Ängelholm, Sweden - 999 miles from London

We crossed into Sweden using the Oresund tunnel / bridge. The 10.5 mile crossing wasn't as impressive as we'd hoped due to fog which limited the visibility. After crossing into Sweden we headed up the Swedish coast a short way to Ängelholm, which seemed like a Swedish version of Brentwood in Essex, near where my grandparents used to live. Everything was very modern and clean and tidy but a little bit boring. The campsite was located in a pine forrest, minutes from the beach which was accessed by taking a short walk through the forrest. I had never considered Sweden to be the type of country to visit and have a beach holiday but my impression of the country has been altered by this stop off. There was a large sandy beach and the North Sea water was fairly warm which was surprising as we were pretty much level with Newcastle Upon Tyne. The only problem was the jelly fish which made swimming a little hazardous. With sun burn threatening we went walking in the forrest. We stumbledacrosss a train goods yard with abandoned rolling stock and after investigating this we went into town for a couple of extremely expensive drinks. We met a drunk drama teacher and on the way back to the tents visited a Swedish nightclub which was playing appalling music in a mock beach environment (you needed to have been there to really get the picture!).


We stayed in Ãngelholm for a couple of days during which time we selected and sent back to England quite a few items we had been carrying. We were finding that we had over-packed which meant we had no spare space to carry anything like food or anything else we picked up along the way and that packing up every day was becoming a real chore, like one of the puzzles that used to be set in Krypton Factor! Having left Ängelholm we then continued north up the coast and crossed into Norway on 12th June. It was extremely hot in Sweden, in the mid thirties, and we found the tarmac on the motorway was actually melting in places and causing black tarmac tire marks to be drawn across the carriageway. It was a relief, particularly when wearing the bike gear, to find the weather a little cooler once we entered Norway. We had a good experience in Sweden and it is certainly a country that I would like to vist again more extensively.


Written by Tom