Epic Bike Trip: Copenhagen to Gothenburg

Background and prep

We would be biking 280 miles, roughly following the route below.

Day	Leg	Distance
Sun	Gentofte → Helsingør → ferry → Helsingborg → Mölle	86 km / 53 mi
Mon	Mölle → Ängelholm → Båstad	86 km / 53 mi
Tue	Båstad → Laholm → Halmstad → Falkenberg	99 km / 62 mi
Wed	Falkenberg → Varberg → Kungsbacka	111 km / 69 mi
Thu	Kungsbacka → Gothenburg	64 km / 40 mi

In Sweden we would be following the famous Kattegattleden. We must have passed one thousand of these signs with different pointing arrows.

The packing list — and my comments on it

• Packable duffel, 35–40 L — this is the carry-on. (Bought an Eddie Bauer 45L packable duffel from Amazon for like $40)
• Daypack, ~15–18 L — personal item on the plane, day bag in Copenhagen. (Tara had a collapsable standard size backpack.)
• 20 L panniers ×2. (We rented these — make sure to book ahead.)
• Two dry bags, 5–10 L — one clean, one becomes the wet-kit bag. (Not sure these were needed, but I ended up putting my tablet in one of them for safe keeping and Matt used the other for his daybag.)
• Four ziplocks — passport and confirmations, chargers, wet chamois, one spare. (Ended up using the larger ziplock for wet clothes and another for passport and keys.)

• Bib shorts ×2 — wash one every evening. (I thought bib shorts were silly, but they are more comfortable because there’s no elastic waist squeezing. So I had one pair of regular bike shorts and one pair of big shorts)
• Jersey or merino tee ×2. (I just brought two fast drying athletic shirts. One long sleeve and one short.)
• Long-sleeve merino base layer. (I brought a light cycling jacket. The original list had to also bring arm and leg warmers, but these weren’t needed)
• Light insulated jacket or fleece. (I brought a hoody for plane and for evenings.)
• Merino cycling socks ×2. (Yes. The merino wool dries better and doesn’t get stinky)
• Long-finger gloves. (Open finger were better. Also you want gloves with padding around the palms. Mine didn’t and I started getting blisters on my palms, luckily Matt let me borrow his)
• Cycling cap — under the helmet. (Not needed, but we didn’t get poured on.)
• Buff or neck gaiter. (I brought a very thin balaclava. It wasn’t needed but if it was a little colder or rainy I could see wanting this.)
• Helmet. (We rented it, luckily they had a good comfortable helmet, otherwise it would have been a long ride)
• Sunglasses with a clear or low-light lens. (Yes — I brought cycling glasses where I could swap out the shaded or clear lens, needed the clear lens more than the shades.)
• Chamois cream — travel tube or single-use packets. A full tub is over 100 ml. (Used this the first day or two, then didn’t need it.)

• Cycling rain shell with pit zips and a dropped tail. (I just brought a standard longer packable rain jacket, probably 2L — only needed it for an hour, so it was fine.)
• Packable rain pants with ankle zips. (Hiking rain pants were great; only needed one hour. Again I brought 2L)
• Full neoprene shoe covers — the best return on space in this whole list. (I thought these were silly but I brought them anyway. For that one hour I was glad I had them. If we had been getting poured on day after day I can see how these would be a must have, but when it doesn’t rain it seems a little silly.)
• Waterproof phone case or a covered mount. (We rented phone mounts and didn’t use them — we liked our phones in a pocket so we could pull them out and take photos.)

• Gravel or MTB clipless shoes with recessed cleats. (I just brought my standard non-recessed shoes; it was a little annoying but fine.)
• One packable off-bike shoe — a low-profile sneaker or light trail runner. Wear these on the plane, pack the cycling shoes. (I had also brought a pair of very light slides. I used these a little bit – to get in the ocean etc – but probably weren’t necessary. I did like them on the plane actually)
• Wool socks ×1 for evenings. (In addition to a pair of travel socks. So 4 pairs of socks total. 2 for biking. 1 for travel. 1 for evenings)

• Your own pedals + 8 mm hex key — rentals come with flats. (Yes, we brought our own pedals, but we just borrowed tools.)
• Your own saddle. (We brought saddle gel covers instead and glad we did. Now that I think about it… I think I left mine on my bike… )
• Second water bottle — they give you one. (Brought a plastic contigo for the plane etc)
• Electronics: adapter, cords, headphones for the plane, etc. (I brought a little tablet and bought a travel keyboard. I thought this would be better than lugging my laptop around. It was still heavier than I would have liked but I think this was fine.)

