Neil's in…

Did you know there are such things as swedish miles… that equate to about 10km? So when someone in Sweden is being helpful and telling something is only a few miles away… expect to be walking a while.

Anyhow,  I made it to Karlstad, about 210 miles away from Stockholm due west.  Tomorrow, I have the choice of trying to get a reservation in Oslo when I turn up (which looks unpromising, the hostels international website is not telling me there are any availabilities)… or avoid Oslo completely and just head north west. Where I am at the moment I can do both things from here. Head for Sognefjord and see how far I get.  Which, is probably what I will do.

Can’t write much, I’m on a tiny little keyboard in the tourist information center.  Just to let you all know I’m ok. 

Ciao

Well, I’ve done everything in Stockholm that I’ve wanted to. I have been up at the crack of dawn, checked the ferries, went to see the Stockholm Library, and drove down south to a place called Farsta where the Woodland Cemetery is, to see that. Both things were epic, the amount of consideration and detail put into all of Asplund’s work is amazing. It’s as if he spent an eternity on each project thinking about every last thing. The man even designed door handles, lampshades and soft furnishings for all of his work, in every room, and yet at the same time executed his projects to have a large scale context thing going on there too… so it made sense on whatever scale you were looking at his work.

Anyhow, walking around Stockholm has given me the giggles seeing all the absurd signs about. I’m sure in Swedish they make a lot of sense but in Dyslexic they’re pure comedy.

Side note

I left my jacket and helmet under my bike whilst at the cemetery. It was too hot to wear them or carry them. My biggest fear was that they’d get stolen and figured that no low-life would go to a cemetery to steal anything so I reassured myself and walked away. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that ants would be festering over the dead beasties stuck to my helmet that i’ve not cleaned off since I left Copenhagen. The ants were everywhere.

Last point!

Finally, the ferries… I couldn’t book a crossing until Monday, I wont be going to Helsinki afterall. I should of factored in the weekend. Next stop.. Kristinehamn onto Oslo the next day. Then I’ll be heading up to Sognefjord to see the Stave Churches.

Sadly (for my mum that is), I will not be rushing home just because I had no brakes. I’ve done a little asking around at car mechanics and then a harley rider who reminded me of Martin (only a little chunkier and in his 40s), his English was superb and sent me to a mechanic who dealt with Triumphs amungst other brands he even sent his regards to his favourite mechanic… i.e. “ask for that guy when you get there“.

Regretably they were too busy to fix it. However, they sold me the brake shoes and I was on my bike (excuse the pun). Cost me about £60-70 (depending on how much the bank is charging me for the exchange rate) for two pairs of shoes (front has two discs). I can honestly say I had no idea what I was doing, but a little intuition and a whole lot of grunt I managed to prize the damned things off and slipped the new ones back in. I tested it around the car park and they need a little bedding in but they’re brilliant. Such a relief.

See:

Going to give myself an oil change tomorrow after I’ve done Asplund… I think I may in fact do it the day I’m off to Helsinki…. yes that’s right. I’m going to do this regardless of the hick-ups I get on the way. Which reminds me. I’m in need of some long johns and some bed-sheets (renting bed sheets every place is turning out costly).

• All the males have combed their hair, with a wet look effect… straight out of a magazine cover
• The locals speak as if they have speech impediments.
• When you feel like you’re the ugliest thing on the planet.

Well it took me just over an hour to get here today, I spent 11 hours in bed last night. I was pretty ill. Although, the (3 course) steak dinner and lemon curd tart cake thing I had last night did make me feel great.
I also had breakfast this morning, scrambled eggs and bacon and all the other nice things that go with a good breakfast. Feeling a lot better.

Bike shop I went to this morning… was more of a “riding” shop, they sold equestrian and motorcycle riding gear. The woman was incredibly unhelpful and sent me on my way. I’ve been to the tourist information here in stockholm and found that there is a garage down in the south of the city. I’ll phone them up in a bit. It’s baking hot here in Stockholm and my hostel is right up in the north of the city. It’s really really hot.

Anyhow, I’ll write more tomorrow when I have worked things out a little better.

Here’s a photo for Emma:

Title refers to the sun rising in the North (NNE to be exact) here.

I feel I should fill you in on what I got upto on Tuesday. I kinda skipped that bit. It was a very eventful day. I was just feeling a little ill yesterday.

Back on Tuesday…

I left pretty early skipping breakfast and getting on my bike and riding into Sweden. I didn’t look at the time when I left or when I arrived but I was about 30 or so miles into Sweden when I saw the time was 9:20 so I must have been in way before 9am. After crossing the really long tunnel and then very long bridge in fierce and freezing winds, paid my toll and then entered Sweden I got interrogated at the boarder. They strip searched… my bike. Apparently, it’s illegal to import cats and dogs into Sweden, so that was a close call.

I made it to Sölvesborg in good time and was in the information center/town hall by around 10ish. I was asking about the Lister Court House and was directed the right direction and whilst I was loitering in the information place a woman approached me. Worked out she was writing a book on Erik Gunner Asplund and had requested the keys to the premises to the court house so she could photograph it for her book. So that stroke of luck really put a kick in the right direction for my day. We talked about architecture all the way to the building, she seemed really interesting and her book seems great. Although, ignorantly I totally didn’t catch her name. The building is currently owned by a music school but there is a preservation order on the court room and the jourers deliberating room. However, luck had it that the care-taker knew quite a bit about the building and he talked to us about it in more depth telling us little annecdotes about how the judge used to live in the part above the court and how his wife would open a small observation window to let him know that his dinner was ready.

Here’s a pic:

Anyhow, having not had breakfast and having had that stroke of luck I treated myself to a plush lunch in a really nice cafe. It was totally inexpensive and it was like walking into a venue where only beautiful exist.

