There was that creaking sound from the bottom-bracket already in July when in Iceland, after only seven weeks of riding every day. Now the bearing which allows the cranks to turn smoothly is well worn and needs replacing. But the bike-shop I went to in Uppsala on Monday, could, but couldn't replace the bearing until next week. There were other bike-shops when I googled, but as it had taken an hour finding this shop, I didn't want to spend the day finding bike-shops. There is some riding left in the bearing; though, hopefully I'll find a bike-shop ahead, in either Stockholm or Tallin that can do the job on the day, or within a couple of days.

With a palace, a big house from the beginning of the nineteenth century on a hilltop, and a cathedral closeby which has double spires tapering from the ground up, Uppsala isn't much unlike cities elsewhere. There are lots of pedestrianized shopping streets, an area with bars and cafes, and lots of big roads lined with superstores where I found the bike-shop.

The hostel I stayed in was on one of the main central streets. There was a lot of traffic noise in the mornings and there were terrible swivel chairs both in the dining-room and in the dorm. Sitting on them, they turned whether you wanted to turn or not, giving an uneasy feeling instead of relaxed. I shared the dorm with three Germans, that I think were here to study, but they always got up late and spent the evenings watching South Park, The Simpsons and Men. And there was another guy from Syria who was a student, who got up early and didn't watch TV. A really nice guy that insisted on sharing his dinner of chicken with me.

I was glad to be leaving. I headed back out along the road with the superstores where I'd been yesterday at the bike-shop, in the south of the city where I'd seen the sign for Stockholm at a roundabout, though by the E4, a motorway; so, I thought I'd follow small roads shadowing the motorway. But the road I found myself on headed off to the east for quite a bit until I came to a road south. I thought I should maybe see a green Sverigeleden cycle-sign, though it was hard to get completely lost as Stockholm is directly due South, the same way as the sun.

There were a lot of small hamlets I passed through, too small to appear on my fifteen kilometres to the centi-metre map: the area Is in was a great blank space on my map. Shortly after midday, I picked four apples from a tree at the roadside as I thought it could be a while before I reached a place with a shop. Then I spontanously turned left at a crossroads for a place called Lund, as it looked to be the right way, which just happened to have a small ICA supermarket when I got that far, and a little further this road led onto road 276 which was on the map and eventually followed parallel to the E4. From this point I saw the green Sverigeleden signs, making the rest of the way easy.

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