• Travel pants ×1. (Just wore these on the plane.)
• Shirt ×1 — travel shirt.
• T-shirt ×1. (Ended up wearing this at night.)
• Underwear ×3. (We ended up wearing thin underwear under our bike shorts so we wouldn’t have to wash the shorts if we didn’t sweat too much.)
• Sleep shorts. (I ended up bringing just one pair of athletic shorts, and wore these each day over my biking shorts)
• Light beanie. (I didn’t bring this but Matt did. My buff had a head cover.)
• Toiletries and medicine, all in a quart-size bag.
• Passport, etc.
• I wish I would have worn a mask on the plane, at least TO Copenhagen. When you are flying to participate in an athletic activity, it is so important to stay healthy, so probably worth wearing the mask on the plane.

All of this fit in a collapsible duffel and a backpack, and fit pretty comfortably in two 20 L panniers.

Day 0 — Copenhagen

The flight wasn’t too bad. Slept a little to Iceland and then a little more to Copenhagen. See my note above, but I wish I would have worn a mask on the plane, when traveling to participate in athletic events. We landed about 3 PM, so not too long to have to stay busy.

Copenhagen was beautiful and very bikey. Meaning there were bikes everywhere.

First stop was the food hall. Toast Skagen was the first thing we were supposed to have, but instead we had these delicious fish cakes on rye bread that were just amazing.

The weather was cool and perfect and it was just nice to be exploring a new city and chatting with Matt. Then was kind of a walking tour through the city. We walked to the university section and where the Google office is — sadly it was closed and locked up. Yes, I did bring my badge just in case. Then we walked through the “new port,” where you see all the cute colored houses, and it was probably the best picture of the city.

From there we hopped on some Lime bikes and started biking north past the old fortress and to the old port — the actual place where ancestors on my dad’s mom’s side set sail from Denmark, as part of the first group of Danish emigrants in 1860. We learned that Denmark was the first constitutional monarchy to allow for religious freedom, and that’s why there was so much interest coming out of Denmark. It was special to be on the very place. We kept biking north to the Christus statue, which was done by a Smith — Julia Smith’s dad, from Highland, Utah. I recognized the style for sure. And that was just fun to see a touch of home in Denmark.

After that we walked to Tivoli Gardens, not to ride the rides but just to look around, and it was gorgeous.

Like an amusement park designed by an artist. It was, well, a garden. Elitch Gardens should take note of what is going on here. It was amazing. We ate a butter burger, which is just what it sounds like — a swath of salted butter on your burger. It was good, but I’m glad we shared and I only had half. Then to our hotel to crash. And crash we did. Matt took some Benadryl and was out. His last full night of sleep.

Day 1 — Copenhagen to Mölle

We woke up to the best part of Europe: the hotel breakfast buffet. Fresh bread and all the delicious jams and jellies. We were sure to eat an extra serving of bacon and eggs. Originally we were going to spend the entire day roaming around Copenhagen, but we did so much the night before that we wanted to get started — and I’m glad we did, because the bike route ended up being longer than we planned, a full 280 miles. I’m glad we didn’t try and do that in 4 days!! We bought some granola bars and then hit the train to just north of the city where we would start our trip.

Getting off the train we were at the edge of the city, next to a nature preserve, and there was a tiny little bike shop and coffee shop by the train station. That was our starting point. There a cool Russian guy and his assistant Mustafa tried to get us all set up.

The bikes were ready and the panniers, but luckily we test rode everything, because Matt’s wheel was so crooked someone had obviously run it over. My large gear wouldn’t shift down. I was tempted to move on but was glad I didn’t, and instead me and the guy put the bike in the stand and tightened the front derailleur cable.

Packed our panniers — we had plenty of room, so one small backpack partially full and a 40 L duffel partially full turns out to be about right — and then we were biking! It felt great to be on the road. First route was through the nature preserve, which was beautiful and full of cute deer.

