Why this ride
From Bromma it runs 156 km to Bromma; allow about 3 h 22 of riding. The stops in between: Skogskyrkogården, Birka and Hovgården and back through Skogskyrkogården. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Royal Domain of Drottningholm and Birka and Hovgården
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 156 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 22
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Royal Domain of Drottningholm
The Swedish royal family does not live in Stockholm's city palace; since 1981 its home has been Drottningholm, a baroque palace on the island of Lovön in Lake Mälaren, a short ride west of the capital. The name means the queen's islet, and the present palace was begun in the 1660s for the widowed Queen Hedvig Eleonora, designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and finished by his son. With its formal gardens, fountains and an English landscape park, it is often compared to Versailles, though it is far more intimate. Parts of the palace are open to visitors, and the whole royal domain is a World Heritage site.
Read the complete Royal Domain of Drottningholm write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Royal Domain of Drottningholm is where the day begins. Next is Skogskyrkogården.
2. Skogskyrkogården
The best cemetery in the world is not a bad claim to make for a forest on the southern edge of Stockholm. Skogskyrkogarden, the Woodland Cemetery, was designed by two young architects, Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz, who won a competition in 1915 with a plan that used the existing pine forest and a gravel pit as the starting point. They built it in stages over the next twenty-five years, and it was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1994 as a masterpiece of twentieth-century landscape design. The idea was that death should not be shown as a dark hole, but as a return to nature.
Read the complete Skogskyrkogården write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Skogskyrkogården comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Birka and Hovgården.
3. Birka and Hovgården
Before Stockholm existed, there was Birka. In the eighth century, on a small island called Bjorko in Lake Malaren, a few kilometres west of the modern city, traders and craftsmen set up a market town, and for about two hundred years it was the most important trading centre in Sweden. Merchants brought furs, iron and slaves, and carried back silver, glass, silk and spices. Coins from Arabia and swords from the Rhineland have turned up in the graves, and a Christian missionary, Ansgar, came here around 830 to preach, with limited success. By the end of the tenth century the town had been abandoned, perhaps because the lake had become too shallow for ships as the land slowly rose after the ice age.
Read the complete Birka and Hovgården write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach Birka and Hovgården. Next is back through Skogskyrkogården.
4. back through Skogskyrkogården
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Skogskyrkogården write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Skogskyrkogården, late in the day. Next is Royal Domain of Drottningholm.
5. Royal Domain of Drottningholm
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Royal Domain of Drottningholm write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Royal Domain of Drottningholm. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Royal Domain of Drottningholm to Skogskyrkogården
Royal Domain of Drottningholm → Skogskyrkogården is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Skogskyrkogården to Birka and Hovgården
Skogskyrkogården → Birka and Hovgården is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Birka and Hovgården to back through Skogskyrkogården
Birka and Hovgården → back through Skogskyrkogården is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Skogskyrkogården to Royal Domain of Drottningholm
back through Skogskyrkogården → Royal Domain of Drottningholm is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.