Thor's Outdoors!: South by Southwest

Stockholm i mitt hjärta - August 5

Country number 2 of my journey! My flight from Iceland left at 01:15 the night between Sunday and Monday, so I arrived to a sunny Arlanda airport at about 6:30. After picking up some maps at the information desk I just headed outside and found a quiet spot to unpack my bike and luggage. I felt like a transformer, going from box and suitcase to bicycle and gear. "Autobots - Transform!" Plus I felt like a robot after a sleepless and stressful night, so the trip down into Stockholm although extremely beautiful and fun was not my best ride ever. The route went through farmland, into small villages, past old churches, and slowly entered the beautiful city of Stockholm itself, right through downtown to the neighbourhood of Bagarmossen where my sister lives. Along the way an Icelander stopped me who had seen my flag so we chatted for a bit, and several people came up to me and just asked about my bike, where I was going, where I'd been - lots of curious Swedes!

My impromptu workshop at Arlanda

Off day - August 6

The next day my sister and I got to spend some quality time together, and for lunch I met up with my cousin who also lives in Stockholm, who came with her 6 month old daughter! It was great catching up and she showed me some parts of town I'd never been to like the area by Vitabergsparken. In the afternoon I had to pick up some extra gear like a new gas canister for my stove, and some replacement bungee cords that had been stolen by some hoodlums while my bike was outside my sisters apartment for about 30 minutes! The evening consisted of a delicious home made meal by my sister, together with her and her boyfriend who I met for the first time. Followed by some intense map reading to prepare for the days ahead.

South by Southwest - August 7

I woke up early, but still got a pretty late start after just relaxing in the morning with a slow breakfast, hot shower and packing my stuff together. I set off from Bagarmossen towards Huddinge, but my map only went to Flemingsberg so the next stage past Tullinge and Tumba was a bit tricky and I went on a bit of a loop before finding my way back to the route I had planned. As I turned off the main road to bike down towards Skanssund and Mörkö, I was surprised for having to navigate around an overturned car that was blocking the bike path. It must have been a recent accident since there were still personal belongings in the car, but nobody was around! After a rainy morning, the sun now came out in earnest and the route down the peninsula was an absolute delight. After 16km of wondrous cycling I arrived to the small ferry and met a German couple who were on their way home after a tour of Poland, the Baltic states, Finland and now Sweden. Since they retired in 2008 they've gone on yearly bike tours, including Iceland in 2009! I can't help but notice though that most all the cyclists I meet on my trip are quite a bit older than me. I wonder what that means… Mörkö was also beautiful, very quiet with hardly any traffic, just beautiful fields with summer houses here and there. I soon got on another main road that took me through Vagnhärad, and as it was early I skipped Trosa and continued immediately on the road towards Nyköping. With about 90km on the meter, and getting a bit tired I decided to find a spot to camp and pulled off, wandering into the forest and found a perfect quiet spot with soft ground to lay on. Perfect for a good nights rest, after my first proper cycling day in Sweden!