June 9: Day 39, Frederikshavn-Gothenburg
Another short day today: I'm taking the ferry from to Gothenburg and then heading 25km south to stay at a friend's house for two nights. I need to be there 3-4pm, and the only ferry that arrives in time leaves at 0800, which means checkin by 0730, which means I need to be on the road about 0700. No sleeping in…
Well, the window blind didn't go down more than half way so the problem was not getting up for the alarm, but staying asleep until it went off. At 4am the sun showed up, from then I tried hiding under the pillows and the duvet trying to escape the sun and find a bit more sleep. If kept getting more difficult and I gave up before the alarm went, so I was on the road at 0700 with no problems.
It wasn't clear where bikes should go to get on the ferry, leading to the dilemma: be a car or a pedestrian? I decided to try car first, and got in the queue with them. Not the first time I've done this, but it's still a bit weird; happily the person at the ticket booth was expecting cyclists I got sent to Lane Zero along with motorbikes. There was another bikepacker there, who was also on the European Divide - but unlike me, he had followed the route exactly. That included the first day, where he got up the slope that I had decided against. Not entirely sure who made the right decision there, but for getting up that slope he has my respect...
From left to right: My window at 6am. Queueing for the ferry at 0730. Nice building in Gothenburg. The bike on the ferry. The bike and foot passenger route out of the ferry terminal; definitely second class behind cars and trucks.
I'd booked a buffet breakfast on the ferry. They had bacon and eggs, and muesli with yoghurt and fruit; there were no pastries but by the time I figured that out I'd had three courses and didn't mind any more.
Had a bit of time to kill in Gothenburg so I went to a museum; there's a lot of options but the Radio Museum looked best, and it delivered. It's got hundreds of examples of electronics through the ages, showing how they evolved. Radios, plus marine and military radio, TVs, video cameras, and oscilloscopes. I heard an original Thomas Edison wax-cylinder phonograph being played; it's better sound quality than you would expect, better than AM radio (if you know what that is).
Back in the days of AM radio, Radio Sweden got around the quality and interference problems that AM has by transmitting on the phone lines - you needed a special Sweden-only receiver hooked up to the phone lines to listen to it, but given how bad AM is it would certainly have been an improvement for many...
From left to right: A Swedish radio receiver that includes with the option to hook up to the phone lines. An early speaker, which was made to look like a gramaphone horn. Philips C2H TV chassis, or what tech debt looks like. The radio from a B29 Superfortress. The Swedish phonetic alphabet.
I did actually leave on time, but since the museum was on the north side of the harbor and I was heading south, it added about 30 minutes to the journey. So instead of being nicely on time, I was dangerously late … so I needed to get a move on.
The ride south from Gothenburg is rather scenic! And some of it seemed to be on a former rail line.
From left to right: Hisingsbron bridge. I passed a Swedish flag, and do need a selfie to commemorate the border crossing. Sea is looking good today - I believe this is now the North Sea. A scenic cutting; I didn’t have time to stop for these photos though.
I ended up arriving mostly on time at 1540. Very happy to have a day off, even though it’s been a light week and the last day off is not that far back!
And on Sunday the last part of the ride starts: three weeks, to Grense Jakobselv.
What I’m listening to: “Sycamore Trees”, by Angelo Badalamenti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiwtDoxHT2Y
