Skövde

After the previous day and a glance at future, rain-heavy weather forecasts, we decided that today was the day to make our last public transport hop. In order to stay (roughly) on track, we had to catch a bus East to Stockholm, therfore to catch a train West to Skovde.

It seemed simple enough, but our camp manager informed us that the only way our bikes could travel by bus or train in this region was in a packed state, much like how we shipped them for the flights over. Luckily, he turned out to be a very charitable camp manager, and supplied us with all we needed; including plastic and gaffer tape to wrap our bikes, computer access for booking our tickets and a lift to the station.

On arriving at the station, we forced 50 SEK (about) 3 quid) into his hand and climbed on the bus. That part of the journey went smooth, but upon arriving at Stockholm we realised that we were in a different world. The station was huge and full of people, and we had too much luggage to carry in one go (it's a lot more to carry when it's off the bike). So we moved our bags in relays, always keeping a line of sight to the pile that we left and the new one we were creating. After doing this three times, we were outside a Subway, so we could buy something resembling a lunch and use that as a base while one of us went to buy train tickets.

Stockholm Bus and Train terminal is huge but, long story short, we eventually got on a train (6 hours after we arrived) and had a smooth run to Skovde. Where we could check in to our hotel - the only place that we were capable of reaching from the station (in similar relays).Read more