Sunday, July 6th. I had a good sleep and the tent got dry again. I had to change the brake pads due to terrain for the past 1000 km or so. The weather was very nice on this day: sunshine, 21 °C and little to no wind. The roads were great but also full of hills – had to push my bike quite few times uphill.

I’ve visited Tønsberg and Sandefjord, both very nice places.

My bike computer showed some life signs during sunshine (heats up, releases some moisture) but it was still rebooting intermittenly. I will try to dry it with a pocket oven. The pocket oven is filled with Zippo lighter gasoline and the gasoline is burnt slowly by a catalyst material over few hours. It releases enough heat to keep things like hands warm at cozy 40-50 °C.

Today’s shelter was hidden near Nevlungshaven. Amazing place near a bay where one could take a bath. I really liked this place and after having a dinner, I went to swim a bit. Perfect ending for a long day.

~90 km today, 12-13 km/h

The day started at 6am with some low-intensity rain which built up steadily. I packed my stuff inside of the tent and prepared myself for the rainy weather. As soon as I stepped outside, my rain clothes were fine and dealt with rain very well. However, the tent got wet and I had no  chance to pack it in a dry place. I left the camp site at 9am and had to navigate to the cycling route while it was raining. Luckily it was mostly cycling downhill so I was able to be on route in about 30 min without difficulties.

The next 4 hours were “OK” for cycling – heavy rain but no wind and not to steep terrain. I couldn’t take photos becsuse everything would get wet in few seconds. At a certain point I was wet outside due to rain and also wet inside due to sweat. That’s no problem as long one stays warm. My feet are my weak point 😅 Once they are soaked and cold – game over. But luckily not this time.

I visited the city of Drammen where I was able to set up the wet tent in a park and remove the water as best as possible. This is extremely important on bike tours – wet tents can be a showstopper. The moisture needs to be removed, otherwise the tent will get “moldy” 2-3 days later. Sleeping in a wet tent is also very uncomfortable. Every time you encounter this situation, stop at a dry place (under a bridge for example) and clean the tent.

The journey on Route 1 continued until it “ended” abrupt near Kjeldås. My way to the city of  Horten was mostly via country roads and I had to use smartphone navigation a lot. The weather got better by the evening and I reached Horten without problems.

I cycled about 12 km more to a hidden shelter just outside Åsgardstrand. It was located inside of a forest. The shelter place had a hut where I could stay alone for a night. I set up the tent once again, dried it and slept inside (to fend off pesky mosquitoes).

My bike computer got wet and it stopped working. Probably some moisture got inside and messed up the electronics. It keeps “rebooting” so no accurate kilometer estimate is possible right now. RIP

I cycled around 100 km according to the map measuring tool.

Friday, July 4th. Free day to hang out in Oslo. Weather was superb – sunshine, some 20ish °C, mild breeze. After leaving the camping place and swearing never to visit them again*, I looked for a quiet place in a park to choose some few places to visit. I was carrying a lot of stuff with me so climbing the hills of Oslo was not an option.

I’ve visited the central station, the opera house, the city hall, the parliament, the cathedral, the Royal Palace and the German embassy. Along the route, I’ve seen the harbor where ships commute between Oslo and Kiel.

In the evening, I thought I’d give another camping site a try. After driving up the hills for 30 minutes, I arrived at another Top Camp site in Oslo. Oh, the horrors – not again… Anyways, paid 50 EUR and I was shocked by the construction site I saw behind the entrance 😅 Luckily, everything was fine: quiet place, well maintained service house – no problems whatsoever. They were very kind to charge my batteries over night.

I talked to nearby campers about my journey and they gave me some useful advices for my future travels to eastern/northern Norway! Great day with some rainy clouds on the horizon. 

Not many kilometers today… 24.9 km, 7.8 km/h (mostly walking through the city and climbing the hills)

Thursday, July 3rd. Day started with pissing rain at 16 °C. I felt no hurry to rush things and had some coffee and snacks. The sleep in the shelter was excellent besides mosquitoes waking me up during the night.

The tour started a bit late at 10:30am. It was raining on and off for an hour but the weather got better by noon. The first 10 km on the roads were nice and quiet until I approached larger cities where traffic noise dominated the background noise.

