Day 8: 7/29/24

 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 Swedish (impossible!) and explained that pictures on their bills were of famous people but not politicians. They explained that while they had a King, the royals had no political power and that was the result of decision made not long ago called the Torakev (where we were staying) Compromise. Imagine a King, or anyone else, voluntarily giving up power. No bloody coups here.

They performed a from a scene from a famous Ingmar Bergman film (The Seventh Seal) where a knight meets death. I wish I had the presence of mind to take pictures. It was very cute.

We're often the last ones out of the parking lot, in part because we have extra gear to set up but also in part because I was moving slowly from sleeping on a couch. Walter was also trying to contact a doctor to get something in writing confirming that he had Covid in case we had additional expenses that travel insurance might cover. While that never materialized, I thought we might need to wait for Walter to finish some phone calls, so I was the last one to be ready to go.

The first few miles, I was the last rider and I had a chance to chat with Joakim, who was riding sweep. Earlier in the week I had made a comment about taxes and we were able to follow up on that. While Sweden has high taxes, they also have extensive social services, but the key is that citizens tolerate the taxation because they trust the government. What a concept! There are seven (I think) viable political parties that cover the continuum from left to right and while there are the usual disagreements over taxation versus spending, one of the mind-blowing principles on which government operates is a balanced budget. Wow! 

Another interesting but unrelated talking point is that very few Swedes to go church, something around 1-2%. The group with the highest rate of religious activity are the Muslim immigrants. So maybe it's not unrelated because that means that religion doesn't enter into politics. How refreshing.

Our morning ride took us to a spot on the coast where the film was shot. We had a long presentation by a local guide that was completely boring.

We walked down toward the beach for a better look.

And there's a cave off in the distance of this picture where something of some significance happened. I wasn't paying much attention so I hope it won't be on the final exam. In my defense, I got weak in the knees looking at the precipitous drop off.

This was at least as interesting.

You had to bring your own charging cable, but wow - in the middle of nowhere! They were CHADEMO ports, so they wouldn't work on most cars in the US including Teslas.

They had an electric fence for these guys so why not put in charging ports.

Athough Sweden was neutral during WWII, they still had bunkers.

It was a short ride back to the hotel where we had lunch prepared by the kitchen staff.

Everything was compostable. The only difference was that Walter had chicken instead of tofu, and Mike had spam (or so he thought).

Since there was an additional (independent - read: unsupported) ride after lunch, Mike and I decided to do it right away since I was pretty sure that after lunch I was not going to want to get back on the bike after lunch.

The rest of the afternoon was unscheduled and since we were at a resort, a lot of people probably hung out at the pool. I took a nap. 

Here's some of the crowd by the pool.

Here's some more of the crowd at the hot tubs.

 

I also booked a massage. I need to find a person for massage at home because they are soooooo good. 

My masseuse was actually from Bosnia. She left at 17, so she is pretty Swedish now. She spoke fluently about Swedish culture. We didn't chat much in part because she had to work to come up with words in English that she wanted, but knowing that she was Bosnian meant she could speak at least three languages. That's two more languages than I speak.

• What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Tri-lingual.
• What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bi-lingual.
• What do you call a person who speaks one language? American. (cite: Walter)

Here's a picture of the spa. That's the ocean off in the distance.

The previous two pictures were also from the spa.

We had a dinner at the restaurant repaid by VBT. It was underwhelming. Walter and I agree that food is not a strong point of the Swedes.

Living on the wild side.

stats for the day: https://www.strava.com/activities/12008968484

some of the stats for the morning: https://www.strava.com/activities/12009358661

stats for the extra ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/12009358660