scandinavia 2024

 Day 10/Day 6 of VBT Trip - somewhere in the boonies of Sweden Our last day of riding. It is a little sad, but usually by this point, we're ready to go home. Our guides have been working hard to keep everyone safe and comfortable since Walter tested positive for Covid. As a result, we rode in the van yesterday with Pernilla instead of on the bus with the rest of the group. They were able to get an extra room at this country hotel for me and again when we arrive in Stockholm tomorrow. The upcharges seem to be trivial, but I'm still not convinced it's going to work out that inexpensively.  Since our last hotel charged resort fees, I slept on the couch in the hall since sleeping with a mask was impossible, and it was fine. With our respective sleep disturbances, that was only one of other things getting in the way of a good night's sleep.  But last night I had my first single room and it was great. Like to many things, once you taste it, it is hard to go back. In general, ...

 Day 9/Day 5 of the VBT tour Another transfer day: Torekov to Toftaholm This morning, we started at the Torekov resort and biked to the Norrviken Garden.  The roads were really lovely: single lane, barely enough space for a car to squeeze by a bike and fortunately that rarely happened. Simba? Or King of the Poop Hill? Something old, something new... We were warned of a long climb and a steep descent. It was a good warning for new cyclists or for avoiding litigation, but it was nothing we don't do regularly. At the top of the climb there was a nice view and green door. That's the ocean in the distance. At the bottom of the hill was a small village with our rest stop. Here's our guide translating a sign about "Tillie Anderson" who came from the area. Look her up - she's pretty amazing. From here, we took a long, smooth and descending rail trail to the village of Bastad. We are always on the lookout for a bike shop where we might be able to buy cycling jerseys an...

 Day 8 (day 4 of VBT trip) - Torekov, Sweden Now that we knew that Walter had Covid and not some garden-variety virus, we were masking anytime we were inside and around other people. Also, since Walter had bouts of uncontrolled coughing, and since sleeping with masks was going to be impossible, I decided sleep in the lounge outside our room.  I also figured there was less virus in the air out in the hallway than in our room. It was perfectly comfortable and I woke up less often than usual although I had a hard time falling asleep because I was sure someone would come by at some point and wake me up. Breakfast was pretty similar although for a resort, I didn't think the food was that much better than what we had in previous hotels. This is just one of the stations. (New and revised) Today's briefing included an discussion of culture. There's usually one day on all VBT trips when the briefing includes something on the local culture. Our guides taught us to count to 15 in Swed...