Reaching Moss was pretty much straight-forward, however, I got slowed down significantly by construction sites spread over multiple towns. Some parts of the route were closed, so finding alternative routes cost me some additional time getting back on route. Navigating through cities in a zig-zag manner was hell. I lost the way many times and finding back on route was very time-consuming.

Anyways, at a certain point I ignored everything around me and just wanted to get to Oslo as fast as possible in order to escape the “Göteborg fiasco” as described few days ago…

I approached Oslo around 8pm. I had a view from the hills descending towards Ljan. The evening sun was shining and it was beautiful. Every 100 meters I had to take new pictures because more details appeared.

The descend showed some issues with Oslo: lots of traffic, little parking space, many private properties, small sidewalks (barely enough space for a pedestrian). I visited the central station Oslo S prior to moving to a camping site in Ekeberg.

I decided to stay at Top Camp in Ekeberg. The price tag was high for a cyclist with tent: I paid 600 NOK for one night stay (approx. 50 EUR) which is almost double the price from Swedish camps. The quality of the camp site service house was disappointing: jammed toilet doors, clogged drain, prepaid card charging machine out of service. I couldn’t charge up my batteries. However, the tent area was large and spacy and the views on the cityline from the hill were awesome. I would not camp there again except in an emergency case like this.

I will stay tomorrow (Friday) in Oslo and do some sightseeing. I don’t like the traffic and high price tags. Staying there will deciminate my travel budget very quickly. Therefore, moving on by evening may be a possible conclusion of my short visit…

100.2 km, 7h57m, average speed 12.58 km/h, 42.91 km/h max.

Wednesday, July 2nd. Woke up early in the morning to get some extra kilometers done. I was 10-15 km too short according to my plans. I was on the road quickly and the weather was OK for cycling: 18 °C overcast, no wind, a bit of rain clouds.

The cycle route was mostly on the regular road. The car drivers in Sweden and Norway were very nice so far and really friendly! I had no trouble and felt always safe on the roads. Thank you car drivers!

The route was challenging but I had to walk rarely due to steep hills. The walks were short, just few tens of meters to maybe 300 meters. I could maintain a good speed and progressed without large dificulties. I listened to music to mitigate the loud sounds of bypassing traffic and to get some variety.

I reached Halden by noon and continued to Isebakke, just 3 km away from Swedish border. At this place, my old friend “Route 1” – The North Sea Cycling Route. From there, I continued cycling to Fredrikstad.

On my was to Fredrikstad I was close to the birthplace of Roald Amundsen, the famous Norwegian Explorer who reached the South Pole some 100 years ago. In Fredrikstad I took the ferry over the river and kept cycling 15 more kilometers. I found a very nice shelter near Elingård along the Route 1. Very unique and exciting day. Will hopefully reach Oslo tomorrow!

126.3 km, 9h10m, avg 13.78 km/h, max speed 51.84 km/h 😎

Tuesday, July 1st. After camping at Bengtsfors and charging up my batteries, the day started with sunshine and awesome weather forecast. I left the camp at 9:30am. The landscape changed to more forest and hills. My cycling route was mostly on the asphalt roads, which were great. 

Cycling was challenging going uphill but I had to pull the bike just a couple of times. The gear range was sufficient for most hills. Racing downhill was the most fun part: fresh wind and high-speed feeling. This “up and down” repeated for the next 70 km or so until 11 km prior to Töcksfors.

I kept following the Route 4 but the terrain changed suddenly to gravel/forest walkpaths and steep terrain. The roads were rather made for mountainbikers than for regular travel bikes. I had to push my bike a lot and the mosquitoes started to bite me 😅

At some point and struggling ~1.5  hours, I reached Töcksfors. The morale was low so I had to eat something. I shopped some food before moving on to the border, which was only few kilometers away.

Everything went well until some 2 km prior to the border. The route changed from regular road to the well-known steep forest gravel thingy. So I had to literally push my bike and hike to the border.

At this point, it was just annoying. Will I ever be able to ride my bike again? After 45 minutes of pushing uphill, I finally reached the Swedish/Nirwegian border. It was very rewarding and I was proud of achieving this.

