vengeful_lemon

Does anyone know if it's legal to bike on the E20 between Sweden and Denmark? Is it restricted access?

I'm entertaining the passing fantasy of a cycle trip from London to Harwitch, Ferry to Copenhagen, cycle trip from Copenhagen to Lund, to see a friend, and short trip around Sweden followed by return.

Although I just saw the price of the ferry, so probably not.

Pedaleur

No, you can't ride on the E20. You have to take the train to Malmö (from the main station or the airport) or ride up to Helsingør, take the ferry to Helsingborg, and ride back down.

To get to Copenhagen from Esbjerg, you'll also have to cross the Store Bælt, which means taking the train from Nyborg to Korsør.

vengeful_lemon

bummer on the E20, but both the train to Malmö and ferry to Helsngborg sound like great fun. Thanks for the quick response, and have a good day!

vengeful_lemon

ah, I didn't realize the ferry landed in Esbjerg rather than Copenhägen. This is starting to look more complicated than I had hoped...

Pedaleur

Chuckle.

My initial response was, "You do know that the ferry lands in Esbjerg and not Copenhagen, right?"

That sounded condescending, so I edited it. "There's no way he doesn't know that," I thought to myself.

Another chuckle.

But you can easily take the train all the way from Esbjerg to Copenhagen. It takes maybe 3-4 hours. Probably costs 300-400 crowns, or 30-40 pounds. You'll have to call dsb.dk to make a bike reservation if you go before 1 September (I think that's the cutoff date).

Otherwise it's 300 km by bike. Another 40 to Helsingør and back down to Lund (each leg). There is quite often a stiff wind from the west, so you could make easy work of it, if you're reasonably lucky.

Denmark doesn't have open-space camping like Sweden and Norway, but there are a lot of cycling specific campgrounds that cost about 20 crowns (a couple of quid). Heck, if you do it before I leave (sometime in mid- to late-August), you can crash here in Odense for a night, which is a convenient half-way point.

Pedaleur

Now back at you:

I'll be taking the ferry from Esbjerg to Harwich at the end of the month. What's the ride from Harwich to London like? Would I be better off taking the train to Plymouth (my eventual destination) and spending more time cycling there?

vengeful_lemon

Pedaleur, thanks for the information - that sounds like a great route, and I sure hope I find the time to do it! The reason I was a little put off is that it sounds much more expensive than I had hoped (the ferry, that is) and landing in Esbjerg means that I'd end up with very little time in Lund - my intention was to visit a friend, not go on another tour, so getting there as quick and simply as possible to maximize my time was my goal. I think I'll just reconsider my priorities and find a couple weeks to devote to it.

I wish I could give you advice about cycling in England, but I've never cycled between Hawich and London. I think it's some hundred and forty Kilometers, but you probably know that.
Thing is, I'm in America at the moment, because they wouldn't let me into the UK from Iceland a couple weeks ago, on totally vague suspicions of i-don't-even-know-what, they told me to gtfoh straight to the States. I plan to be back there in a couple weeks once I get my passport + visa back, if they decide they'll let me back in again.

also, thank you for the generous offer of crashing-space, it's very kind. Let me know when you're coming through Harwich - I hope to be in London by then, up North in Chingford, I'll be staying with someone else so I don't know if you could crash but maybe, could certainly help you find your way around and go for a ride, though.

some internety-things you've probably already seen, which show some routes but don't mention enough how pleasant it might be, so probably no help.

a route suggestion
Harwich Ferry suggestions to cyclists you've National cycle route map
National cycle route page

Pedaleur

Deported? Hmmm...maybe you aren't the kind of character I want in my house... J/K

But, as always, my plans are constantly changing. Well, they're done changing now, but the new plan is to flying home directly from London to Baltimore, so I'll have an extra bag with me with the last of my stuff. This means that I'll take the train directly from Harwich to my conference in Plymouth, drop the bag at the hotel, and then take two days in Cornwall before the conference and heading to Heathrow.

But the website for the UK bike routes -- which I hadn't seen because I'm too busy planning a trip to Norway -- is excellent. Thanks!

vengeful_lemon

Glad you like the site. Some of the information is also being visible at the the Open Cycle Map layer of the Open Streets Map project, but Open Streets is still quite incomplete, particularly when it comes to cycling information...

Not deported! "Refused Entry" They sure tried to make me feel guilty, though!

Baltimore! I rode through there, uhm, mustabeen a couple months ago on a New York -> North Carolina (solo) tour roughly following the ACA ACR. Baltimore was a real neat city all around John's Hopkin's and all, but frankly a little terrifying to the west.
I think it was called the Gwynn's Falls trail, that I was on for a while - it was really beautiful, and quite scenic and quiet, with streams and trees, and a dirt surface, and it seemed to be right in the middle of town, and near what I believe were conservation easements or open space or public preserves or something...