Then out to the main road and up the coast. This route wasn’t quite as great — the path was narrow and mostly blocked the view — but it was still nice to see the Denmark coast.

We biked straight to Helsingør and hopped on the ferry.

By the time we went to the bathroom and got a snack we were on the other side. Then some halal fast food in Helsingborg and we were biking again.

Through the city, then up the coastline, and finally we were getting worried because it was getting late and starting to get dark.

So we pushed it to Mölle and got to this cute tiny hotel right on the coast about 8 PM.

Nobody was there to check us in — basically our keys were in the door. It was super cute, right on the coast.

We showered super fast and then went looking for food. Up the hill to the only restaurant that was open — but it wasn’t. It was completely dark. You see, this is the off season, but I guess there is a very short summer on-season for these coastal cities. So we walked back down the hill (I nearly sprained my ankle) and then to a restaurant, the only place that was open. But their kitchen was closed. They took pity on us and made us some Toast Skagen, which is basically rye bread piled high with tiny shrimp salad, which actually hit the spot, and the fresh bread was amazing. Then they made us a perfect dessert of chocolate gelato and chocolate mousse and panna cotta. SO GOOD.

It ended up working out great. I slept with my door open to the ocean and I slept great. Matt, not so much.

Day 2 — Mölle to Båstad

Breakfast in the tiny sea house next to the ocean was delicious. It’s all the same as before, but homemade.

Start with a little fruit and then warm croissants with fresh jellies or Nutella and then double helpings of bacon and eggs. That was the other great thing about the trip — you can just eat so much. You eat and eat and eat. And it’s amazing food. So great. Oh, and pancakes with fresh jellies and yogurt and homemade granola. And the bread is just amazing. This place had warm rolls. SO GOOD. We packed up our bikes and then were on the road.

This was a long meandering ride to Båstad.

We took our time. We stopped at a cute town and ate some pastries and did some shopping.

We ate lunch at this cute seaside cafe — the only ones in the whole place, because it is off season.

Matt had asked about padel on the way. And apparently Båstad is a tennis town, because we started passing a bunch of courts and things. Well, we passed one outdoor padel court and I said let’s stop and see if we can buy rackets, and so we did — but you didn’t rent the rackets from a person. There was a vending machine with keys in it, where you would buy the key and that was your racket.

Such a cool system, I thought. We played around for a bit, then it was time to go.

We were dinking around, so it was late by the time we got in to Båstad. We showered and then went to an Italian place and I ate an entire chicken pizza AND I ate a Nutella pizza. Yum. So hungry. It was a little warm this night and I didn’t sleep as well. Matt didn’t sleep well either.

Day 3 — Båstad to Skrea Beach (Falkenberg)

This was our least good breakfast. Not near the variety or goodness. Matt was starting to not feel well, so first stop was the pharmacy to get some medicine.

Today’s biking was the best, though. Matt had talked about going a little bit faster today so it didn’t take us all day. So we started through a dirt trail in a nature reserve, and then it opened up onto the beach.

Lunch was at Halmstad at Bastard Burgers, and we both had double burgers.

We saw the Mormon missionaries there, so I had a good time chatting with Elder Kelly, who is from Windsor, Colorado. Past more farms and beaches, and we even stopped for a drink at a mini golf place. These Swedish ladies thought we were cute with our glasses and nose strips:

We made our best time yet and got to the Ocean Hotel by like 4:30 PM, our earliest time of the trip. So I did a cold-hot-cold-hot cycle in the ocean and in the hotel sauna on the 2nd floor. There were not so many hot tubs, but there were a lot of saunas. Dinner was just a short rainy walk away at the next hotel — this was a fancy dinner and the bread and cod was so good. Then I had booked us time at the spa. And by spa I mean we had use of the pools and saunas and steam rooms. They were really cool and fancy. So unique and fun. The water wasn’t super hot, but that’s okay — it still felt amazing.

We had a great time trying out each pool and hopping from sauna to steam room to pool.

Day 4 — Falkenberg to Kungsbacka

Woke up this day to really bad news. Matt was out. Sick. Not going to be able to bike. Breakfast was by myself, then a short walk on the beach.

