The Viking Map

After I bought into the commercial and got me a Sony Ericsson C702 mobile phone with GPS and built-in blogging (to Blogger), I planned for a map in this blog where pictures from my mobile showed up automatically, revealing my position in the race (as I shot and posted pictures, that is). Unfortunately, automation like that doesn't come straight out of the box, at least not the box of Blogger. Thus, I've settled for a more traditional approach: a predefined map.

Yet, drawing a map is not as easy as one might think. Google Maps provides a good foundation, but Bikemap is the icing that makes it a thrill to draw bibycle routes:

• Bikemap draws a route instead of a series of dots
• Bikemap "snaps" the route to the road (sort of like my bike)
• Bikemap generates height profiles, and they are interactive (move your mouse over one while you keep an eye on the map...)
• Bikemap export complete KMLs to play with in Google Earth
  

I've drawn seven routes in Bikemap, one for each day of the Viking Tour. Below is an overview that you can play with, or just jump straight to the juice and details.

I also used Bikemap to create the thumbnails that you see in the right-hand column. Click on them to jump directly to the map for each stage.