Day 23 - Swedens' final hurdle

Leaving Bastad, we had one more mountain to conquer before a flat, final run to the Danish border. It turned out to be one of the highest and longest climbs of the whole trip, which made for a fitting final challenge for Sweden.

In fact, the Swedish half of the ride proved to be a kind of 'greatest hits' for the country. We had the mountain, followed by cycle paths along fields and farms, road cycling and forests. We even came close to an 'E' highway on a few occasions, but mercifully avoided it.

Our final stop in Sweden was Helsinborg - the biggest city we had yet seen, but made enjoyable by the extremely well-developed inner-city cycle paths. After that, we were cueing to cycle into the lower hold of a ferry, chased by freight lorries.

We read that it was possible to get a nice meal on the ferry, at duty-free prices, but the food turned out to be comparable to an Ikea fast-food hot dog. We ate one, all the same, then rolled off the ferry and round the coast to our campsite. As the campsite was full (and full of sniffy, elderly local campers) we opted to head into the lively town of Helsingor. There we found a Cafe for dinner and some celebratory drinks ahead of our final ride to Copenhagen.Read more