Day 7: 7/28/24

 Day 7 (Day 3 of the VBT tour) - transfer day

Today we move again. We start in Helsingborg and ride to Angelholm and end up in Turekov in a resort.

Uh-oh.

Walter is no longer one of the few people to have never gotten COVID.

I usually carry a rapid test wherever I go and even though this one had expired, it's not likely to give a false positive. So it's back to masks and social distancing for both Walter and me since I have been sharing the same airspace as him.

Here we are at the morning briefing where Walter and I delivered the bad news. People seemed generally very unconcerned.

We walked down to the lobby from the 5th floor and while it's something we might have done anyway, we didn't want to crowd into an elevator, even with masks on.

Since hardly anyone uses stairs, I thought this was unusual because they were so nice.


We started our ride along the marina, same as yesterday, but this time, we stopped to take pictures of swimmers. The guy in this picture seemed annoyed until I gave him a he-man gesture and he gave me the thumbs up in return.

We always seem to be the last ones getting going, so it's fun to pick off riders as we go. Here's pretty much the whole group riding together.


Usually we are faster than most other riders on VBT trips, but when the other riders have ebikes, they finish before us. Today, we leap-frogger each other because it was so windy.

Our first rest stop was at a church. There was no bathroom, but the guides assured us that using the "green door" (peeing outside) was acceptable. 



I took this picture because the landscaping was so precise. True, this was a church graveyard, but personal gardens and yards were equally neat and tidy. 

Our lunch stop was in this cute village.


Remember that since it's July, many Swedes are on vacation, so it was pretty quiet.

This family was on their way!

The weather forecast was windy and they were right. In the morning, the wind was mostly a cross-wind. In the afternoon, it was going to be a headwind. I opted for the spare ebike. It wasn't fast, but it was a lot less painful. Mike and Walter appreciated being behind me. And when the wind came from the side, rather than being directly behind me, we set up an echelon. At one point when the wind was blowing right to left, Mike was to the left of my back wheel and Walter was to the left of Mike's. I could see this in my mirror, but unfortunately couldn't take a picture without causing a major pile-up. 

Since we were near the coast, we were willing to bet that it is windy most of the time. Our Danish tour guide said that the primary energy source is wind power. There's probably a reason that the Swedes have windmills too! Too bad these guys were in the way of an otherwise very nice picture.

There was no pre-arranged rest stop in the afternoon, but near where the van parked there were public toilets. We were near a beach, so that might explain the location, but look at how nice these are!

There was a potable water source and even air for tires!

Here's the last stop before the end of the ride. I didn't know how the others could have gotten there before us until I realized they probably didn't stop at the world-class porta-potties.

We arrived at the hotel described as a spa. We were hoping that they could give Walter and me separate rooms, but they claimed they were booked.

There's nothing particularly impressive about the exterior and that's it for signage.

On the plus side, all the rooms are on the ground floor with patios. Since we're here for two days, it's laundry day!

We rode in the van to town for dinner. It was a cute little ocean-side village with not much except a handful of overly expensive restaurants.

Here's a picture of the marina. It doesn't begin to capture how windy it was.

Stats for the day: https://www.strava.com/activities/12002034894

Morning: https://www.strava.com/activities/12004765846

Afternoon on an ebike: https://www.strava.com/activities/12004766050




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