I'm just back from Preikestolen. This is Norway's number 1 tourist draw. An amazing bit of rock that sticks out above the Lysefjorden, just over an hour cycle (plus 20 mins on a ferry) from Stavanger. Yesterday, after a lazy morning, and the first rain whilst cycling since Germany (I waited it out in a bus shelter which there are loads of) I hoicked myself up the 300m climb to the end of the road at Preikestolhytte and was greeted by a huge car park with a mix of campervans and cars and a long queue to get out as the [View Full Entry]

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I made it to Stavanger! The cycling in Norway has been tough, to say the very least! Looking at the map I figured that the south would be the easy part seeing as the terrain wasn't even barely hitting the first contour at 300m. Well it turns out that the south of Norway is a huge mass of 299m mountains and I yo-yoed my way for 4 hard days to Stavanger when the direct motorway route is only 250km. The scenery has been totally amazing of course. A million cute Norwegian villages buildings all in white or red wood, huge cliffs, [View Full Entry]

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A big hello from Norway - after 3 weeks I finally reached what was to be the start of my cycle trip!!! I just caught two ferries in the last 3 days. One from Gothenburg, Sweden to Denmark and the other from Denmark to Kristiansand, Norway. But just in case you were thinking that's a bit of a cheat seeing as I'm supposed to be cycling all the way, well I took in a couple of detours one to the very tip of Denmark and the other to an huge sand dune which has literally swallowed a lighthouse. Both impressive sights... [View Full Entry]

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I will say now, I wish I were Swedish! It's that simple. Okay my judgement may be misguided by the amazing weather I've had all the way up from Copenhagen. Blue sky and 25 degrees+ all the way with a little chill breeze which makes it bareable cycling (but also probably has fooled me into getting an even worse roasting by the sun). But this coastline and the water is one of the nicest stretches I've ever seen. The scenery has been gentle rolling from the start, but turning more rocky all the time (a bit like NW scotland maybe) with [View Full Entry]

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I've now just arrived Gothenburg having spent 3 lovely sundrenched days cycling up here. That'll be in my next blog entry to come... Ok, so back to Copenhagen. Well my first day there in fact I ended up going to visit my friend Alexandra, a Swedish girl I knew from Oxford. She's now studying (well kind of so it seems!) in Lund, the Swedish version of Oxford. I got the train across and had a nice day, first wandering around Lund and the university then down to the beach at Lomma. This was my first of many Swedish beach experiences, and [View Full Entry]

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I've finally made it to Copenhagen! After 11.5 days of cycling and 2.5 rest days, and I calculate 908 miles since Gent with all but the last day directly into a force 4 siberian wind. Well the last 3 days have seen me arrive into Denmark via the Puttgarden-Rødbyhavn ferry and then onwards with a detour to the beautiful island of Møn, crossing Lolland and Falster on the way, before hitting Zealand and the capital. In the end I decided not to stay an extra day in Lubeck, mainly because it would have been all the harder to get going had [View Full Entry]

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Photos from the previous blog are now up too! Well I've now arrived in Lubeck, a beautiful city indeed (thanks lonely planet) on a warm and sunny and yes windy day! The wind if anything is getting stronger, and today I had a gentle (?!) 30 miler in the morning to get here. Actually most of the way was a very nice ride following the route of an old railway line through gently undulating countryside (note even gently undulating is tough on a fully loaded tourer) with deer and rabbits frolicking in the grass either side and huge wheat fields everywhere, [View Full Entry]

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Photos now up! Well today is my birthday and what a way to spend it - battling more Siberian winds across northern germany. There have been some ups and downs, including my first breakage on the bike and the first rain of the trip but finally I've made it for a late lunch (which I'll skip as i've had so many mini-snacks on the way) to a place called Gluckstadt, just the other side of the magnificently muddy and uninteresting Elbe. Since Groningen then the trip has taken a downward dip. You only have to look at the faces of the [View Full Entry]

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Well after 5 days of full on cycling, battling against a headwind all the way, I've finally made it to Groningen! Hardly my destination, but given the ardour getting here, and kind of intermediary success. In fact I assumed that Groningen would somehow be close to Denmark, but on inspecting a map I've discovered to my horror that what is to follow across Germany to get to the ferry port for Denmark is pretty much the same again as what I've done (I´m sure this is not the way it seemed when I ch [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone! This blog entry sees me well if a little sunburnt, sore knee-ed, aching shouldered and weak fingered in a town in northern Holland called Alkmaar. It's a beautiful place full of ice cream eating locals and tourists alike, lots of canals running around, a lovely red light district (one street) which I just walked down to get to the internet cafe - I saw the funniest thing: one of the (scantily clad) girls was presumably having a break, and in a public telephone box making a call (maybe to her mum?!). I should have got a picture of that.... [View Full Entry]

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