I thought this was a cool photo so I'm blogging it. This is the Västerbron (west bridge) near my apartment. I cross it every day going to work. This photo was in the late evening around 10:30. I did enhance it a little bit with photshop, that's ok, right?
The Vätternrund is a prestigious bike ride of 300 kilometers (186 miles). It's part of the Swedish classic of four events, Nordic skiing, biking, running, and swimming. I did only the biking part June 19'th. I started at 8:32 PM and rode through the night. Eleven hours and 54 minutes later I crossed the finish - a very mediocre time. Next time I'll know how cold it can get ... and I'll take better rain gear. I lost an hour trying to warm-up. I found some plastic bags that bread was in at one of the rest stops which I used over my soaking and freezing feet.
Riding through the night worried me. I thought I'd get really sleepy or I'd crash because I wouldn't be able to see the rider in front of me (while drafting at a pretty fast pace). It turned out that I could have gone without lights, but lights were a help (and they are required). I also didn't get sleepy. Watching the three-quarter moon glimmer on Vättern and later the sun rising over it was absolutely stunning.
The rest of the weekend was spent sightseeing all around Motala. A Swedish friend and his wife and young son took me to Motala, I stayed with his parents and they treated me like a king. Great food! They cheered me at the start and at the finish. They drove me around showing me the special places in Motala. Watching the boats climb a hill though the lock system on the Göta canal was fascinating.
Motala is a picturesque town of about 20 thousand. The annual ride they've sponsored since sometime in the sixties now draws almost 17,000 riders. This does not include the shorter rides they sponsor on the previous two weekends. This is a big event for any town and it's especially big for a small town.
While my wife is out-of-town I decided to explore more of the Stockholm archipelago. Back in 2000, on my first job assignment here, I visited quite a few islands including Sandhamn and Möja. This past weekend I decided to go to Finnhamn to kayak. P., a buddy from work, was visiting on a business trip so he joined me. This is a story of us being lost and found and lost again and found again.
We wanted to rent kayaks but they were all rented out. (I did call twice to reserve the day before but the line was busy or so they said.....) So we rented a tiny motor boat with a 4 horsepower motor. After having a 20 minute ordeal of getting it cranked, off we go, hugging the shoreline of Finnhamn. By following the shoreline we reasoned there'd be no way we'd get lost. We also had a map but the coves and bays were hard to correlate with the map. Some places were difficult to see whether they were part of the island or maybe another island really close. We concluded, too, that the map simply left off some of the really small islands. That should have been a clue.
Two hours later we are tolally confused. Where was Paradise Bay, which we were told was very beautiful? Had we somehow missed it? Did we miss a channel somewhere? Finally, in desparation we went up to a house. The owner came out and met us at the dock. He was a bit incredulous when we said we were lost and trying to get back to Finnhamn where we started. He laughed and asked us to look behind us: "there's the Finnhamn dock hardly a half a kilometer away." We looked at the map in amazement. I thought we were on the opposite side of the island and P. thought we were still in another place. Wow.
So we decided to stay "close" and just park the boat on some of the small islands and explore them on foot. Nice and safe.
After several islands we decided it was time to return the boat. The person that rented the boat to us said there was 4 hours worth of gas. We checked the tank when we left and it was full. Apparently though, he was wrong. The motor went silent and we were sourrounded 360 degrees by islands that all looked the same. No distictive landmarks and all the houses we saw were the classic Swedish red with white trim. The only possible markers were two signs that had "8" on them and a red bouy and a green bouy.
So we called the phone number written on the life vests. I happened to mention there were two signs with the number "8" on them. "Ahh!" he says. "You're 200 meters from the rental dock. Do you have the oars?"
Yes, we had oars so we rowed in. Again, we were amazed that we could be so lost when trying not to be and yet be so close to where we wanted to be.
I think I need a Garmin.
You can find photos (more than you probably want to view in my Stockholm Archipelago collection. Within the collection, you'll find Finnhamn where I got lost. You'll also find Ornö where I spent three hours biking around. The other sets within the collection represent other trips or just the boat ride itself going out into the archipelago. Kayaking in Björkvik was nice, too. 
A fellow bicyclists showed me a riding trail through a forest yesterday morning (my commuter bike is almost a mountain bike so I can ride dirt roads and not-so-rough trails). Riding through the forest, we came upon a meadow and he spotted a young female moose. Despite being young, she was large!
One of my goals was to see a moose in the wild while in Sweden. That's done.
The photo is courtesy of a colleage. It's a moose that lives on the archipelago island where he has a cabin.
May 31 was a beautiful day for a bike ride. I did the "Destination Nynäshamn 130 kilometer ride in 4 hours and 15 minutes by drafting every rider I could. The fast riders finished in a little over 3 hours.
The ride route went out into rural Swedish farmland and forest. It was very beautiful.
Right after the start, another rider noted my Colorado jersey. It turns out we have a common friend in Boulder, Colorado. It is a small world.
J and I took a short day trip to the island of Fjäderholmarna. It's a 30minute ferry ride from Slussen. The ferry also stops at Nacka Strnd and it was nice to see the place I worked in 2000.
Fjäderholmna has a small museum of old, and I mean old, boats. I've been told that one of them is a reconstuction of a viking boat which was fould when construction crews found remants of 13 such boats while excavating for an underground garage. The authorities asked local craftsmen to build replica's using only the tools available during the Viking era.
There's also a glass blowing shop where you can buy grossly overpriced glass made on the spot.
We enjoyed some snacks in the sun while we were there. There's a fine restaurant on one end of the isand and also a whiskey distillery!
All in all, this is a great place to show first time visitors to Stockholm when there's not enough time to explore further into the archipelago.
I've found another little Stockholm jewel. The first was the Fashing jazz bar where world class jazz artists frequent. This jewel is called Stampen (Swedidh for stomping, or dancing). It's in Gamla Stan, the old historic part of town. J and I decided to have some fun on our 31'st anniversary and decided to try Stampen.
We first had a nice dinner at the Krypin which included reindeer. Then we strolled over to Stampen. It turns out we were an hour before the show and the place was mostly empty. We heard the show was going to begin at 10 PM so we sat at the table closest to the stage. This turned out to be the best seat in the place. Any closer and we'd have been on the stage.
While waiting we met a nice Swedish grandmother who lives in London but comes to visit her children every few months. She said she always visits Stampen when she's in Stockholm.
At 10 PM, the band comes out and says they'll mix up some Swedish and English ("for the tourists"). The front man, Bill Öhrström, was (and I guessing) in his mid-fifties but still had the energy of a young man and was amazing.......so into his music, it was as if a switch turned on when he gave the signal for the music to begin...stomping, jumping, singing, and playing the harmonica. His enthusiasm created fun for everyone.
After a few songs J and I happened to look behind us. The room was packed with standing room only. Yet we had comfortable seats right at the stage's edge. Wow.
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