July 5, 2024
Day 4: Stockholm to Vira Lake Shelter
Land of the Ferries
“A ferry boat is always an easy way to get out of the city,” Patrick says and Rachel add: “So nice that Bjorn showed us the way yesterday.” It makes sense that a city by the water would have developed an extensive system to move people and goods efficiently.
We sleep until 9am, late for us, perhaps that’s a good thing that we are adjusting to the time change. The day-light that lasts from 3am to 10pm hasn’t affected us much yet. We know though this will change the rhythm of touring. Our pattern usually is to get an early start, get to the destination by early afternoon to have time relax, write journal and process photos. With the expanded daylight hours, and our plans to do more free camping, we’ll take the whole day to get to where we plan to be. No need to hurry to get to our destination before dark.
Bjorn set out breakfast stuff for us as he is on a work zoom meeting. He joins us and we hear more about his family history. He is a software engineer and is helpful last night solving a problem. Google turned our yahoo.com email into Swedish, then refused to log us in because we had an “unknown device”, then put us in time-out for an hour. Try to figure all of that out in Swedish.
We load up the bikes, take the pictures of us all, say our big thanks to Bjorn, and our first day of cycling begins.
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We follow the signs of yesterday’s route to (Lijleholm) and to the Ferry terminals right downtown. We catch the 1040 Moja ferry to Vaxholm. There is a spot for the bikes, tickets are purchased on the ferry and handed in when exiting. There are 3 quick stops before reaching Vaxholm. And by quick Rachel means quick: the ferry docks, people get off, others get on and under a minute the ferry is off again.
Vaxholm
There is a 2 1/2 hours wait for the Namdo Ferry to Linanas on Ljustero Island. We use the time to take turns walking around to see the city while the other watches the bikes. This is the advantage of two travelling together. We’ve been warned about bikes being stolen. The sky has dark clouds that move north, the wind out of the sun is chilly. The ferry arrives and is quickly loaded. We are getting more into the archipelago of islands in the Baltic Sea near Stockholm. Most are covered in trees and summer homes.
We arrive in Linanas at 1740, we quickly start cycling and then stop to check our location on GPS. Patrick shouts “no” as he starts to tip over. “I couldn’t clip out” he says. Rachel has seen Patrick fall off his bike only once before: in a ditch, on the 2006-07 tour in Vietnam. He looks at his shoe and there is a screw missing from the cleat and the cleat turned instead of releasing when he tried to clip out.
He takes the cleat off, not wanting to lose the rest of the pieces and will fix it later when we are in camp. We are carrying two extra screws and will ask Lars tomorrow if he has any extras.
iTwo kilomteters from the ferry we stop at a Tempo grocery store to buy a few things for dinner. And just at the ferry a petro station to fill up the fuel bottle. Just as we finish filling the ferry arrives. This car ferry across to the mainland crosses every 10 minutes. We could tell when a ferry had landed by the sporadic grouping of oncoming cars. The traffic is decent with no rushing cars trying to pass each other. The traffic from behind is light and also respectful. The road is rolling through forests.
At the turnoff to Vira Bruk is a beautiful church. We stop for pictures and look around. At the entrance are hanging pitchers and a water tap so those who are visiting the graves can water the plants. “We’ll have to remember churches and cemeteries when we need water,” Patrick says. We’ll ask Lars if this is common or specific to this church.
Only a few more kilometers, we pass the town of Vira Bruk and we can see the lake.
It’s 7pm when spot the shelter from the road. These will be nice all along the way especially when it is raining. The tent doesn’t fit inside the shelter, but it will be a great place to hang out and cook when it is raining. Dinner is of really good bread and salmon pate and a cup of instant soup.
The sky is clearing. We enjoy a snicker bar with one of the small bottles of whiskey that Wenda gave us to celebrate the first day on the road. It is nine o’clock when all our little task are done.
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Today's ride: 28 km (17 miles)
Total: 54 km (34 miles)
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5 months ago