the hotel for a small crowd huddled under umbrellas.   Rainy concert The next day was Sunday so I checked out the bike shop locations, visited museums (the design museum is very good) and spent time wandering around the cafes and junk shops of the Haga district. On Monday I was at the bike workshop at 10.00 when they opened and a very helpful mechanic called Jon spent over an hour removing the cable from my shifter and fitting a new one. Then he decided to adjust my brakes, the ones I’d had trouble with back in Bergen, and told me he thought my forks were bent.   It's in there somewhere I wasn’t too worried about that. I’d just ridden a long way with bent forks and I’d got used to the bike pulling slightly to one side. I spent the last of my Swedish krone on a tasty lunch in a deli and cycled...