Bastad, Sweden to Halmstad, Sweden (July 16, 2023)

July 16, 2023

The Day of the Young Moose

Back to pan flat, but oh boy, that constant easterly wind coming off the North Sea makes riding difficult, even with e-bikes.

One thing that’s been a real challenge on this trip is the change-ability of the weather and the difficulty of predicting it. We have become a bit of a slave to the online weather report and have been unimpressed with the reliability of the weather predictions. A day or two before we departed Copenhagen the weather in Sweden was predicted to stink for the entire week, ie; wind and rain pretty much everyday. The reality turned out to be better and more nuanced. It did rain everyday and there was ALWAYS wind, but the rain was pretty selective, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. The challenge for us has been more of how to dress for the ride. The first morning leaving Copenhagen the report was clear weather between 10 and 3 so consequently we didn’t put on rain pants or a rain jacket and, of course, got caught out in a bad thunderstorm 15 minutes later. And that’s been the pattern. We now routinely put on rain pants before setting off if the forecast includes showers. If it doesn’t rain then we’re baking….but if you do not have your rain pants on when it starts to rain you're going to get wet because you first have to remove your shoes before you can put on the rain pants and by the time you do get them on and put the shoes back on, you can be soaked. Rain in these parts comes on quickly, without much warning and just as quickly becomes a downpour.

So, this morning we had the usual dithering about what to put on. We started with rain pants on as the weather was predicted to be changeable but it was too much and we stripped down pretty quickly. As you can see from the photos it was a lovely ride. We have been very impressed with the Kattegatt-Leden trail. While it has virtually no elevation gain there is enough variation between beach and farms and forest and vineyards that it’s still interesting. After 395 km I suspect we'll be ready for a change but it has been a charming, interesting ride. For someone new to cycle touring it would be a great route to cut your teeth on. We read that it has been great for the little towns and cities along the trail and improved the tourism situation in this area. Sweden has also made a real commitment to improving parts of the route. My suggestion, if I were to write a letter to the bike planning people: Don’t worry about paving the few random places where there is singletrack or gravel (which are inevitably packed down and easy to ride on), rather focus on providing a paved trail alternative to the few places where we have to ride on a “somewhat busy” road with traffic and no shoulder. It’s been no problem really, but you definitely move to a more alert mental mode, and Swedish drivers are not quite as polite as the Danes (I think Dave disagrees and says that I’m overstating the difference; he thinks the Swedes are fine). I also wish there were more accommodation options. It’s either super fancy old-line Swedish hotels or super budget pensions or camping. Incidentally, the Swedes are ALL driving Volvos- at one point on the road five Volvos in a row passed me.

The excitement of the day was THE YOUNG MOOSE. It was totally cool. We were riding through a forested area and two women on bikes had stopped and had their cameras out so we know something was up. This moose was hanging out probably 10 or 15 meters away just staring at us. I suspect this shot will make the cut for the photo collage Dave will do at the end of the trip.

After riding out of the forest preserve we suddenly came across this huge shopping mall; photos doesn’t do justice to how weird it was to scoot out of the forest to a mall. Unfortunately, or fortunately- just depending on your perspective about shopping in a mall, we had no reason to stop and shop.

Upon departing the forest, there was this.

We arrived in Halmstad around 1:30 to our Best Western Grand Hotel. It was built in 1905, we suspect in conjunction with the fancy but run-down looking train station across the street. It supposedly was remodeled in 2017 but it could use more help. The room was fine if a bit small, but the hallways and other spaces look tired. Our room wasn't ready so we dropped our gear and rode into the town center for lunch. Halmstad has about 70,000 people; like all the larger towns and cities we have seen, it looks like it has seen better days. It reminded me of the old Midwestern American Cities that were so affluent up to the Post WW2 era but then fell on harder times. However, the town had a huge padelball tournament in the center of town. We have seen several places for padelball here. We assumed it was a relation to pickeleball but in fact we learned that they are quite different; padelball has its roots in handball and pickleball derives more from badminton and tennis.

Because we had arrived early we had hoped to work out at the advertised gym. Unfortunately it’s not their gym but one you can use down the street. Because it started to pour rain around the time we thought about going, we skipped it and watched the Wimbledon final - in Swedish- instead.

Dinner at the hotel was very good, notwithstanding somewhat erratic service. The dining room felt a little understaffed and we had an issue getting a bottle of wine we ordered. I think the server forgot about it and then she couldn’t find it when she finally looked. Anyway, it was the kind of thing that in the US Dave would have got up and found her and inquired of the status, but we dislike doing that here as we have no desire to be the pushy Americans while we travel. (Dave: I'm OK being a pushy American in America!) We had a pickled herring starter at dinner and it was a good introduction to a Swedish classic. I hope to see more of those.

Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 613 km (381 miles)

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