The ride to Alvesta was straightforward but that’s where it all went down hill. I had to ride another 20 miles back the way I came to get to a campsite, which I did to save money, but ended up spending as much, if not more than I would have if I had just gone to the Hostel. I had to join the Scandinavian camping association to camp there. Then I got a stomach bug from the water there, which made me really ill yesterday.

Proof:

Hey, didn’t manage to use the internet yesterday. Sweden is brilliant, the roads are great and the women gorgeous and what else matters?

Ok so I had a hellish time yesterday fighting the invisible enemy… the wind was really fierce and freezing and wore me out, although the day was really sunny.  After a really rough night in a campsite last night, I’m fit for nothing.  I got to Norrköping and I’ve decided to give Finland a miss until next year.. and the Stave churches.  The bike is showing some signs of fatigue. I spent all day thinking about this carefully and the cost of crossing the Gulf of Bothnia by ferry plus, and then crossing back across the north of Sweden and Norway with the wrong clothes and a tired out bike doesn’t give me any confidence, not to mention the expense of all that… plus then assuming nothing goes wrong with the bike. The front brakes are already almost gone. I’ve found a bike dealer here in Norrköping going there in the morning see if i can get some pads.

I want to do this trip again on a smaller (and more maintainable) bike, starting in Norway and working backward to Denmark… dressed to impress…. and none of this crappy camping gear that’s really been a burden. Plus you meet cooler people in Hostels.

I feel pretty bad about the whole changing the route thing,  I really want to do the Stave churches in Norway… like crazy.  But at least it gives me something to look foward to next year.

Anyhow, good news is that I’ve had a great time in Sweden and I still have Stockholm and Oslo to look foward to. I will get to Stockholm tomorrow and spending there a couple of nights. I went past Emma’s village (Hårlöv) earlier and also went to that village Gränna (on the Vättern lake) that is famous for its candy-canes and suchlike.  I would show you pictures but this internet place doesn’t allow USB devices.

Anyhow, for now. Ciao!

I managed to get to bed last night with still not having met any of my room mates… from what i gathered in my sleepy-eyed state was that the couple who had put their beds together were italian… a gay couple. I thought it was a mixed sex room but obviously i was wrong. The person in the bunk below me snored like they were on their death-bed… such fun. As with Hamburg the dorm was roasting, except for in this instance they closed the windows and drew the curtains and incase you weren’t aware I am doing this trip without a watch…. so when I woke up this morning at 4:55 and saw light trying to creep in through the curtains I decided to get up…. got dressed… reached for my camera and checked the time on it… noticed it was silly of me… got undressed again and jumped in bed for another 90 minutes.

It’s not rained today although the weather forecase said it would… I hope that doesn’t mean it will rain tomorrow. I was kind of hoping to camp in sunny sweden.

Anyhow here’s some of the photos from today:

Did I say Denmark was cheap? …. [ding ding] ….WRONG!!!

I had a good drive to Copenhagen despite the driving rain. It was like driving underwater: not fun. I have spent the whole afternoon looking for somewhere to eat, drink and internet… THIS PLACE IS SO EXPENSIVE. I’ve walked about 6-8 miles around the capital and only just found the internet cafe. I had a take away coffee from the hostel and got fleeced at 25Kroner (just over £2.50)… keep in mind the hostel was the cheapest place to get a coffee in town. I’m not too happy about that.

By the looks of it it will be sunny the day I head off to sweden so I guess I’ll be camping again. This hostelling can be quite expensive… it’s hard to work out which is best.

I am also thinking about getting new tyres for my bike… well at least my rear, it’s getting a little bald… nothing like Simon’s but all the same only about 2-3mm left in the centre. Everything else is dandy. I’ve done about 1000 miles since London and all good.

Here’s a bunch of photos from the past couple of days.

I had the coolest cruise into Ribe this morning, 3 hours that felt like half an hour and the roads were absolutely heaven as soon as I entered Denmark.  I took the B roads and did about 100km on these vast straight, smooth well signposted roads leading me all the way to my bed tonight.  Sadly the youth hostel I booked is closed between 12 and 4pm so I have to wait around. The town/village of Ribe is really quaint, and lovely and the internet is free in the information centre so here I am writing this entry.

I feel bad that I paid no attention to researching Denmark at all… it has a real feel good factor to it. No industrialization so it seems. Although not removed from modernity, has information centres at every pit stop, seems quite inexpensive and the roads are fab.  I accidentally withdrew a bit too much money I think. I may have to use it in Copenhagen to buy some Swedish Kronas because 1000DKK will support me for a year so it seems. I thought £100 in danish krones would be a start.  Even the petrol is cheaper over here.

Anyhow, I better find something to do until 4 or I’ll go potty in this tiny village.

This morning got up at 6 something and honestly can’t remember when I was so hot.. it was horrid. Anyhow, stacked up on the buffet breakfast and made myself lunch with it. Then left for a walk.

So on my walk around the city this morning I went to see the botanical gardens and suchlike… as you do. I find myself looking at a ginger squirrel!

Anyhow I wandered around the park and found myself taking poxy pictures of myself…

…but in other news there were lots of things to see!

I ended up sat down outside the congress hall looking at my map of the city to see what else there was to see that I’d like, and out of nowhere a lovely German girl came over and speaking in fluent English came over and helped me out. Suggested that I walked down the canal and check out the old warehouses near the dock. (photos for when I get back… it takes forever to upload anything on here.

Well there we have it. See what tales I have from Denmark tomorrow…. I just saw that Copenhagen is over 400KMs away from here. I want to start slowing down the pace that I’ve been doing, afterall I’m arriving at Scandinavia already.