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August 21 Monday a few clouds Bicycle touring Sweden Numerous squawking seagulls woke us bright and early. Their noisy raucous cries prompted Rebecca to yell at them, "It's not that bad!" The birds certainly did seem to be protesting loudly about something. We packed up our bicycling gear and bicycled back to the picnic table where we ate supper at last night in the park. Sharon and I had Muesli for breakfast. Arran and Rebecca made oatmeal pancakes, or at least I should say they tried to make pancakes, but the oatmeal flour takes so long to cook that the pancakes burn on the outside and are still raw dough on the inside. "Seriously disappointing," as Arran was overheard to mutter. Bicycling on our way out of town, we saw a group of Swedish oldsters walking to the beach for their morning swim. Some were taking an exercise class on the grass, bopping in time to Elvis's "I Did It My Way." Watching the slow motion antics caused Arran to comment, "That's when it is time to pack it in." And, I hasten to remind you, that was the vigorous portion of the workout schedule. Bicycling out of Angelholm, Sweden, I got
a flat that took a chunk out of my expensive, but worthless,
made-in-Holland bicycle tire. I can't ever remember having paid
more for a tire and having so many problems with it. As we bicycled away, we looked up into the sky and saw clouds. We had to explain to Arran and Rebecca, our New Zealand bicycle touring buddies, what those puffy and grey things in the sky were, as it has been quite some time since they've seen clouds. The other day, the sky was so blue without a single cloud in the sky that it pinched my eyes to look at it. The road we were cycling went over a hill, the biggest we've had in Sweden. At the top were farms and a golf course where a few single players were playing a round. Bicycling a bit farther, we came across a caution sign for children playing that looks like a depiction of Pippy Longstocking and Tommy and Anika frolicking along. I took a picture of the bicycle touring gang imitating various poses of the sign. Sharon and Rebecca jumped in the air while Arran did a walking freeze frame. Lunch was by a river in Angelholm after raiding a supermarket to get rid of our last few shekels. When we were done shopping, I still had two krones left. I stood in line to buy a banana, but it came to 2.50 krones. So close, and yet so far. During lunch I decided to get 2 SEK krones worth of fuel for our Whisperlite stove. About half a bottle. The only cash we have left is 40 SEK krones for the ferry to Denmark. This morning we had bicycled a meandering bike route with a name that sounds like Cyclesplat. But after seeing a sign reading 17 kilometres from the place we bicycle camped last night we had 34 kilometres on our bicycle meters. We decided to give up on bicycle route and looked for a more direct route to Helsingburg, Sweden. The ferry crossing from Sweden to Denmark took 25 minutes. Our fully loaded touring bicycles were parked behind two Harleys going to Copenhagen for a "bad time" the driver told us. Guess the Harley riders here are the same as North America. Although these ones spoke to us ... so maybe they're not exactly the same after all. Leaving the ferry, we cycled off and eventually found a forest on the edge of Helsingor, Denmark, where we set up our two bicycle touring tents in a bright clearing. |
