Cycling From Norway to Austria – 2000km | 9 days

This summer, I cycled from Stavanger in Norway to Gmunden in Austria. A trip I wanted to do since I moved to Norway. I planned around 200km for each, which in total should take me around 10 days.
It was a special experience for me as there are so many impressions in such a short time, which makes it never boring. The moment when the alarm rings in the morning until going to bed in the evening was filled with cycling, eating, planning and cycling. I came across some beautiful villages and even tho I was not amused to start in the rain, I enjoyed every minute.

The route of each day:
Stavanger – Kristiansand: https://www.strava.com/activities/9445132856
Hirtshals – Aarhus: https://www.strava.com/activities/9451494856
Aarhus – Flensburg: https://www.strava.com/activities/9456964946
Flensburg – Hamburg: https://www.strava.com/activities/9462871530
Hamburg – Hannover: https://www.strava.com/activities/9468970391
Hannover – Mühlhausen: https://www.strava.com/activities/9475621867
Mühlhausen – Bamberg: https://www.strava.com/activities/9481906821
Bamberg – Deggendorf: https://www.strava.com/activities/9488907068
Deggendorf – Gmunden: https://www.strava.com/activities/9493509798

…………………………………………………………………….

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peter_kronberger/
Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/12719345
Epidemic Sound: https://share.epidemicsound.com/l4k0kc

…………………………………………………………………….

#bikepacking #roadbike #adventurecycling #cycling #norway #austria

Since I moved to Norway a couple of years ago I always had this idea that maybe one day I can visit my parents in Austria by bike and it never really fitted in the years before but eventually this year in summer 2023 I managed to get the time and started

Planning my idea was to have something like 200 km kind of days on the bike and also a bit of a performance component so I didn’t really want to do this I call it traditional bike packing with a lot of bags and also all the equipment like

Camping equipment on a bike I wanted to keep it pretty minimalistic like almost no cloth kind of sleep in different airbnbs and yeah go in a way as fast as possible to Austria and that was a bit like the holistic idea I had about that

And yeah in then July I think 13th of July 2023 and then started to take off good morning so it’s like 7:30 around and I will start now amazing Norwegian weather so bit rainy 13° so yeah I get definitely the full Norwegian experience before I started I was actually very

Nervous I didn’t really sleep that well the night before due to excitement and also the weather forecast was not really good it was raining the days before and also on the same day when it started it was still like pouring but after around 50 kilm it started clearing up and it

Was amazing wiing along the coast and I really enjoyed it actually it still was pretty windy though but it was good there weren’t too many other Cycles but here and there I was actually seeing somebody which was bit of a motivation for me at the start I came across some amazing waterfalls

Which I didn’t know before which are not too far away from Stang actually was a bit of surprise for me and these beautiful roads along the coast and also with some smaller tunnels it was very impressive so after like 150 kilm it was already fully into the ride and it was

Actually very fun now and pretty beautiful and not exhausting at all yet my route planning generally was maybe not all the best all the time because there were few gravel sections and that was something I did not expect that Reflecting a bit on the first day in Norway going from stag to chrisan it was my biggest day of this nday adventure it had 270 km almost and 4,500 M of elevation change and for the first day I might not do this again if I would do

Kind of this adventure again because um the night before the evening before it was like I was nervous I was thinking whe I forgot something or the weather might get worse because it was raining the days before not too unusual for Stanga but still in my head I I wish

That I could at least start dve anyway I then eventually managed uh to arrive for 78 in the evening directly went to the Airbnb and just went straight to bed um because yeah the next day started pretty early my second day started very early around 5:00 in the morning my alarm was

Ringing in order to catch the fairy in Christian Sound to go to Denmark it was a beautiful sunrise which made it a little bit easier to cycle to the ferry from the apartment I was in on the fer I then still took a bit of

Time to take a power niip of maybe a bit of extended power nip one two hours the bike mounting system on the fery was a little bit experimental from my side as I didn’t really trust that the a bike stands there Denmark is such or such a big

Contrast for me compared to Norway before it was still a bit wet but it was absolutely flat and it was amazing I had all the way headwind but still it was not even as close as exhausting as it was in Norway due to the constant up and

Downs there and here it was just an amazing rolling even though as said the headwind it was still just really nice rolling there but eventually the rain also completely went away and I just enjoyed making some kilometers as long as the traffic lights at least were on my

Side as I was doing my tour during to the France or one of the last days of to the France there were some bigger groups as you can see here going to Paris for the yeah last stage of the to the France celebration it was pretty cool because I

Just could hang in for a few kilometers which I needed at T time eventually I cross the border to Germany which I immediately felt with the degrading quality of the cycling path but it was still here and they are pretty nice too like except the headwind

Which just did not want it to go Away in additionally to the Head wi also got a bit struggles with flat tires cuz they got the flat tire in Denmark and then my spare tubes were maybe not the newest one and they also leaked a little bit so was a bit of I am not so sure whether this is

Okay but if it works it can be Wrong Rolling in in Hamburg was pretty exciting for me because in my head it was like no the north is in the way done and now it’s just going south home and it was very exciting feeling for me because yeah I I really felt like I’m more and more getting in this floor and

I’m more and more getting in this state of yeah waking up having the routine for breakfast going on the bike doing some 100 kilometers having some yeah lunch and then doing another 100 to 150 kilm in the afternoon and eventually arriving in the next city it was approximately at this point where

Ultimately after constant headwind in Denmark in Northern Germany not the win but I started to turn and I finally had back wi for the yeah more or less first time of the trip which was also the halfway point reaching the halfway point was very odd feeling because on the one hand

I was like really like excited that yeah it’s rolling that well and it’s rolling that good and eventually it was the first time that yeah I had backwind since Denmark which is like over 500 km of constant head wind or at least like no wind but finally the first time back

Wi that really excited me and on the other hand I was thinking it’s still like 1,000 kilomet to go so I shouldn’t really underestimate it and I had respect from that but yeah I was I was happy and after the halfway point I reached right away actually hanova which

Was then the goal of the day in hanova then stay and afterwards the next day planed to go to a city called mous it was actually pretty nice going out of hanova was a pretty nice scenery there and also I really felt like the whole uh Topography is not changing it became

More and more heish and yeah it was different than in the north now I really felt like there’s not bit of the more elevation component coming in and of course to make it more interesting I had another flat tire where I only had like one spare tube of my two spare cubes left

Oh summing up the whole Adventure it was so enormous for me I really was very exciting nervous but still very much looking forward to it when I started with it but then finishing was just very overwhelming because I almost didn’t not want to finish I was like a bit sad

Almost when I did arrive because it was so nice to have this routine of G cycling every day so all in all it was like 1,900 52,000 km because I over cycled a bit around in the cities to look for the apartment which it did not

Count for so I would say 2,000 km all together with 12 and 1 half th000 M of elevation gain which for this kind of distance is not too much but as I explained in the beginning I also wanted to have it like more flattish kind of

Distance yes it was it was exciting it was like from starting within the rain and a lot of headwinds to yeah getting slowly the back wi and also seeing like Germany for me from a bit of a different perspective because I was never in the region around like mous or touring of

And then going via bber to yeah Thena eventually it was it was very exciting and something which I want to definitely do again now because it’s like I think one of the coolest location I I did because it’s in a way you see so many things it’s like not like rushing

Through with your car it’s like you have quite some speed so you can make some distance on the bike but still you see like everything so it’s a lot of impressions in a very short amount of time so extremely exciting and yeah I had a lot of fun I can only recommend

Doing that because this was yeah one of the yeah coolest occas I I had so far