12/07/2026
Back home again after a quick little trip up through Sweden, into Norway, and back south again.
The highlights of the trip—aside from meeting a good friend and his girlfriend up in Hede, Härjedalen who treated us to by far the best food and company of the trip —included an amazing sandwich at the Stora Skedvi crispbread factory and café. Lots of reindeer on the road between Idre and Funäsdalen. Sweden’s highest road over Flatruet, which was more impressive than I expected (a bit like a “Vildmarksvägen light,” which is a consolation since I never made it there this year). Samsjøveien in Norway, which was super nice in some spots but a bit less impressive than Suleskarsveien, which I rode a few years ago. The absolutely fantastic and random little forest road through a nature reserve by the mountains; so glad I took it. The stay at the lovely Gamla Teatern in Östersund with super-comfortable beds and linens (and the Tom Yum at the Thai spot behind the hotel). The beautiful nature everywhere. The coffee break at Dad’s on the way home.
And then all those miles of gravel and forest roads through western Dalarna and northern Värmland. I’ve just got to go back there!
The worst part was the dreary rain that drizzled on and off every single day, and the biting cold of about 7°C most of the time.
I can also report that Norway is just as ridiculously expensive as before, even though the Norwegian krone is, for once, weaker than the Swedish krona. A regular beer costs about 13€, an average hamburger with fries for 25€ and a liter of gas costing nearly 2€. Of course, I made the mistake of filling up with Norwegian gas right before the border—mostly because neither Google Maps nor TomTom Rider 550 managed to show that there was actually a dinX gas station just 1 km into Sweden, out in the middle of nowhere, where gas was only about 1,40€ — so I ended up shelling out nearly 6€ to the Norwegians for that mistake, but whatever. It didn’t turn out to be a camping cabin trip either. And no canned food or rolls with soft cheese from a tube or lukewarm folk beer from the store—instead, hotels every single day, restaurants, and draft beer, so nothing ended up being cheap. But if it’s a vacation, it’s a vacation, and it still ended up being significantly cheaper than shipping a bike by truck to Spain and back, flying there and back, and driving around in a heatwave for 10 days, burning through both my brain and all my savings in one go—so I’m pretty happy with this year’s little mini-vacation anyway.
Thanks to everyone involved, too! I’m pretty sure Sweden will be treating us to a few more motorcycle trips in the future.
And oh yeah, I love Ragnar—my BMW 1200 GS—so I think we’ll be sticking together for a while longer. ❤️🏍️💨
