Sweden, Here I Come
During the days in Ruegen, I had plenty of time to think about where to continue my journey, after all, I still had some two weeks. It could have been heading towards Poland towards to the east, Denmark towards the west, south back into Germany...or towards the north, via a ferry, to Sweden. The trip towards the north became the winner.
The first pleasant surprise was the price of the ferry - I though to be spending about Eur 50 for the crossing from Sassnitz, the lady at the counter asked for Eur 10, and then Eur 5 more the late booking - so at Eur 15 it was a bargain for the 4-hour trip to Trelleborg. Another nice thing was that the ferry left from about 10 minutes far from where we stayed, so for the 7 am departure, after my farewell from Anne, I just had to roll down a small hill and there I was laying on a bench on the upper deck. It was a nice crossing, with even nicer views of the chalk cliffs and we were soon on the open sea. With the engine pleasantly whirring (well, not sure about this word, is that what they say?), I dozed off in a pleasant slumber.
Arrival in Sweden was a bit of an anticlimax. I expected to see a wild landscape with forests with reindeer gazing, instead, it was a rather boring agricultural and very flat area, with a steady wind blowing out towards the water. Trelleborg itself was not the nicest towns - in fact, apologies from anyone having a heart for Swedish cities - most of the towns in Sweden are not exactly picturesque. As you will see later - provided you read on - I've come to love many things about the country, the people, the nature, the lakes; there was not much love lost for the towns there. Reminded me a bit of the towns in the UK - apologies from any Brits reading this. I felt a bit lost at first - at the local tourist office they recommended I head first east, then north along the coast, someone recommended west, then north - so I took the arithmetic average and started heading straight up, I mean up north.
I first felt like crying. I was cursing. I spent 4 hours to come to one of the most boring landscapes, fields of wheat, a mean head wind and trucks driving by - not my dream scenario. I think I started riding around noon, the first I took out my camera was past 5 pm. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, south of Sweden is not my favorite.
Luckily, the situation improved. Soon the wind died down and the scenery became a lot more colorful. I was riding on small roads connection tiny villages, with activities concentrated around riding. Supposedly, and I have not checked this yet with the Swedish Buero of Statistics, there are more horses in Sweden then cows. One such nice town in Flyinge, but then how can a place not be pretty with such a name. There were a couple of wind mills and then then I saw the first patch of those purple plants next to the road, which were to follow me for the next two weeks. I think they are called 'lupin'.
I got my first taste of the many many lakes in Sweden, hardly did I pass one lake, the next one started. The roads are nice and wide - even when I got to a larger road, there was plenty of room for cars and myself. There was this road that went through right in the middle of two lakes, so it was close to a town called Bosjokloster.
I was running low on my supplies and was really lucky to reach a town just before 8 pm - that is when most shop close. Lucky, that it was open, but then got my first 'taste' of Scandinavian prices. Some items are just a little more expensive than in Germany, others are by a factor of two or three, then mineral water by about 10. So a bottle of water in Germany costs about 19 cents, in Sweden it was about 20 Krones. Hmmm. And I drink about 8 bottles of those per day. Oh well, it was my choice to get there.
It was later, close to 10 pm that I found a place to stay - it was a wooden hut for about 30 Euros - and I had to bargain to get linen on my bed, with bathroom outside. Still, it was a great night, even though I had only half a day, it was over 100 km's that were behind me (the first half of which I want to forget forever 😉).