"Sweden is fän. I knew the country from Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, Nils Holgersson, and other books by Astrid Lindgren and Selma Lagerlöf. It wasn’t just the exciting stories, but also the atmosphere and the Swedish landscape that left a deep impression on me in my childhood.
That beautiful landscape is real! During my first long cycling trip in Sweden in 2009, I saw fields full of flowers and meadows with stone walls and wooden fences. Red houses with white window frames where children played outside. Crystal-clear lakes, babbling brooks, and endless forests with thrilling winding paths. And at night, my tent stood beneath the starry sky."
The fourth cycling guide is on its way! It will be published in the week of February 24th.
Title in English:
On the way to St. Olav - cycling route from Oslo to Selånger
Part 2 in the series In the foothsteps of Saint Olav
This cycling route is not a pilgrimage route but connects the Norwegian Gudbrandsdalsleden and the Swedish S:t Olavsleden
The route, On the Way to St. Olav, runs largely through Sweden’s timeless and charming landscape, as described in the introduction. It is not a difficult route, and the scenery invites you to endless summer adventures on your trusty steel steed (or aluminium, titanium or even carbon these days).
You can pre-order the (Dutch) guide now, and I will send it to you in the week of February 24th: Pre-order the guide Onderweg naar St. Olav.
Fairs and Lectures
It’s February, which means it's fair and lecture season again! The first fair is already behind us, the Pilger Messe in Hamburg. Together with Ria (from the hiking guides) and our Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Finnish colleagues, we stood in the Nordic Corner to promote the northern pilgrimage routes.
And I don’t even have a proper representative photo! This was taken during the setup of the stand when Anna (from the Pilgrim Centre in Oslo) asked me to hang these signs. She just forgot to mention where...
You can find an overview of all upcoming lectures and fairs on the Dutch section of the Via-Gaia-website.
Plans
Well… none! At least, no cycling holiday plans for now. I will be heading to Scandinavia this summer for research on the upcoming routes, but I’ll try to keep my stay as short as possible. And there’s a reason for that…
New Home
We’re moving! We’ve wanted to leave Westland for quite some time, and in September, we started looking for a new place. We’ve found a house within cycling distance of Remy’s work, where I can make music undisturbed. Our new home is in Valkenburg, a village north of The Hague, still close to the North Sea.
We don’t have a moving date yet, but we’ll receive the keys at the end of April, so it will likely be sometime in May. And as of today, our current home is listed on internet. Anyone interested in a lovely beach house by the sea? See: https://strandweg3.nl.
Our first box has already been packed:
