Umeå is the kind of city you do not expect at sixty-four degrees north: young, bookish and full of bicycles. About eighty thousand people live here on the Ume river, a number swelled by a big university and a hospital, and the average age is low enough that cafés and bars stay busy long after you think a northern town should have gone to bed. In summer the sun barely drops and the evenings feel endless; in midwinter it is the reverse, and the whole place leans on candles, saunas and coffee.
The city was devastated by fire in 1888, and the wide boulevards lined with birch trees are the result. Planners made the streets broad to act as firebreaks and planted rows of birches along them, which is why Umeå calls itself the City of Birches. It was a European Capital of Culture in 2014, and the Sami heritage of the region got far more attention than before, with exhibitions and events on the indigenous people of the north. The Västerbotten Museum and the nearby open-air museum are the places to learn more.
For riders the surroundings are gentle. The Blue Highway runs from here toward the Norwegian coast, following the river inland through forest, farmland and the occasional lake, a long, steady road with few real corners and a lot of space. In the other direction the coast leads to the Kvarken Archipelago, shared with Finland and recognised by UNESCO for its remarkable geology. The land here is still rising from the sea after the last ice age, at nearly a centimetre a year, and the shoreline slowly changes shape, creating shallow bays, boulder fields and new islands. You can see it on the maps and, with luck, in the reeds.
Practicalities are easy. Umeå has fuel at every size of station, supermarkets, repair shops and a good variety of restaurants, including the local speciality of reindeer, usually served as a rich stew or thinly sliced with potatoes and lingonberries. Cinnamon buns are a Swedish institution, and the coffee break known as fika is something to take seriously.
Ride here in the long light between late May and August, or in September when the forest turns yellow and the air smells of mushrooms. Reindeer and elk wander onto roads, especially at dusk, so stay alert and keep speeds sensible after dark.