We picked Copenhagen as a departure point before setting off on our bikes, without having specific plans for where we'd stay along the way (but armed with knowledge of the Swedish Right of Public Access) and without really knowing what our pace would be (given the weight of our gear, etc.) but figuring it would be a pretty reasonable four or five day haul with some flex time for sightseeing, acclimating to Denmark, etc. Our only planned diversion – my one major goal for the week, apart from making the journey safely and sanely (not sure we have quite achieved the latter) was to see Nimis, a mysterious, unauthorized artist construction that we learned about from Sarah, our delightfully cheerful and excitable host at the Tärnsjö stuga (hut) on the Kungsleden hike.
Probably not surprisingly, we are behind schedule (though still okay since we built in extra time), and these last two days in particular have been quite a bit longer and tougher than anticipated, in large part due to fatigue. But there have still been some major highlights, including – maybe against our better judgment (but absolutely worth it if you ask me) – Nimis.
These were our routes:
Tuesday 23/9: Halmstad to Ängelholm (76 km/47 mi)
Wednesday 24/9: Ängelholm to Helsingborg (via Nimmis) (62 km/38.5 mi)
After a productive morning of eating, sandwich-making and blogging at Hotel Amadeus (free sauna!) on Tuesday, we got an energetic (if late) start by keeping pace for a while with John, a friendly seventy-something cyclist (retired from a life of working on boats and planes) who was on his way home, south of Helsingborg. Then an annoying delay – due to bike path maintenance work (no joke, they felled a massive tree across the path while we watched), we were forced to detour several kilometers inland through some serious farm country. To the town of Laholm, where there is apparently a lot of fishing:
Elsa and the fisher-folk of Laholm (it still only gets a 4.3 though, cause the detour was so annoying)
Also – secrets of Swedish lawn care revealed! – we also had our first confirmed sighting of one of these sneaky robotic lawnmowing devices. (I took some video of it repeatedly banging into a wall and changing course.)
The major feature of the day was crossing Hallandsås, a horst that divides the provinces of Halland and Skane. According to google maps it's about 200 meters up, at a pretty dramatic angle. I actually had a lot of fun getting up it – listening to Robyn was crucial help (ironically, the US version, not the Swedish, since it has more pvmping beatz.) It was also really lovely to be up there...even though the scenery wasn't all that different and there wasn't much of a view until the very end, it just felt airy and open and the light was really nice when we were on top.
Here is the horst as we approached it:
Elsa conquering the final ascent
waiting to refuel in Margretestorp (6.5...pretty but barren), after the thrilling descent
getting into Ängelholm (1.9)
Our campsite that night was in a clearing in some woods within Ängelholm city limits – possibly not actually a legitimate spot... it's unclear exactly how real vs. theoretical the public access laws are. Not as far as we had hoped, but still in good striking range for the Nimis, at the far tip of the Kulla peninsula. It was pretty rough getting out there on Wednesday – more because of exhaustion than anything. Also there didn't seem to be anything resembling a coffee shop (or even a gas station) in this area, which was easily the most remote, sparsely populated place we've been so far, albeit just as picturesque as the more vacation-oriented stretches of coast to the north.
thatching in progress in Jonstorp (I think?)
Because of its unsanctioned nature, Nimis is not marked on maps (except one, that we saw), but it is quite well signed once you find the way (and it's a steep climb down!):
As we progressed toward it, and chatted with various folks in the process of actually finding the place, we learned more about Lars, the artist behind the site, and a recent controversy involving some apparently anti-Islamic drawings he made which earned him the ire of the Taliban (we only got the full story after talking to several people.) For this reason, he is evidently accompanied by bodyguards, possibly deployed by the very Swedish government which has tried for decades to force the removal of his locally-beloved, albeit unauthorized creations. (I'm not totally clear on that point though...we need to do some further research.) [Nobody mentioned this, but there's some fascinating reading online about the site's complicated legal history and about Ladonia, the "micronation" of which it is the flagship/physical manifestation.]
Apparently Lars is frequently around the site and is quite friendly and happy to chat, but he wasn't there when we visited. Instead, the place spoke for itself, and I'll let these pictures do the same:
~ ~ ~
The south side of the peninsula has better bike paths...
and also giraffes (pretending to be cranes, or vice versa...)
and...in the town of Höganäs (7.4!)...
an astonishingly civilization like bistro, with...
lattes!
how excited are you about your latté, elsa?
our "girls" waiting for us outside, taking a well-deserved break (we've taken to eating outside, or at window seats, to keep an eye on them rather than bother with locking them up and taking off the bags)
"what's so good about a good times band?" i don't know what their slogan means, but i like it
Ferdy and I couldn't resist taking a rest on one of these massive plastic pride-flag bean bag chair things that dot the harbor on way into Helsingborg... they are SOOO COMFORTABLE
delicious (and surprisingly cheap!) middle-eastern-y meal out (with local salmon, bonus points for vertical pita presentation) after struggling to find someplace still serving at 10pm on a rainy Wednesday night in Helsingborg (7.9) – this after the ordeal of finding our hostel well outside the city center through a confusing tangle of highways with a dead iphone... struggle bus night, but we emerged victorious. yum!
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