ooh, me sweaty nads !!

Another fine and sunny day to be cycling! After a quick pit stop to buy some oil and lubricate the chain and gears, we set off across mild hills fields either side. Our journey today was going to be broken into three stages due to ferry crossings.

Our first stop was at Stegeborg. 24 miles done in a couple of hours, so it had to be lunch time! A very nice little restaurant sitting by the river watching the cable-ferry go back and forth. Also watching the rain clouds get blown away from us by the coastal winds. Nice! Although we can see the rain falling in the distance and have the feeling we will get wet later on.






A very nice lunch, I had a burger again - my diet seems to have consisted of nothing but burgers (good home made ones I must admit) and pizza recently, not through want of trying something else, menus seem to be a bit limited in what I like at the moment - and we got on the cable-ferry for the ride to the other side.




On the other side we had a couple of resonable hills to climb for a mile or so, and this makes me thirsty, so when reaching for my water bottle I discover that I've left it behind in the restaurant where I had it refilled ! Oooops! Ben relaxes on the grass by the side of the road while I leg it back to the ferry. Just missed one! got back the restaurant and grabbed my bottle and just made it back on the same ferry that I came across on. Back up the bloody hills again and 2.5 miles added to my journey for no reason!

Through more fields and trees to the next ferry at Skenas. A bigger ferry this time (Oooh). A huge queue of Sunday afternoon sightseeing traffic waiting for this one, but we cycle right on by to the front of the queue! Handy thing about bikes. Of course none of those people in the cars were going to get soaked and cold whilst going up hill later on, so the balance is restored!

We could see the rain clouds up ahead, and although the wind was pushing them inland, we knew we would pass quite close to them. Up several resonable hills and then we feel the rain start. We have about 10 miles to do into Nyköping (pronounced new-shopping) and it feels like 20. Just on the edge of the shower but getting nicely wet! After what seems like forever we made it to the centre of town and found our hostel. Feel much better after a nice warm shower.

We wander around the mostly deserted town centre - obviously Sunday night isnt a big event, wouldn't want to live round here! - and decide on Indian food for dinner. The almost empty restaurant was nice and two mixed Tikka meals are very good, along with a couple of beers! Went to a couple of bars, which are pretty empty, but I got given a Swedish flag by a drunk guy who had been to the races and was slagging off some French jockey!

At the second bar, we got talking to the Armenian barman, who was very passionate about football. Much conversation about the world cup, mainly by Ben and the barman, but I was quite entertained by his passion for the game and his thories on FIFA rigging the whole event! Sevral more beers and we head back to the room to crash! Has beena long day.