After walking a bit out of the forest and returning back to the regular roads, I cycled downhill to the next place called Ørje. I found a small camping spot at a local parking lot/rest area with toilets and set up my tent. There was another guy from France who also set up his tent. We talked a bit and got ready to get some sleep. The french guy told me he was hich-hiking from France to anywhere he wants and has already been in Vietnam… I was mind-blown by his story, bonne voyage!

99.8 km, 8h19m, average speed 11.98 km/h, 51.7 km/h max.

It’s already Monday! 😅 I had a great night at the camping site. It was calm and no noise from pesky humans. After check-out at 9:30am, I headed north-east along the western coastline of Vänern.

The weather was very nice for cycling: sunshine with little wind and no clouds with temperatures ranging from 19…25 °C. I’ve visited the lighthouse close to Jakobsbyn and it was really beautiful there. The cycle route No. 6 continued towards Mellerud, a small nearby town.

I had to take a longer break in Mellerud because I got tired really bad. Coffee and chocolate bars from a local gas station revived me again for the 2nd half of the tour towards Bengtsfors.

I cycled few kilometers with a cyclist from France, but the conversation was a bit difficult because of the surrounding noises (cars, wind) and language-specific accent. We parted our ways some 30ish km before Bengtsfors.

The route to Bengtsfors was simply beautiful. Lake on one side, forest on the other side of the road. Hills were steep and there were first signs of challenging terrain. The regional communities put a lot of effort to make this tourist region attractive…

Anyways, I’ve been able to pursue my daily goals and reached a local camping grounds in Bengtsfors at 8pm. It has a lot of space and it’s located directly at the lake Lelång.

116.25 km, 7h47m, 14.93 km/h, 42.45 km/h max.

Sunday. My motivation got much better after eating up all the chocolate bars I had in storage. I cycled slowly some 10 km until I reached the Göteborg Central Station. I successfully finished the Kattengattleden from Malmö to Göteborg in 3 days, which was a huge motivator and also initial test (fitness, camping equipment).

Unfortunately I realized that my planning had a flaw: there was no “Route 28” as suggested by OpenCycleMap and my waypoints didn’t match the town names on the direction signs. What a bummer! The backup plan was to use my smartphone to navigate – which increased the battery consumption significantly.

Nevertheless, I left Göteborg quickly and moved on. There wasn’t much to see on a Sunday morning around 5am (except the drunk party folks). Göteborg rather looked like a huge construction site than a city 😅 The toilet at the central station was out of order and I went to the gas station instead.

After a long phone call with mom, I stopped at a nearby gas station, bought a coffe and fuel and tried to dry my wet tent. There was enough sunshine and wind to blow it dry in like 20-30 minutes. This works great on asphalt since it absorbs some radiation from the sun and heats up the ground.

I continued the bike ride at 11am and something amazing happened: for the next 70 km (!) or approx. 5 hours of riding time, I had a strong back wind which made the hills look like a piece of cake. I would have never thought this could happen. The back wind pushed my average speed up and I could reach Trollhättan and Venersborg between 4 pm and 6 pm respectively. The weather was perfect for cycling and the camping site at Vänern lake was amazing (except the price… 400 SEK or 35 EUR for one person with bike and tent). Unfortunatelly, the water was a bit too cold for my taste on this day 😅

110.1 km, 8h34m, 12.85 km/h

Saturday started with heavy wind and rain. I packed the wet tent and started cycling around 9:30am towards Varberg and ultimately to Grimeton. One of my goals of this journey was to visit the Grimeton Radio Station, the home of the Alexanderson Long Wave Transmitter – SAQ. Bad weather couldn’t stop me! I was there and saw the huge antennas, the transmission lines, the booth and some little extras. Unfortunatelly, I lost a lot of time for sightseeing and photographs but as always: #worthit. SAQ will transmit on July 2nd and celebrate its 100th birthday!

I continued the bike tour and visited the cities of Varberg (12 km) and Kungsbacka (50+ km after Varberg). In Kungsbacka, there was a huge Pride Parade and after randomly ordering a hamburger, I met a cyclist from Austria who was trying to cycle to Nordkapp! He had to cancel his travel to Nordkapp due to a bike defect with his spokes. We had a 20 minute chat about cycling, very nice guy.

