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Biking Norway, Finland snd Sweden 2022
Day 1, Monday, August 08, 2022
We woke up around 3:00 AM, took our time loading up and Marty gave me a ride to the airport. I was at the airport with plenty of time to spare. I was there around 3:50 AM and my flight departed at 6:00 AM. I had trouble checking in, they had to check me at the counter and since I had so many flights, they could not check my bags to my final destination. They checked my bags to Alta, Norway and I was to recheck my bags at Alta to my final destination of HVG (Honningsvåg, Norway Airport). It was tough, but I think it will work out better and reduce my risk of losing luggage. My flight to EWR (Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark, New Jersey) went smooth and was on time. Once at EWR I had tones of time and walk all over the place. They asked if I wanted my bags checked all the way to HVG, in Portland (PDX) they said I could only check my luggage to Alta and that seemed good, that way I could confirm I had my bags in Alta. At EWR they told me they could check my luggage all the way to HVG. I agreed, but then I was worried the bags might get left in Alta (From every I could tell, They did not retag my bags. I did not get new tags to track my luggage and I never physically saw my luggage since Portland). Lots of time and waiting, I realized I never bought a Lonely planet travel book for this trip. They did not have good travel books for Norway at the airport, so I had to wing it. My flight left EWR around 7:00 PM and was an all-night flight. I tried to stay awake for the entire flight so I would be able to sleep during the nighttime when I arrived in Norway. I did not end out with Jet Lag in Norway and adjusted to the time change immediately.
Day 2, Tuesday, August 09, 2022
I noticed SAS had a flight from Oslo to Tromsø. My flights took me from Oslo to Alta, another flight from Alta to Tromsø and then a final 3-stop flight from Tromsø to Honningsvåg (HVG). I wish I would have realized that I probably could have flown directly to Tromsø and then from there to HVG. In the future, I need to figure out how to travel to places like HVG. When I used Orbitz.com to fly from PDX to HVG, it would not figure out how to get me there. My google searches all said to go to Alta, but the only option I could find was a rental car to get from Alta to HVG. Using Orbitz.com I had to fly from PDX to Alta and then from Alta to HVG and then link the two flights. The total expected travel time from PDX to HVG was 32 hours 5 minutes (23 hours 20 Minutes + 3 Hours 35 minutes + 5 Hours 10 Minutes). My flights out of Tromsø was delayed, so the actual travel time was about 1.5 hours longer. Before leaving PDX, I bought Samsung Galaxy SmartTag, so I could make sure my luggage arrived in HVG. Throughout the airlines industry they were having big issues with luggage not making it to their final destinations. My SmartTag helped me confirm the bags arrived with me at each airport. Using my Samsung SmartThings app on my phone I could see my SmartTag (suitcase) was at the airport in Oslo (cool). On the flight to Alta the flight attendant asked what I wanted to drink, I said diet coke and after I opened the can, she said 35 Krone. I thought it was like all the other flights, free. I would have gotten the free coffee if I would have known they charged for the coke (after paying for the coke I found in the seat menu that the coffee was complimentary and sodas cost extra). In addition, the people around me had gotten coffee. I guess they already knew. They did not take cash on the plane, so I had to pay for the diet coke with my credit card. When I arrived in Alta it looked like my bags went to the baggage claim, I could see them unloaded from the plane and watched the cart of bags go towards the baggage area. I decided to leave the secure area of the airport and see if my bags were in the baggage claim area. Well, that is where they were. It turns out when they told me my bags were checked through to HVG in New York, they did not update the tags. I saw a bus at the airport headed to Honningsvåg and found I could have taken the bus from Alta and arrived earlier than my flight in Honningsvåg. The bus would have arrived in Honningsvåg at about 7:00 PM. I should have given up my flight and taken the bus. I would have arrived sooner in Honningsvåg on the bus. I figured the flight would be cool, but it would have been nice to get to Honningsvåg earlier. The flight was cool, lots of views of snow covered hills and ocean inlets. When I was trying to find a way to get to Honningsvåg during my travel planning before leaving Portland I could not find a bus to HVG, I wish I had found the bus option (I wanted to take a bus). I was able to get the woman at the airlines in Alta to recheck my bags and she put new tags on the bags and gave