Curvy roads and gravel - Sweden has it all

[Zuckerbaron]

To end the perfect day I went to a restaurant at the harbour for something to eat and a beer.





Looks as if the Swedish Marine is on duty here on lake Vaettern.



End of the day with Swedish cuisine.

 

[Zuckerbaron]

The next morning I headed further North. On the way through woods and countryside there were a lot of nice places to stop and take it all in. I'm still more or less in the South of Sweden, here you wont find hills from where you have a perfect 360° lookout. But you will find thousands of nice lakes, rivers or small towns where it is interesting to stop and have a look.



The idea to try to find the gravel roads of Sweden came by looking videos of Robert aka Nomad Sweden https://www.youtube.com/@NomadSweden/videos
In his video ADV Like A Swede he explains to us foreigners to find gravel and the dos and don'ts.

At 2:26 he decribes the Swedish gravel road system.
His statement: Sweden is gravel paradise not Offroad paradise!
To have it on my mobile I bought access to Stegra https://stegra.io
This routing tool works worldwide but it has a special feature for Sweden and you can map a tour using the public gravel roads and avoid the roads with private gates.

A rolling bridge over the old Goeta Canal.


A place to stop.

 

[glitch]

To end the perfect day I went to a restaurant at the harbour for something to eat and a beer.

View attachment 4689

I have to ask....which ones of the restaurants did you pick, they all look the same to me

That roll-away bridge is cute....and what a pretty place this is.
Will have a look at the video lateron today.
Many thanks for posting, a window into yet another p[art of the world.

 

[Zuckerbaron]

I have to ask....which ones of the restaurants did you pick, they all look the same to me

I don't know anymore. Its the local Hjo restaurant chain they only differ by the colour.

 

[Zuckerbaron]

Another nice stop for a cup of coffee was in Atorp.







They are still farming up here in the North.



Finally I arrived in Smedjebacken and called it a day. Forget the town - nothing interesting, IMHO.

 

[Zuckerbaron]

The next day started first with a grey sky, later it turned to heavy rainfall. I headed for Gaevle at the Baltic Sea, for this part of Sweden it's quite a big town of 75.000 people. Up here it had rained in the weeks before so the rivers had a high water level.

 

[glitch]

Not all that densely populated by the looks of it....clicking randomly into Gmaps there seem to be a lot of small parking areas with bike-racks stacked with pushbikes at country intersections and a small bus-stop
presumably taking the pedalers into the next town?

 

[Zuckerbaron]

Not all that densely populated by the looks of it....clicking randomly into Gmaps there seem to be a lot of small parking areas with bike-racks stacked with pushbikes at country intersections and a small bus-stop
presumably taking the pedalers into the next town?

Yes, concerning public transport seems to be well organized. I remember on one of the last days going south on a 4-lane road they had a service area with patrol station, a seperate supermarket and extra lanes for buses where the people can change from regional to overland busses.

parking areas with bike-racks stacked with pushbikes at country intersections

Not only for pedalers they have racks.
This is a Kayak-rack! Well ok, it was for renting Kayaks or as they say it is a KAYAKOMAT.

 

[Zuckerbaron]

I've bought a SW-Motech travel bag just before the trip and was keen to try how it works for me.
Up to Gaevle it worked fine.



After Gaevle it turned yellow and had another look.




I will remember the town Gaevle not for good. Because my SW-Motech bag was stolen in front of the first hotel in town.



I parked in front of the hotel, took my tank bag and luggage and went inside to find my room. When I came down again the bag was gone. Luckily I had only left the tire repair set and some other small items in there. I was upset and rushed inside to ask them to look up their video cameras.
Surprise! "Sorry man, we don't have video cameras. In Sweden it is not allowed to film areas which are private but where public has access to. It might disturb the privacy of the citizens."

Well fair enough for the thief! I like Sweden but this is ridiculous.
The next morning I was a good customer in the local outdoor shop.

 

[glitch]

Not only for pedalers they have racks.
This is a Kayak-rack! Well ok, it was for renting Kayaks or as they say it is a KAYAKOMAT.

Things could get a bit awkward at the inner-city pedestrian-crossing I guess, with half the workday mob pushing their bikes around, the other half carrying their Kayaks.