Then I had to get on the bike. Today was going to be the longest ride of the trip and I was getting a late start and doing it alone. First start through Falkenberg — all these cute old towns are just stunning.

It was a long, long, lonely day. So many beautiful sunflower farms. Gorgeous coastlines. And headwinds!! Why so many headwinds?? It was a lot.

I was missing Matt. He made things easier for 3 reasons: 1. Pushes me to go faster. 2. I didn’t realize how much I had been drafting off Matt — he had been breaking the wind for me. 3. It’s so nice to have someone to talk to on these long lonely rides. I was also worried about Matt. He was trying to see a doctor and was worried that he wouldn’t be able to make the flight home. He was very sick with a sore throat and worse. So that saying — if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together — that was not true in this case. I definitely went faster with Matt. I made it to Varberg around lunch time and ate a double burger and milkshake at Burgers and Chill.

Got to love the biking fuel. Then right back on the bike. Out of town and biking around through the countryside. Then I saw a very, very dark cloud in the distance. We had been drizzled on before, but never poured on. I got my rain jacket on and almost skipped the pants and shoe covers, but figured aw what the heck, I might as well. A few minutes later it is just POURING.

It was doable when you were going with the wind, but when you are going against the wind you can’t even see. It made for a rough hour or so, but could have been worse. I pulled into my “2nd lunch” city. I survived by dividing the day up into 3, 3-hour chunks. Bike to lunch. Bike to 2nd lunch. Then bike to DONE. 2nd lunch was at some pizza shop where the guy didn’t speak any English and the pizza wasn’t that good, but I was just happy to have a dry place to hang out for 30 minutes or so and warm up. Luckily the weather turned AND the wind turned, and I no longer had a headwind but instead had a tailwind for the last 2 hours or so. Which was SO NEEDED.

I don’t know if I could have made it with a headwind the whole way. I put that in my learnings note about tailwinds and headwinds. I was tired, but I pulled into Kungsbacka and I was soooo happy to coast down the hill to the town. I kept telling myself just over the next hill, just over the next hill, and I can coast into town. There were a lot of rocky hills to get into town.

Finally it was true and I coasted into town. We were staying at the Quality Best Western Holland hotel, which sounds lame but it was really nice. Matt was out for the count. I knocked on the door to get the key and he looked like death. All swollen and puffy. Poor guy. I went off to get him dinner and medicine at the pharmacy. The pharmacy was in a mall across town. I wanted a massage but there was no time. The mall was fun to see — there was even a lingerie store called TARA, which I thought was awesome. I picked up the medicine and other things for Matt, and then got us some fish soup from a restaurant and took it back to Matt, and just ate in my room and watched the sheep detectives to fall asleep. Yes it was silly and yes I really liked it. 🙂

Day 5 — Kungsbacka to Gothenburg (finish!) and the Skara family history trip

Breakfast was once again amazing. Why are European breakfast buffets so good? This one was similar to the others, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Actually, when searching for hotels I was making sure that they had a good breakfast buffet, and this one did. Matt was still out for the day, so I just loaded up the bike and then was off.

This day was an easy day. Only about 2.5 hours. That’s because I cut off probably an hour by cutting off a horseshoe. I was tired, I didn’t get up early enough if I wanted to rent the car and go to Skara. I was dying by the end.

I was crawling through Gothenburg and was so happy when I finally saw the bridge, which meant I was on the river and almost done.

Made it to the Quality Hotel and unpacked my panniers, which felt so strange after living out of them for 5 days.

Then parked my bike in the room, borrowed a wrench — the people were SO SO NICE — and switched my pedals and said goodbye to my bike. I’m going to miss my bike. I really liked it. I wonder if I can get one like it in the US. Either way I’m definitely getting a new road bike in the US, or a gravel bike, because this one was so smooth. I loved it. Big, big fan.

I took an Uber to the rental car place and grabbed my car. It was the fastest checkout I’ve ever done, like turbo fast. And then I was off to the Skara region. First stop was Travar, where the Radmall side was from.

