Day 9: 7/30/24

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 and this one was a long shot.

But if you're smarter than me, you probably realized it was a bike shop that did bike repairs. It was a garage with a couple of work benches.

Bastad is home of the Swedish Open. It just concluded where Borges beat Nadal. The women play in August.

It was a short ride to our next stop and we had an hour to get there, so we circled back to Bastad in search of a coffee shop. We found one right on our route but the owner was Thai and I had a hard time explaining that I needed dairy-free. It turns out they could make instant hot chocolate with a splash of soy milk. I declined.

There were some complicated logistics for the rest of the day and we cut it a little too close to be on time for the tour of the Norrviken Gardens. It is allegedly the second most beautiful garden in Europe. We never found out what the most beautiful garden was.

Here's our tour guide. I think I heard someone in our group say: "the longest hour of my life".

It is in fact quite pretty if you like highly manicured grounds. Here's the main walkway.

The main building.

A side exhibit.

Here are the boys listening intently.

Here's one of the groundskeepers.

Group photo!

We needed to drive to our next hotel. The same bus and driver that met us in Copenhagen met us here and drove us to the Toftaholm hotel. Because the guides were trying to keep everyone comfortable, Walter and I rode in the van with Permilla and everyone else and the luggage were in the bus.

Here's the van loaded up.

It was a two-hour drive, a little longer in the van because it could only do 80 kph with a trailer. Permilla also missed an exit while I was sleeping. At one point she said she was getting tired, so I suggested blasting Swedish pop. I was hoping this picture showed what was on the touch screen but the lighting was bad..

Nonetheless, she was groovin to the beat.

Our next hotel is also listed as a nature preserve.

Here's what the place looked like. There were multiple buildings that looked like this. Very quaint.

When is the last time you saw this? An actual key!

When we arrived, we moved into our rooms and a few minutes later, the bus arrived. Since we usually don't get to see this happen, I thought it was fun to show the army of teenagers climb into the bowels of the bus and haul luggage to the correct rooms.