ooh, me sweaty nads !!

Once again the morning was fine and sunny. After breakfast we saw Marly to her train (opposite our hotel) and waved her goodbye as her train to Copenhagen pulled out. We then went to the hotel where we ate last night to use their very kind offer of free wireless hotspot to catch up on emails etc (the local library with internet wasn't open till 11). Just a shame we can't properly update the blogs from our mobile phones, otherwise you would have some more pictures to marvel at! We need to get to proper computers to do that :-( .

As soon as we got on our bikes the heavens opened and we were drenched and cold in under 5 minutes! This is starting to get tedious now! Another day cycling in the cold and wet. The one thing it did do was encourage us to cycle really fast, as the sooner we got to lunch the sooner we'd be dry!

An hour and a half later and 20 miles done over some fairly hilly roads through the forests. We were now sitting in a nice cafeteria at the Orrefors glass-works tourist attraction (yeah living the high life again). Ben and I are feeling happy, warm and dry in our cycling stuff, with a handful of tourists (whether they were happy or not I'm not sure, it didn't look that exciting as an attraction!)

Anyway, after a nice lunch of herring and mash (can anyone spot the culinary theme of the trip so far?) we set off again, now warm, still a bit soggy - shoes still sodden and cold though - but at least the sun was out!

We again seemed to have speed on our side as we kept up the morning's pace. The roads were relatively flat, some mild inclines, with a few hills at the end. We made it to Stefan's aunts guest house in another hour and a half, another 20 miles done.

The house is the same traditional Swedish style as the photos that I haven't yet managed to upload, but you'll see what I mean soon. Like a little yellow doll's house.
Stefan's aunt Margareta is a lovely, interesting lady who cooked us a very nice meal (the only herrings were in the starter, herring salad - a mix of - herrings - you guessed it - mayonaise, egg, onions and gherkins which is actually very nice). We had a good chat and some cake and tea to round it all off.

Margareta has now left us to this lovely little cottage, making sure we knew where the heating controls were, and we are sitting writing up our blogs, as there's not much else to do (I can see horses if I look out the window, but Ben is a bit troubled by a cat outside that is giving him a good staring at!). There's only about 80 people in the village and no pub. We've brought a couple of beers with us and a bottle of coke to accompany the cycle friendly bottle of vodka, so I'm sure the night won't seem too long ;-) .

Just a note on the countryside that we are passing through. It is mainly pine forests, with the occasional farm, so we are seeing lots of cows and little calves, and horses and little foals, all very cute, and lots of piles of logs by the side of the road.


Logging is one of the main industrial activities around these part, but there's even more piles of logs than usual apparently, as there was a big storm early last year that brought down 5 times more trees than they would normally harvest in a year, so they are still clearing up the backlog (no pun intended).

No one can say that I'm not informative, dull yes, but informative ! Just helping you to join me on the journey in words and pictures. And another thing, whenever we stop to check the map or to take a photo the bloody mozzies are on us in seconds, despite spraying ourselves with repellent. Just think yourself lucky that I'm out here doing the suffering for you!

# posted by neil @ 8:55 pm