It was so crazy — I have looked at these places on maps for years, and to actually be there was awesome. I talked to a funny Jewish guy in the one restaurant in town who was a big fan of Trump. I wonder how he got to that tiny town 40 years ago. And then I saw the farms and churches where the Radmall side came from. They had a much easier time of things than the Warnick side.

I was feeling pretty tired by this point. And my throat was a little scratchy. Oh no — was I getting what Matt had? I hurried and drove to eastern Skara where the Warnicks were from. On the way I had Gemini turn the story of the Warnicks into an audio podcast, and it was riveting. I thought it was more interesting than any real produced podcast you would listen to. I wanted to listen to it again. I saw the church where they were married.

I saw the church where they were christened. And then I saw the land where they worked. Finally I went to the landlord’s manor, which still stands and is a restaurant and golf club. I ate at the restaurant. Matt joked with me like, here I am still giving money to that family. You see, the landlord wasn’t super nice, and one of the kids finally stood up to him and beat him up. Dinner was meh.

I was getting tired. And sick. Long drive back in the dark, and made it to Gothenburg by 9 and got my key from the Clarion hotel near the train station. This hotel was our biggest — we were staying on the 10th floor. I was really not feeling it now. Matt stopped and got me some medicine, paying back the favor. Sigh. I was worried it would be a long night.

Day 6 — Gothenburg to Oslo

I was surprised how well I slept. I felt really lucky. I wasn’t great, but I wasn’t horrible. We decided to just eat — once again a delicious breakfast — and then board the 8:15 train to Oslo. So we thought. We ended up buying tickets FROM Oslo, not to Oslo, but luckily there was a train leaving in 2 minutes going to Oslo, so we ran and barely made it, and the conductor was understanding and didn’t kick us off. It was a 3.5-hour ride to Oslo through beautiful lake country. It looked like the town of Ed is the Lake Tahoe of Sweden. It was so beautiful. So many lakes and so much water. Then we pulled into Oslo. I was able to sleep some, but not a lot.

Oslo was fun. We were able to check into our hotel, the Johan Gate Hotel or something like that. Once again I was optimizing for breakfast. The room was nice. The rain was coming down. I had a short nap and we were out the door by 1 PM. We covered a lot of ground. Lunch in a food court. Then off to the national museum.

The waterfront was gorgeous. Took the riverboat to the folk museum and then the bus back to the Vigeland gardens. First we went to the Vigeland museum, and I’m really glad we did this first. This tells the story and contains many of the models that the granite sculptures were made from. This guy was crazy. Like a super weird dude. And super prolific. And no clothes allowed — everyone is naked. The details he was able to capture were just astounding. We really enjoyed this part.

But by the end of the garden I was done. My legs hurt. I was probably fevered. I couldn’t walk anymore. We had to get me a scooter to go to dinner because I couldn’t walk another step. I kind of felt like this guy, but instead of babies I wanted to throw bicycles.

Dinner at Wine and Olives was amazing. Beet salad. Hummus. Chicken gyro plate and rice pudding. Everything was perfect. We took the tram home and then crashed. Well, I chatted with Tara and watched Mamma Mia 2, because we were talking about ABBA and Lily James.

Day 7 — Oslo morning, then home

Did I mention how good breakfast was? This one may have been the best. Well, the best was Mölle, but this might have been the most plentiful, combined with the cool location under this giant glass roof. After breakfast we walked to the opera. It was the Oslo Marathon, which was kind of fun to see. I remember those days – all the nervousness in the faces.

We climbed to the top of the opera house, which is amazing, because it’s this slanted granite building and you can basically just hike the building all the way to the top.

On the way up we had seen a bunch of the floating saunas that are famous in Norway. Basically they are piers with saunas built into them, and you get hot in the sauna and then you jump in the fjord. I had wanted to do it but wasn’t feeling up to it, but after hiking the opera I was like, what the heck, let’s do it — because I had my athletic underwear on underneath, which totally works for the sauna. I made Matt laugh because I asked, “What you wearing under there?” He wanted to just go back to the hotel, so I met him there. It was fun, but would have been more fun if I was feeling one hundred percent. I couldn’t quite get the energy. And I didn’t have a water bottle. Then back to the hotel and shower and packed up and walked to the train station and was off.

What an amazing trip and amazing experience with Matt.