Cycling to Göteborg took much more time than expected. Even with shortcuts to save some time and favoring weather conditions, I was still some 15 km away from the city and wasn’t able to find any camping grounds. The clock showed 22:30 hours and I had troubles reaching the daily goal. This of course ended in a bad situation for me… didn’t find a stay over night and camping inside or around Göteborg was virtually impossible. Had to sleep on a bench. Awful!

I did get maybe 2 hours of sleep, I was freezing, everything hurt after a long cycling day and it took a lot of effort to stay motivated.

Cycled till midnight: 132.5 km, 9h17m, 14.25 km/h

The previous night was rainy/windy. Luckily, as I woke up, the rain stopped and it was just windy. I packed my stuff and was en route a bit late at 9:30 am.

The rest of the day I was confronted with heavy headwinds. My average speed dropped from 16 km/h down to 13 km/h. Sounds not much but it’s significant. It usually means “double punishment”: cycle harder with less speed. I’ve visited Halmstad with quite some delay and cycled on towards Falkenberg. It was very exhausting but the weather got much better towards afternoon. The winds calmed down by evening hours around 6-7pm.

I couldn’t reach my daily goal Varberg, however, I camped in Björkäng, about 15 km away from Varberg. By luck, I met a wonderful traveller couple from Germany at the campsite in Björkäng who invited me for a coffee and travel-talk. They have been travelling in Sweden and Norway for the past 6 weeks by camping van and told me a lot about the special places they visited and I surely want to visit in the next couple of years. That was worth it… great experience!

Tomorrow I’ll continue my route to Varberg and head to Grimeton before finishing the Kattegatleden in Göteburg. Will try to keep 100 km/day as long as possible…

99.3 km, 7h30m, 13.3 km/h

Very nice cycling day. The weather was perfect for cycling. First 30 km were very easy to master, however I started slacking and lost some time with shopping and breaks. The landscapes were beautiful and very pleasing.

My daily goal was to reach Halmstad, however, the weather report showed some incoming rain. I decided to camp in Laxvik just before the rain set in. That seemed to be the right decision because shortly after setting up the tent, it started raining.

There was lot of rain with changing duration and intensity, followed by strong winds. I was very tired and just slept without caring much about the noise…

108 km, 6h52m, 15.7 km/h

My bike tour started today on Wednesday, 2025-06-25. I woke up early in the morning at 5:30, packed my stuff and  had some great breakfast. The Copenhagen Central Station was some 300 meters away. The ticket price from Copenhagen to Malmö was a bit cheaper (99 DKK for ticket and 50 DKK for bike ticket, ca. 20 EUR total) than the other way around.

The weather was mixed and windy at 18 °C. The first half of the day was windy and raining. Later during the afternoon, the weather got much better – lots of sunshine and no clouds. It was windy along the coastline, less windy towards main land.

From Malmö C, I followed the route No. 3 – Sydkustleden to Helsingborg. I have visited cities of Landskrona and Helsingborg. In Helsingborg, the route was continued on Kattegatleden Cycle Route No. 1 to Göteborg.

I kept cycling until late in the evening until tiredness set in and I had to find a place to rest. After looking for a camp spot, I found a shelter few kilometers behind Brunnby where I slept over night. Great place, it was quiet and I really enjoyed it.

Total distance: 123.7 km, Ride time: 8h40m, average: 14.3 km/h

This time I’m trying something new. I’m currently on vacation and I’m about on my way to ride my bike from Copenhagen, Denmark through Sweden to Bergen, Norway. I will try to write a travel blog on a daily basis via my smartphone through the next couple of weeks.

Basically, during past couple of days, I’ve been busy packing my stuff to travel via bike and tent. It took me three days to prepare everything (clean clothes and bike, repair equipment etc.). Packed the bags by sunday morning and hurried to the central train station.

Catched the train on time and also arrived in Uelzen on time. However, the connection to Hamburg had a delay of approx. 40 min. Further delays forced me to change trains in Lüneburg in order to get to the city of Lübeck-Travemünde. I arrived about 1 hour late due to train delays but still had 3 hours left.

I killed the time at the beach before moving to the harbor. The beach of Travemünde was crowded very well, temperature was around 27 °C.

At around 18:30h I moved to the port towards Skandinavienkiel. The check-in at the port was very easy and I met some nice cyclists along the way. We went together on board and had an exclusive place for our bikes in front of the ship (bow side).

