Angelholm, Sweden to Bastad, Sweden (July 15, 2023)

July 15, 2023

And a Tennis Tournament thrown in for Good Measure

Our first legitimate climbing of the trip.

It was Saturday morning at the Best Western in Angelholm and breakfast was a real scene. The extensive, fresh excellent breakfast buffet is such a thing here in Europe and we have grown to miss it when we stay in a flat and find ourselves on our own for breakfast. Today's breakfast event was bustling, although everyone is so polite it doesn’t bother us like it would in the States. We invariably have an episode of “how do I use the tea machine” and I had one this morning, complicated by the previously-mentioned lack of an English translation as to which button to press.

We took off around 10 am with the hope of arriving in Bastad, our destination, before 2 pm. This is because Bastad, a little tourist town on the Swedish South Coast, has a tennis stadium and was hosting a lower level WTA and ATP tournament (the Nordea Open, F.K.A. The Swedish Open). The women's final just happened to be on the one day we'd be in Bastad. For all of this to come together, the start time of the final had to be late enough in the afternoon or evening to allow us to arrive in time.

The ride along the coast is incredible save for the constant wind.

We found out the night before that the scheduled start time was going to be 2 pm. We needed to ride hard (for us) and we managed to arrive around 1 pm. It was a real scene and super fun. We changed our shoes and just left our panniers on our bikes at the tennis stadium, something a lot of cyclists would not do, I know. It feels super safe here. There was no bag check or metal detector. We were told to just walk in and find a seat. We watched the end of the double’s final and the women’s final which went three sets. It was a messy, error-strewn affair between an American, Emma Navarro and a Serbian women, Olga Danilovec. The Serb wound up winning. There were a lot of people looking lovely in white and beige linen. We enjoyed doing something different but it was a long warm day sitting in almost 80 degree weather. We feel fortunate that it's been as cool as it has been given there is a heat wave in many parts of Europe right now as well as at home in Oregon.

Half time entertainment? The ball crew performing synchronized dancing between matches. What these young people lacked in skill, they more than made up for in enthusiasm.

During a break in the action, Dave went to go get us a couple of ice cream cones. Conspiring against him, were the heat of the day, the fact that he had to wait some time for a break in the action to get back into the seats, and I had changed seats on him while he was gone. In fairness, I had texted him that I had changed seats, but given that his hands were full of melting ice cream cones and bottles of water, he couldn't see his phone and read the message. So, even after he got back into the stadium, I wasn't where we were before and it took some time before he found me. By the time he got to our seats, the cones were dripping mess over both of our hands. In retrospect it would have been better to have ice cream soup in cups rather than ice cream melting on our hands, but lessons are learned along the way!

Our accommodations for the night was another one of Jill’s frugal choices, which ironically wasn’t that cheap; a little pension called Pensionat Neptun, which was 165 USD (or 1750 Swedish krona). We were up two flights of stairs in a room in the attic, which was quite warm during the night. And the bathroom was functional, but you could not really relax in there. Twenty-five years ago these were the sort of places I stayed at ( and that were recommended by Rick Steves). At that time they only cost 50 to 80 USD . They are not my first choice anymore but the options in this upscale resort town were a couple of really high end beach places (400 or 500 USD) or this type of simple pension in a pleasant neighborhood away from the beach. In keeping with the vibe of only the basics, there was no on-site management. There were keys and instructions waiting for us in a mailbox when we arrived.

Nope. Two people cannot fit together here. We tried.

Helpful instructions were waiting for us the room, all in Swedish. Thank goodness for Google Translate.

While we were at the tennis tournament Dave actually managed - in Swedish - to make a dinner reservation at a French bistro online. I was impressed, especially when we rode our bikes there for dinner and they actually had our reservation! Dinner was delicious; we shared steak frites and a bottle of rose before hunkering down in our attic garret for the night! The restaurant, Bistro Grodlar, is run solely by a husband and wife team with madame running the front of the house and monsieur was the only person in the kitchen. We arrived at 6:30 and we're the only guests there. When asked if they'd be busier, she told us that Swedes are very particular about when they dine. She said that 90% of their reservations that evening were for 7:15.

Sure enough, by 7:15, the place was hopping.

Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 576 km (358 miles)

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