We awoke to a rainy, chilly morning and mutually wondered if it wouldn’t be better to stay in our warm bed. But awaiting us down the hall is a buffet breakfast as is more of Sweden to be experienced.
The buffet was huge with stations of hot, cold, savoury and sweet spreading over two rooms. It was a bit confusing to know where to start but we managed.
Mary Ellen is pressing fresh orange juice as her first choice....and then waffles with fresh fruit and bacon.
Once again booking.com came to our rescue. As we were riding along the canal from Ronneby Hamm to Ronneby to look at accommodation, we saw this hotel and I convinced Barry to check out this Spa Hotel. He was right that it was too expensive, so we kept going. Lucky for us, the hotel in Ronneby is part of an increasing trend where there is no staff present -you must phone for someone to come. No answer so we looked again at booking and hotels.com and to our surprise, the Hotel Spa now had a huge discount of over €30 so we headed back with a bargain price quite happy.
First stop is the esteemed Ronneby Brunnspark adjacent to our hotel. This historic spa and park has been in existence since 1705 when the first well was opened. Ronneby Brunn became Sweden’s leading spa resort by 1873, and recently on its 300th anniversary in 2005, it won the distinction of being named Sweden’s Most Beautiful Park. As well, in 2013, it was named as Sweden’s most inspiring park.
The size of the park is immense covering several acres. We rode through much of it and were very impressed by its beauty and significance as a wellness spa for the past 300 years.
First stop is Ronneby Brunnspark, the spectacular garden and spa dating back to 1705 when the first well was opened.
We are so lucky to be here when the famed rhododendrons of this park are in bloom. We have never seen such beautiful and mature rhodos like this. The mauve colour is featured throughout the park and is also popular in home gardens.
Barry BartlettThanks for the compliment. It is such a beautiful place and we feel that the bad weather added to it. It would be hard to take a bad photo here. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
A cold, rainy and occasionally windy day means we need to take shelter at a Bus Stop for our picnic lunch. As a friend pointed out, Bus Shelters seem to be a feature of this trip. Well, needs must....
Now, this is an uncommon sight for us in Europe. Public washrooms at a rest stop with information boards and maps. Needless to say, we took advantage of this luxury.
Barry BartlettThank you for writing Bill. We have enjoyed the Jackdaw in our travels and appreciated learning more about them from your link. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Our route today winds along the Baltic coast, up and down hills. These colourful homes of yellow and red are very typical for this region. Today, we continue to be impressed by the considerate drivers and their slow careful navigation around us.
This calf was at the back of the group, yet he stood out craning his head in an inquisitive way. Eventually he came to the front to really check us out. A character.
In Karlshamm, we saw this huge factory and learned that it is for Canola Oil. We have seen so many vibrant yellow fields of rape...this is where it all goes.
We spent some time at the excellent Tourist Office in Karlshamm and got some incredible and free cycling maps. We learned that a new route was started a week ago called Sydkustleden, going from Simrishamm (53 km east of Ystad) to Helsingborg. This is very exciting for us as we needed helpto get to Helsingborg to ride the Kattegattleden route to Gothenburg. It is reassuring to learn that The signage is in place as well.
Yeah, we love maps. And with no GPS tracks, maps come in handy.
We will stop tonight in Morrum at an Inn on the river which was a former salmon smoking factory. The Morrum River is a popular place to fish for salmon.
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles) Total: 2,251 km (1,398 miles)
