The Big Bike Year

It's me again... Mike, thought it was time to update that map ... here's the new one... that's 1,750km of action! Yep...as predicted by Serena last time... we're currently on a double rest day in Jönköping (on a huge lake - kind of a beach side vibe ... downtown is pretty .. see pics below), it's about half way to our Swedish target of Stockholm. I'm so amazed that we're here, I've been looking at Jönköping on a map for months... it's surreal! We seem to be settling into a pretty great routine. Every day is amazing and huge and full of challenges and surprises and incredible beauty, but they all seem to fit into a general pattern. Getting up and on the road early, really works for us. We started doing it to avoid rain, but it just seems to really give us a kick start each day. We're making great progress and feeling confident and very happy with the route we chose! Last update we were at the end of our first Route 1 day in Varnamo, camped by the ...

Remember this pic, Sportsfans?  The crazy Swedish snake one?  Ha ha to me for taking the piss.  Mike and I literally laughed out loud when we saw this sign on our walk that night at the beach near the cutie pie campsite.  Well...karma.   After we left you last time at that gorgeous little cafe overlooking the water, we hit the road inland.  Remember we'd decided to leave the idyllic coastal route for something more rugged, to experience more of Sweden than all the prettiness?  Well we found it.  Mike had read about a rail trail that went inland that then linked us up with an old highway that's hardly used any more, Old Route 1, it's sort of like the old Pacific Highway - virtually no cars, brilliant wide road, and even some bike path space on the side.  So, we set off.  After a pit stop at the supermarket for supplies, we found the rail trail and it was AWESOME!  Great surface, amazing forests around us, undulating and fun, we were ...

 Right.  I'm on a mission.  It's three nights since the last post and there are no other words for it other than BEST CYCLING EVER!  I'm sitting here at a cute local cafe overlooking the water in a tiny weeny place called Pårp - we camped 1km overnight in the cutest little campground - and we just had a classic Swedish brekkie - pics down below.  Now the reason i'm on a mission is I wanted to get this post done before we head off for our day, you see after much ummmming and ahhhhing we've decided to leave this delightfully beautiful and hedonistic Swedish coastal cycling and head inland.  "Go and do the west coast" everyone said, "It's absolutely stunning", they said.  And they were so right.  We've had 4 glorious nights on the coast now, and we're up for a change of scenery - we've decided to leave Route 1 to Gothenburg and try our luck up the middle of Sweden on our Stockholm.  So, I want to close off this phase before we leave ...