Earlier this week I received an email from WarmShowers, the accommodation sharing website aimed at cycle tourists, about their ‘forums’. Whenever I think of forums my mind turns back to the early days of the Internet when things were a little more ‘clunky’ than they are now. But they must still be a ‘thing’ and the fact that WarmShowers have them on their website would suggest that, actually, they are still widely used.
Here are the forums the are currently in operation on the site…
…and digging a little deeper into the subtopics on offer, I note that the earliest posts on the forums actually date back to May 2020. So not that new after all. You don’t need to be a member of WarmShowers to read the posts although you do need to log in to the website to be able to respond to any of the comments or create a new topic or thread. (I’m using language that I haven’t used in this context in years!) I did just that a few days ago creating a discussion about my upcoming cycle around the Baltic:
And as you can see, it has gone viral with, err… one response so far. The third response is the response from me to the responder. It’s from a cyclist from France and he makes the point that trains in Sweden don’t allow bicycles on board unless you dismantle the bike. He’s not the first person to point this out to me and, having done a little digging, it does seem to be true, unfortunately. I will have to rethink that section of the trip. I could, perhaps, extend the cycle from Oulu in Finland as far as the ferry at Umeรฅ in Sweden and then travel south – either cycling or taking a train – in Finland before taking another ferry – or more likely a series of ferries – as I island hop through the ร land Islands. Not a bad alternative. Does the whole ‘Gulf of Bothnia’ thing needs a rethink? Should I just not go there?
Elsewhere on the WarmShowers forums, there is a section that allows users to share links to their YouTube videos. (I’ve just uploaded a link to my own film about cycling the Hebridean Way last summer, inevitably…). Although I haven’t explored many of the videos mentioned in the posts, the following film made by a chap called Gijs from Belgium did catch my eye. It’s very well filmed and edited but it’s also quite humorous in a dead pan kind of way. That comes through even by just reading the subtitles. Unlike my videos, which rarely have me in shot, almost every frame of this film includes Gijs. He has an ingenious set up for his cameras that is worth pausing the video to examine and his drone footage also merits a mention. Until he puts it out of action by flying it into a tree. Enjoy!
Visit the dedicated Baltic Sea Cycle Route / EuroVelo 10 page of CyingEurope.org to discover more about the planned cycle around Europeโs other big sea.
Since 2009, CyclingEurope.org has established itself as a valued, FREE cycle touring resource. There’s now even a podcast, The Cycling Europe Podcast. If you enjoy the website and the podcast, please consider supporting the work of CyclingEurope.org with a donation. More information can be found here. Thanks if you do!
Catch up with The Cycling Europe Podcast:
Categories: Adventure, Baltic 2022, Cycling, Travel, Video
If you can make the timings work, you could cycle down to Stockholm then pick up a ferry from just south of there (Nynรคshamn) to Rostock ? Then Baltic coast back towards Lubeck. In fact you can cut a few more kilometres off and stop at Uppsala and take train (Mรคlartรฅg) which does take bikes. That can drop you South of Stockholm, closer to Ferry.