Departure was on time at 22h and the sights from the Observation/Sun Deck were amazing – the promenade, the beach and some lightning on the horizon!

The Finnlines personnel were friendly and very supportive, thanks alot to the crew!After having a dinner, I went to the cabin and passed out quickly due to a dense packed travel day. Awesome!

“It’s summer. Holidays. What are you going to do with your free time?” The answer to this question was quite easy: cycling! I’m still pursuing my long-term goal to cycle the North Sea cycle route R1, which is basically a 7000 km long route around the North Sea. I’ve already covered most parts of the German leg (Ostfriesland and Nordfriesland) in the years 2018 and 2019 but as we all know, COVID-19 happened in early 2020 and all travelling plans had to be cancelled and postponed.

Four years later, it was about time to continue the journey. My plan was to cycle Denmark by bike and tent. I’ve never been to Denmark before and I had no idea what to expect there. The concept of Nature Camping Sites and Shelters was very intriguing and I wanted to give it a try. Prepared a route with OpenCycleMap, packed my stuff and off I went to the island of Sylt where I ended my last bike tour in the summer of 2019.

Getting to Sylt by train…

Travelling to Sylt by train on weekend wasn’t the best idea. The route from Hamburg to Sylt was overwhelmed by tourists. The trains were mostly full, delayed and there was little to none space for cyclists. I had to skip a change in Elmshorn just because the train was hopelessly full and people were travelling like canned fish. After arriving in Sylt on the late afternoon, I had to discard my plans for the first day. I tried to find a camping site near the city of Kampen. I entered a camping site in Wenningstedt, set up my tent and after half an hour or so, I was approached by the security guy. He told me that the camping site was “full” and that I had to leave. So basically I was thrown out because I arrived too late and didn’t book my stay. I’ve never experienced this before, packed my stuff and left speechless. Since wild/stealth camping in Sylt is illegal and there is always a beach police, I was forced to sleep on a bench. This unintended situation gave me a huge pain in my back so I had to use painkillers for the next couple of days. I really disliked Sylt (even back in 2019) and just wanted to leave as quickly as possible. I won’t visit this island anymore. It’s just overcrowded, expensive (FCK KURTAXE) and you get treated like an animal. No thanks.

However, the next morning (Day 1), I cycled to the so-called Ellenbogen (“Sylt elbow”) and visited the List lighthouses and the northernmost location of Germany. The sunrise was really beautiful and rewarding. I cycled back to the List harbor and took the ferry to Havneby (Rømø, Denmark) at around 08:30. After leaving the island Rømø at around 10 o’clock, I started cycling the Route R1 on Jutland.

Week 1 – West Coast Route R1 from Sylt/Rømø to Skagen

This route was (officially) about 550 km long and it took me 7 days from Havneby to the northernmost location in Denmark. The west coast route was beautiful. Besides beautiful landscapes (dunes, forests, fjords, bays, sea) and mostly good to excellent cycling weather, the cycling roads were in a very good condition and also varying in quality: asphalt roads, gravel, sand/beach, forest paths, hills. I had little to no trouble with winds because the cycling routes were guarded by wind-stopping forests, dunes or dikes. 50% of the cycling time I had a weak wind, 25% back wind and 25% head wind. Day 3 was very rainy, the rain lasted for several hours but was gone in the afternoon. The route signs on the route were mostly visible, at some points they were either hidden, missing or inconclusive. This resulted in many extra kilometers because I lost track of the route. In the end, I cycled around 620 km.

Camping sites were in a good to very good condition although a bit expensive in the range from 160 to 230 DKK per night which corresponds to 23 to 32 EUR per night. It’s a bit much for cyclists with a tent if you compare it to Germany (price range from 12 EUR to 20 EUR per night). However, the shelters were free of charge so spending every second or third day on a camping site in order to get a shower and to charge up batteries was sufficient. Unfortunately, someone stole my fast charger and power bank during my stay in Ribe on Day 1. Luckily I carried a backup power bank and a charger – albeit much slower to charge – so I had to turn on the flight mode and save energy for the rest of the tour.

I met many other cyclists on route and it was an amazing experience. Everybody was friendly and supportive and we shared our cycling plans and stories. Two of those amazing cyclists were Tim from UK and Justin from Switzerland. We met on Day 3 (the rainy day) like two times on the road and later in the evening (by coincidence) in a shelter. We talked about our routes and  we jokingly agreed “Our next shelter will be at X, so if you join us, it would be great to have you with us!”. The shelters were 80-100 km apart so it was quite a challenge to get there. So I cycled the next couple of days for 8 hours daily and I was able to meet them at the shelters we agreed upon. As I showed up, they couldn’t believe that I made it! Tim was very excited and sponsored me a beer on each evening. Unforgettable! We parted our ways after Day 6. Tim went on his tour to Norway and Justin continued his journey in Sweden.

Cycling from Hirtshals to Skagen was really amazing. I had about 3 hours of back wind, very good weather and great views. I took some pictures of the area although I didn’t take a walk to the Northern Beach. There were too many tourists present and I was afraid leaving my bike unattended. I noticed a high number of Tesla Electric Cars there but one car really blew my mind: I spotted a DMC DeLorean there (the car from the movie Back To The Future) which really blew my mind.

Week 2 – East Coast Route R1/R5 from Skagen to Kruså/Flensburg

After reaching Skagen and the northernmost point of Denmark, I had to cycle back to Germany – a distance of approx. 620 km. Day 8 (Hulsig – Dokkedal) was a very good cycling day (111 km) with lots of interesting encounters. The following days (Day 9 and 10) were really difficult weather-wise. A bad weather zone called Hans was raging over Scandinavian countries and brought a lot of rain. The situation in Sweden and Norway was very dangerous because some local rainfalls were extreme and flushed away streets and railways. Day 9 (Dokkedal – Fjellerup) was raining the whole day. I was wet both inside and out. This was no problem because I had exchange clothes which stayed dry during the ride. Staying warm and dry during the night is much more important than during the daytime. On Day 10, the rain went away but there were strong winds at 60 km/h in combination with hills. This combination of winds and hills was very tiring and I wasn’t able to cycle large distances (55 to 65 km per day at best). Hans was almost gone on Day 11 (Balle – Aarhus) but I had to fight the terrain: hills after hills. While the West Coast Route was mostly flat and hills were an exception, the East Coast Route was dominated by hills. The hills weren’t very large (maybe 10 to 30 meters) but very frequent. I had to push my bike frequently because of my overweight and because I was carrying too much baggage with me. Nevertheless, I was able to achieve daily distances of somewhat 70 to 90 km per day which were inside of my comfort zone.

The landscape along the east coast route was dominated by cities with harbors, bays, smaller villages and agriculture. On sunny days, the landscapes were beautiful and very varied. The hills were quite a challenge which were a very nice addition to the overall cycling experience. During the last day of cycling from Fredericia to Kruså (Day 14), I was able to cycle another 109 km although the weather got really bad in the afternoon. I visited a camping site in Kruså which was about 10 km away from my destination: Flensburg.

The next day, I cycled across the Danish/German border to Flensburg, bought myself a Flensburger Pilsner beer and celebrated a successful bike tour. The travel back from Flensburg to Braunschweig by train took me another 7.5 hours.

Summary

I really enjoyed this adventure. My arrival day from Braunschweig to Sylt wasn’t going as planned. I had to sleep on a bench because I was thrown out from a camping site. My charger/power bank was stolen. My back/ass hurt all the time. I got lost many times and had to ride extra kilometers. I had to push my cycle and walk uphill many times… Nevertheless, a 40 year old guy weighing 120 kg (240 lbs) doing a 14 day cycling tour in a foreign country worked out pretty well! I’ve visited beautiful and interesting places and cities (Esbjerg, Hvide Sande, Hanstholm, Blokhus, Hirtshals, Skagen, Fredrikshavn, Fjellerup, Grenå, Aarhus, Juelsminde, Fredericia, Kolding, Hadersleben, Aabenraa), yet I haven’t seen them all. The holidays in Denmark were quite affordable (~500 EUR for 14 days including food and camping and 2 extra days of arrival and departure). I plan to return to Denmark maybe next year and cycle the remaining part from Fredericia via Odense to Kopenhagen.

Total kilometers cycled (km)	Total time cycled (hh:mm:ss)	Average speed (km/h)	Average cycling duration per day (hh:mm:ss)
1244.96	98:15:26	12.646	6:33:02