Day 4. Rumma to Norrköping.

I made it to the east coast. You tend to do that when you RULE. Read more and see pictures by clicking on the link below.

I got an early start around Rumma. The first half hour of biking was on a nice lake. Pretty!

And then the wind started. Holy crap. I was beaten back - every time the road changed direction, so did the wind to make sure I was getting the full headwind. I stopped in Valla as the church bell rung and set my digital camera clock to it. 11:00AM after an hour or so of biking? I DID get a head start, and more importantly, without a power-able cell phone, I now had a means of knowing what time it was. No more guessing to see if I’ll get into a town before the ICA closes. I also had a bite to eat and waved at a very old gentleman totally killing it on a rad 70’s steel road bike. Never did catch up to him.

The “cycle route” I had found myself on told me, counterintuitively, to go the opposite direction that my map said. Fuck that cycle route sign. From Opphem, it led me on a 20km scramble on a crappy dirt road in the middle of nowhere, with small hills so rolling that I felt like I was on the Pukemaster ride at the county fair. AND the wind wasn’t letting up. At one point, I liked the hills and trees enough to take a picture.

And then I reached a paved road after Sätra, just happy that I didn’t have to patch any tires.

The countryside finally turned from pine forest into one of a more oaky variety around Björka-Saby, with nice streams and houses and rivers.

I didn’t get to enjoy it too much, because the road was really busy and there wasn’t much shoulder. Disconcerting. Either way, after a while I made it into Linköping. It’s a classy town as you can see. I can’t believe this car exists.

I proceeded to get my ten dollar hamburger. It was OK, but had some strange spices on it that I couldn’t place. I walked around town for a little bit.

Linköping is fairly unimpressive except for the very nice library. I couldn’t find any maps of Södermansland, which I’d need the next day, though. Here’s the library.

The average age inside the library was 108. And that was with my 24 years bringing down the average.

Forget God, knowledge is the real alpha and the omega! Go books!

There are also some neat bike services around town. These are the interesting bike racks outside the library:

Here’s a free air pump, just hanging out by the train station.

Here’s a bike sensor counting the number of people riding by. 1217 riders by 2PM!

Overall, people don’t seem as friendly here as in the smaller towns (outside of a nice old lady asking me about my trip at the library), even to strangers covered in sweat and dirt, so I decided to keep moving. This is where the wind sucked. At one point I had to pedal in the small chainring to go DOWNHILL. It wasn’t too pretty either, just flat farmland.

What do you do when you live in the middle of a wheat field outside of Sweden’s 7th largest city? TOTAL GANGSTA GRAFFITI TAGGING, HOMEY.

I rode through Gist(ad). I really hoped the town would be cooler.

Finally I reached this perplexing sign. Linköping is… where? How far? Which way?

Here’s a rad water tower. I was focusing on big shiny things on the horizon because the wind was killing me and the scenery wasn’t too scenic, and gigantic metal things were the only beacon to keep me going in my bad mood. When I reached the hill it was perched on, some of the wind was blocked and let up a bit.

Here’s the Göta Kanal. It goes the long way across Sweden via a complicated system of locks. It’s like the Panama Canal, except the associated palindromes aren’t as catchy.

Totally cruised into Norrköping. Here’s the town. Kinda nice.

Art Museum. (closed).

Nice library - from one side, it reminded me of the library in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Street view.

I decided to spring and get a hostel bed. I paid the bartender(!) at the bar below for a bed in a 5-bed room ($50! think about that!), took a shower, and then paid the bartender 10 dollars for a beer (!). And then 12 dollars for a whiskey coke (!!). Who do they think they are, Stockholm? I found a pizzeria that was open and talked with an old immigrant guy in Swedish about pizza and some old restored boat that had just landed in Norrköping. The only other store that was open was a candy store, so I picked up some candy and the following ice cream bar which will probably not ever be imported to the US.

Why does a bed in a hostel cost $50? Because you pay for elegance. Look at the chandelier!

And here’s my room. Guess what? Nobody showed up, so I had a decent sized hotel room to myself, for about the same cost as a shitty US highway motel room.