What a lovely sight looking out our bedroom window. Cargo bikes are popular here. We saw one man with triplets in the front but this one is delightful.

The day was looking great weather wise as we packed the bikes for our grand departure.

First ride was to Copenhagen Airport railway station to cross into Sweden. A lovely station lady helped us to buy the tickets including bikes.

The Oresund bridge is a combined railway and motorway crossing the Oresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. It is also the second longest bridge in Europe at 7.845 km in length. As such cyclists are not permitted on the bridge, and it is necessary for us to cross by train.

I have grabbed two publicly available photos of the bridge. I don’t have the capacity to get a nice aerial shot. I find it fascinating that the bridge heads under the water for a section. This design is great for keeping shipping canals over. It looks awesome in a photo.

We got off at the first station we could in south Malmo.

Malmo is the largest city in the Swedish county of Skane, and the third largest in Sweden but today we were more interested in navigating our way out of the city safely.

Some interesting architecture noted as we left.

The Hyllie water tower is quite imposing designed to look like a flying saucer. It is 62 m high, holding 10,200 cubic metres of water.

A restaurant operated for many years from the top. A striking visual at night when the tower is light up in blue.

Leaving Malmo was all on divided cycle paths heading into rural Skåne (the region name).

It was quiet, peaceful and the vistas predominantly agricultural with villages dotted around.

Great signage, multiple paths intersecting. The Sydkustleden is the one we predominantly followed today. It is a 260 km coastal cycle way. There are small sections on the road.

We stopped for morning tea at a local supermarket and found a cafe to grab a coffee. Coffee was around AUD $10. Prices seemed a bit cheaper than Denmark.

Riding along the Baltic coastline we became curious about the many defence fortifications, often every few hundred metres.

This was part of the Skane Line, a 500 km line of light fortifications constructed during World War II to protect the Swedish southern coast from Germans and Soviets.

There were two lines of defence. The concrete bunkers along the shore were armed with guns and light cannons.

The second line was 300 metres in where armed troops were behind barbed wire, some in more concrete bunkers.

There were 1,063 coastal fortifications, strengthened during the Cold War with the addition of turrets and 75 mm tank guns.

Decommissioning commenced in the late 1990s.

Aside from the fortifications, the coast was a mix of rocky outcrops and nice white beaches.

Overlooking the harbour of Smygehuyk is a statue of a nude woman. The model was actress Uma Thurman’s grandmother!

I imagine this bunker housed troops.

We deviated from the coast to head inland, up our only climb of the day into strong headwinds. The target was the village of Tullstorp.

Tullstorp runestone is a viking age memorial stone. The inscription consists of runic text on a serpent band that frames a central image of a ship and a beast. It is 1.7 metre in height . Apparently the images reflect the Ragnarok myth

The stone is dated to about 980AD and until the 1840’s was built into the medieval church wall. Its original location is unknown. Today it is located in a memorial mound in the local churchyard.

The church and surrounding cemetery was really beautiful. It is perhaps the nicest cemetery I’ve ever been in, with immaculately manicured and maintained gardens.

Leaving the church we headed a little further up the hill, then headed east again.

As we stood off the road on gravel, a car stopped and an older lady had a lot to say to us. We had no idea what she said but she didn’t appear happy.

Other than that, it was peaceful and quiet as we kept moving towards our destination of Ystad.

We arrived in Ystad earlier than we could check in so we sat in a park uploading photos.

At 3 pm we arrived at our accomodation at the old water tower.

This is a beautiful building converted housing numerous short stay apartments.

This is our accomodation, a detached small building just thirty metres from the tower in parkland.

The owner provided a key to store our bikes in the base of the water tower. She later wrote back and told us that the same key would operate the lift and offered that we could go up to the top apartment, level 6 then ascend the stairs to the top see the view.

We did that. What an incredible apartment spread over four levels with a spiral staircase and some 50 steps.

It was a 360 degree view and this one looks towards old Ystad and the harbour.

For dinner we walked to a local supermarket to grab supplies, as we have a good kitchen and fridge here.

It is very peaceful bar the black crows nesting in the surrounding park trees.

A successful first day saw us ride 98.5 km, leaving Denmark to ride the most part in Sweden.

Today’s routes.

Thanks for reading and joining us on our great Viking adventure 2025. 😊🚴❣️💪