If you know me, you won't be surprised by a phrase like that. But how did it happen? In March, a friend of mine called Julia mentioned a ballet with 6000 liters of water in Oslo and if I would like to see it. By now I believe she probably meant it as a joke, but it soon turned into a serious plan (even more as it is a ballet by Ekman!). And so we figured out the details, made reservations and were looking forward to reunion after a long time.
But it's a long way to Oslo, and flyinig is not only questionable regarding the environment, but also expensive. So... you just take your bike and ride there. At least that was the idea in my head. Of course we still had to deal with the removal, which is why I planned for three weeks off at the end of June. In spite of my chaos, we managed to handle this, thanks to Ida's help. Now there was still the basement that belongs to our shared flat. And anyone who has shared a flat with various roomies knows how much rubbish can pile up there throughout the decades. All this stuff had to be discarded, too. Fortunately, our semester ticket could be converted into the 9€- Ticket, which allowed me to stay two more days in Dortmund and then "quickly" take a train to the German-Danish border. If you know the German Railway Company Deutsche Bahn, you can already guess that this didn't work out. Well... After taking the stuff to the recycling center and attending a birthday party, we still took all our not-longer needed clothes to the collection point for used clothing with a cargo bike.
On Sunday, exactly on time at 9... umm 10 am (just as planned, of course), I took off. Dortmund - Münster - Osnabrück - Bremen. Everything as easy as the Deutsche Bahn is known for: Passengers taking seats in the multi- purpose-compartments leaving no space for bikes or strollers, and not even offering a seat to senior citizens with a rollator.
But in Bremen the adventure began. The Metronom (lokal rail transport company of Lower Saxony) has actually noticed that more people take the train due to the 9€-Ticket (surprise, surprise!) and instead or increasing frequency or length of the trains, they just decided to forbid bicycles on the train or kick out redundant people. Only this weekend was not so busy (maybe it was not Whitsun? Of course, this could not have been foreseen) and the trains were not so crowded, but that didn't stop them from nonetheless keeping bicycles off the train. So I rode to Cuxhaven and after 40 minutes of waiting from there to Hamburg by train. Waiting there again 40 minutes to get on the last train of the day and arrive 3 hours later than planned (at 9 pm) in Flensburg.
9 pm doesn't mean bedtime for everyone (especially not in a city) and so I cycled, as in the old days, with an IDA (see "About us") in my ear for another 40 km to set up camp around midnight on a "primitiv Teltplads" near Kalvø. Primitv Teltplads are places in Denmark where it is legal to camp "wild". Mostly far away from busy roads, just stones in a circle to make fire but sometimes also with small huts where you can settle in with sleeping bag and mat.
The next morning then went early. Until I saw that it was raining outside. Then I closed the tent and continued to sleep until 10 am. Sometime around 11 am it then actually went off. Quite uneventfully, Denmark's bicycle infrastructure then showed itself from both its good and bad sides. Similar to Germany, bike lanes suddenly disappear next to roads, were only a foot wide, or were not there at all. When they are there, however, they are well maintained and the infrastructure is significantly better than in Germany! What you often hear: "Denmark has the best bicycle infrastructure in Europe", holds true only if the Danes plan to flood the Netherlands.
Also the second day ran rather unspectacular a stained cloudy Denmark let the landscape flow. I cycled uphill and downhill and made only a short break to buy yogurt, eat directly and talked with geocaching cycling dutchmen. In the evening then the pure luxury: the primitive campground had such a hut and I did not had to set up my tent.
In the morning, of course, packing was faster and I had to decide how fast I ride, because the ferry from Frederikshavn to Gothenburg go each at 2 and at 8 pm. Because of the suggestive knee pain, I decided for the later and cycled leisurely to myself. Only unfortunately the way was too good, the wind just right and the knee but not so bad, so I was at 2:30 pm in Frederikshavn. 5 hours later and after 2 conversations with other tourers I could then get on the ferry and 3 hours later down again. I was just right to camp wildly at 11 pm in Gothenburg center. With IDA in the ear I rode a little more than an hour north to finally be out of the city. When I found a place and relieved Ida from her suffering and set up my camp. Meanwhile I broke the pole of my tent. (Matching Ida's text message "Have fun setting up your tent and good night"). With annoying tickling mosquitoes all around me, I tried to fix the pole until eventually I gave up, took a stick as a replacement, and just fell asleep on the floor of my wobbly tent without a sleeping mat or bag.
The next morning came, the sun was shining and me and my pole were riding comfortably through Sweden. When after 50 km a sign "Caution, moose" came, I thought first that would stand there only from general caution, but no 200m further, I saw then directly one.
And so the day tumbled along, with beautiful views and a lot of monotonous driving (as is the case when you drive with a goal and a schedule).
In the evening with Julia on the phone I got lost and as luck would have it, I was approached by two people. Håkan and Annika have a cabin north of Mankedal, exactly as far as I wanted to go! They lured me with promises of a shower and a bed. This turned into a dinner and a conversation. And in the evening I was then extremely happy not to have to put up the broken tent!
After breakfast the next morning, it went then, differently than planned, along the lake north, because the 5 km back to my planned route were also about the length of the detour. The new route was probably also the right decision, because the road was extremely empty and driving relaxed. After a last purchase at ICA to delay the Norwegian prices a bit, I crossed the border. While I was driving, I noticed that the shift cable from my gear shift was only hanging by 2-3 threads. As written for drama, I rode up and down the hills with aching knees to buy a replacement cable exactly (and I didn't know it at the time) two minutes before closing time. After this quick replacement, in typical Norwegian fashion, it started raining right away and of course didn't stop again all day. A very bad moment for it, because in the next day I should get from Julia her old (but not broken) tent as a replacement. Around 11 pm I luckily found a sitting area near a place to put boats in the water. There I built a very shaky tent to protect me from the nevertheless very numerous spiders and quickly fell asleep.
The last day started well again. The sun quickly dried the wet clothes and I literally flew towards Oslo. The drivers of Norway must be praised again at this point. At least 50% overtake on the opposite lane, 30% with two meters distance and the rest pass you so slowly that you do not have to fear for your life. I experienced a total of three bad overtaking maneuvers in the two days. Of course, one of them had a German and one a Swiss license plate...
At the end, the last 20 km are still worth mentioning, because I have never experienced such an ugly entrance to a city: directly on the E18 with only a metal plank in between. With two exceptions: once the road led with 40% downhill and immediately afterwards again with 50% uphill. The second time it led all at once surprisingly on a road into the oncoming traffic. Apparently I survived it anyway. Now I enjoy a few days rest in Oslo and report probably soon from the return trip to Trelleborg.