Chapter 06: Cycling in Malmö

Beautiful parks, picturesque waterfronts, and unique neighborhoods, here’s how I enjoyed the evening cycling in Malmö.

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Historically, whenever Alex and I get together bikes are involved. Starting with our days in Los Angeles, we would often spend a Saturday riding down the LA River bike path from North Hollywood to Downtown and back, about 40 miles round trip. When Alex moved to Oakland for a year we decided to do a ride in San Francisco. We rode from the Bay Bridge, over the Golden Gate Bridge, up north past Sausolito and back to the Bay Bridge, about 50 miles total. The same thing happened when I visited him in Germany. We rode from his home town of Ladenburg to Heidelberg along the scenic German countryside and back, which was a much lighter 15 mile jaunt. Amsterdam? Yeah, we biked there too. You get the point, a bike ride was inevitable. 

Now that we’ve established that, it was time to find me a bike. That’s where Alex’s friend Donat entered the chat. Donat is a super friendly Croatian living on the outskirts of Malmö who Alex knows from the many freediving excursions he’s been on. We made our way out to Donat’s apartment, where we enjoyed chatting for a while before he graciously loaned me his mountain bike. With daylight as the hour glass, we took off to see as much of Alex’s loosely planned cycling itinerary as we could before it got dark.

This sunset cruise are brought to you by the dreamlike vibes of Frank Ocean's "Biking"

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Klagshamn

Our first stop was a peninsula 10 miles south of Malmö in a town called Klagshamn. We rode through the inland countryside passing through several neighborhoods featuring modest, yet impressive, Swedish homes. The minimalist nature of these houses and streets created such a charming environment. Seeing the authentic Scandinavian architecture and design in person made it rather apparent why it’s been so influential in contemporary housing in America.

After weaving our way through the neighborhoods we arrived at the end of the peninsula, which featured some parks, a cool little beach that overlooked Øresund and a stunning view of the bridge to Copenhagen. We enjoyed the view from the beach for a little while then began to make our way north as the sun was approaching the horizon.

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Bunkeflostrand

After leaving the peninsula, the bike path took us right along the water with more stunning views of the bridge and even more impressive waterfront homes. Alex and I speculated which ocean view house we’d enjoy living in the most as we cruised up the trail towards Bunkeflostrand where we came across a sight in the foreground not often associated with seaside communities: cows. Being from New England, this was certainly a spectacle I had to stop and take in.

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Limhamn

We continued riding up the coast making our way under the Øresund bridge and arrived at a small town on the water called Limhamn. Despite the fact that we were starting to lose daylight quickly at this point, Alex and I decided there’s always time for a couple beers so we popped into a restaurant and enjoyed a couple pints. We chatted about the old days in LA and how awesome it was to have all of our friends nearby in the same city, however, if that was still the case we would never have had this adventure cycling in Malmö, Sweden. So with a newfound appreciation for the then and now, we carried on to our last stop.

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Ribersborg

At this point the sun had just fallen below the horizon, but it was still lighting up the clouds displaying a vibrant mix of orange, red and pink along the skyline. We continued up the path to Ribersborg where we took our bikes out to the end of a dock off the beach to enjoy the remainder of the sunset.

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We made our way back home in the dark, where Alex whipped up his famous dish, chicken and pasta with a bunch of other stuff, a culinary masterpiece. We enjoyed another beer before calling it a night.

This latest cycling adventure with Alex had me grateful for great friends, Donat's generosity, and the ability to explore another new place in one of my favorite ways: by bike.

See ya when I see ya

-Doug