Month: July 2025

The Trouper Award

The sun woke us both at 4:30! Although we went back to sleep for a bit, we left the hotel around 7:30 am. With few options. A Saturday during high season left nothing available.We planned to wild camp around the 60 km mark. Wild camping is legal in Sweden, and opportunities abounded all day. At the 50 km mark, Linda decided she’d rather stretch for Nykoping, an estimated 80 km, and a hotel.

We struggled today to find our rhythm. With the e-bike, Linda outclimbs me. She even coasts faster than I. She kept zooming off far ahead of me. It wasn’t until 70 km or so we figured out the default of me in front, at my own pace and cadence. She then followed using the e-bike for occasional boost, coasting ahead when down hill. Me in front didn’t work last year, as my mind would wander and I’d leave Linda struggling to match my pace.

Eurovelo routes wander, making distance estimates difficult. At 80 km Linda awarded herself the Trouper Award. The day consisted of long rolling hills–a lot of long rolling hills. The bike shop owner told us Linda’s e-bike has a theoretical range of 40-75 km at 5 bars of power. Through careful husbanding of power, we arrived at the hotel in Nykoping at 110 km, with two bars remaining. That extended range? All Linda.

Temperatures remain in the low 80s. The day began overcast. When that burned off we rode in the blazing sun. The back roads of Eurovelo 10 didn’t provide a lot of resources. Despite having packed more water than usual, we were running on vapors by the time we arrived in Nykoping.

Linda decreed that since we’d cycled two days of distance, we’re taking tomorrow off. Fair enough – she earned it. We’re both tired!

The Longest Day (I hope!)

Saturday, July 26, 2025

Biking from Stockholm to Nikoping, Sweden

I LOVE the e-bike! No way could I have done anything like 110 kms (66 miles) without it. I was worried I might use up the battery, so mostly I used it like a regular bike, but when I was going up a hill, if I was struggling, I would turn on the battery assist to get up the hill. And I made it! Last year, my longest distance in a day was 66 kms (40 miles).

Best wildlife sighting: a huge bunny! Sadly, I didn’t get a photo. But he was super cute. Ears must have been nearly 8 inches long!

The Swedish landscape was a combination of fields, forests and horse and cattle farms. And the houses were typically painted the same shade of yellow or a dark barn red.

Done waiting

Our flight into Amsterdam landed 30 minutes early. A good thing, as we had to get through Customs and to the other side of the airport to board our 6:55 am flight by 6:30am. We made it with 15 minutes to spare. With the rush we didn’t expect the bicycle to arrive with us, but it was the first luggage off the plane. After a couple hours of rebuilding and repacking, we left the airport via train for Stockholm.

In Stockholm we picked up Linda’s e-bike, purchased fuel for the stove, and picked up SIMs for the phones. In the past the vendors have set up the phone, but this time I was left to untangle a myriad of web and app setup all in Swedish. After a liberal application of screen captures and Google Translate I had data.

The e-bike presents a new challenge, as Linda can easily and accidentally surpass me. We’ll need some time to figure out how to balance the difference between the two of us in the other direction!

We arrived at the hotel. Linda collapsed into bed. I went out to forage for dinner. Tomorrow the cycling begins in ernest.

Pickings for non-camping places (hotel, hostel, B&B, etc.) within Linda’s range of ~60 km are slim. And went to much worse when I realize the calendar week is Mon-Sun., so I was trying to book for Saturday night in season.

All about the wait

It’s the waiting I hate the most.

Packing takes a while to track down gear spread out across the hobbies of kayaking, cycling, and the Red Cross. However, I had everything packed a couple of weeks in advance except for a few things needing replacement. Packing early also meant plenty of time to identify, order, and receive needed replacement gear. I even packed the bicycle box a few days before the flight, reusing the box from our last trip from Munich. We carefully packed gear in the box to a precise 49 lbs. just below the 50 lb. limit.

Last night all that remained was packing the last bits of food and sealing up the bicycle. Linda had reserved an e-bike in Stockholm to avoid dealing with the bicycle after we separate (and get to ride an e-bike).

The taxi arrived early, with space to carry the bicycle. Reasonable traffic had us at the airport three hours before our intended flight.

We had carefully selected the flight with one ~4 hour layover. I prefer about a 4-hour layover for international flights–enough time for the bicycle to transfer even with delays, but not enough to have it lost in a forgotten corner. We would land in the morning in Stockholm, with plenty of time to find and assemble my bicycle. We would pick up Linda’s e-bike before cycling a short distance out of Stockholm before collapsing at our hotel to address our jet-lag induced sleep-deprivation.

The Delta scale weighed the bicycle at 32 lbs.! Then Delta measured the (totally regulation-size box) and determined the bicycle wouldn’t fit on the plane. Over an hour later we passed through security.

Instead of RDU > JFK > Stockholm, we’re flying RDU > Atlanta > Amsterdam > Stockholm. Their first proposed change had us on separate flights. Not much of a problem except we checked the bicycle on Linda’s ticket. Linda wasn’t a fan of risking wrangling the bicycle. Another flight had us landing in Stockholm at 6:30 pm–too late to pick up Linda’s e-bike.

We now have a 3-hour layover in Atlanta, and land only an half-hour or so later than our original plan in Stockholm. That said, our boarding passes only go as far as Amsterdam. That final transition we know occurs fast enough they added a “Rapid Transit” tag to the bicycle box, which doesn’t bode well!

We’re now waiting to board a fight, departing an hour earlier than our original flight. For now, less waiting!

And Away We Go to the Baltics

I’ve packed everything except the bicycle, so have some time to post an update. Juggling our schedule around a bit, this year’s tour starts July 24!

My goal this year for Linda and I was to find a ride vaguely comparable in difficulty to the EV6 route Linda and I rode along the Danube last year from Munich to Budapest.

It’s effectively impossible to find something easier; I consider EV6 to be the easiest long-distance touring in the world. That exploration eventually led to reviewing the Scandinavian countries. When reviewing Sweden and Denmark, Linda set her heart on visiting the medieval festival in Gotland.

As with our trip last year, we decided to split the journey into two halves. First, we fly into Stockholm. For the first two weeks, we ride south from Stockholm, eventually taking a ferry to Gotland and the medieval festival. Then we travel by ferry back to Stockholm. In Stockholm Linda will meet up with family to travel in Sweden. She next travels to Norway to meet up with more family to explore the fjords before flying home from Oslo.

I realized that if we visited Sweden in high summer, that put me close to the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) for the second half of the trip. They’ve been on my destination list for a while (if only because I haven’t been there yet!). When we return to Stockholm, I’ll take an overnight ferry to Helsinki, Finland. A couple days later I’ll take another ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. From Tallinn I ride south across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania towards my flight home in Warsaw. I don’t expect I’ll make it all the way to Warsaw in time for my flight, but that’s what trains are for. I expect to reach the Lithuania/Poland border (a ~60 mile stretch between Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus) and from there take a train to Warsaw for my flight home.

Kaliningrad Oblast is a semi-exclave of Russia, meaning it’s part of Russia but separated from the main part of the country by other countries. Specifically, it’s located on the Baltic Sea coast, bordered by Lithuania and Poland. Normally you can ride along the Baltic Sea from Lithuania to Poland, but the current political situation makes that problematic!

Last year Linda found dealing with her bicycle awkward after we separated. To make the second half of Linda’s trip easier to manage, she’s renting a bike in Stockholm (and an e-bike at that) for the first half of the trip.

And yes, there’s a ferry in there. Lots of them! 🙂