me new boarding passes. I really thought I should have taken the bus, since my luggage had to be rechecked anyway. I get too worried, I figured the flight would be good and I might get on some bad list if I did not board the plane to HVG. I walked into town and around, I found a store and looked for sandwich bread, but they only had little bread fingers (no loafs of bread in that store). There was a long line at the store and I really did not want that type of bread. Therefore, I skipped buying stuff at the store in Alta and returned to the airport. From the airplane, I could see patches of snow, so I assumed it was cold. Actually, the weather was comfortable in my short sleeve shirt. Well the flight was delayed in Tromsø and it caused me a lot of worrying. Then while I was looking at my email I found my North Cape tour the following day was canceled, I probably should have just rented a car from Alta for a couple of days and then drove places. The plane finally left and I arrived in Honningsvåg around midnight. I kept using my SmartTag to confirm my luggage was following me. The SmartTag is cool, I could check on each plane that my luggage was with me. Once in HVG the airport was empty, no taxis. I asked another person from my flight about taxis and they ended up giving me a ride to my hotel in Honningsvåg. I paid them for the ride, it might have been difficult to find another way to my hotel. Since my tour to Nordkapp had been cancelled, I needed to find a new way to get from Honningsvåg to Nordkapp. As I was checking into the hotel I asked about getting a tour to Nordkapp and found there was two different buses. I was told to go to the information center the next morning. The infoirmation center was supposed to open at 8:00 AM and I could get on a bus to NordKapp from there. I went to sleep at about 1:00 AM and slept great.
Day 3, Wednesday, August 10, 2022
I woke up around 6:00 AM, my alarm went off when I was sound asleep. I did not know my alarm was set, I could not get back to sleep. I wanted to sleep longer, I wished the alarm had not gone off. Since I could not sleep, I got up and had my hotel-included breakfast. At around 8:00 AM I was waiting for the visitor center to open so I could get a tour to Nordkapp and meet a man from Argentina that also wanted to go on the tour. I showed him the bus schedule on the window of the visitor center. Well, the visitor center did not open until after 9:00 AM and I was able to get a ticket on the tourist bus to Nordkapp that left at 11:15 AM. I walked around town and up the hill. The trail up the hill was closed, they were working on the steps of the trail. It looked like it would have been a great hike to the top of the hill behind town. I got far enough up the hill to get a view of town, that was the point where the trail was closed for maintenance. On the way back to the visitor center, I walked into a grocery store to see what they had and met a man from the hotel that was from North Carolina and he had been cycling in Norway. He said he had cycled to Nordkapp and that it was a difficult ride (very hilly). I returned to the visitor center and bought my ticket for the tourist bus to Nordkapp at the visitor center. By the time, I returned to the bus tour I had walked 8.25 miles. The bus tour was in a nice sprinter van with two other people and a guide. At the Nordkapp monument, I saw the person from Argentina I had met at the bus station in the morning and we talked. He thought I missed the bus, he was on the public bus and I paid a little more for the tourist bus. He said the public bus he had taken also only had two other people on the bus. The other two people in the Sprinter van tour I was on were from the cruise boat that had just arrived and they lived in the UK. We talked, the woman giving the tour stopped for views of reindeer and an authentic family home setting. The woman giving the tour was from the Netherlands and spoke great English. The woman running the tour explained the reindeer were owned and tagged. If someone hits a reindeer with their car, they are supposed to compensate the owner of the reindeer by paying them the amount for the meat of the reindeer. The tour leader called snowmobiles, show scooter. She called ski chair lifts, ski elevators. The woman scared me about riding legally through tunnels and said I should have a flashing light. I had forgotten to bring a flashing light, so I bought one. I was very tired that night, I went to sleep early (I think it was around 8:00 PM).
Day 4, Thursday, August 11, 2022
I woke up around 5:07 AM, I did not have a great night of sleep. I went to sleep around 8:00 PM and woke up around 11:00 PM. The rest of the night, I did not sleep great. I had my hotel-included breakfast at 6:00 AM and ate very fast. I had already completely packed, so I went to my room and got my stuff. I checked out of the hotel at 6:30 AM. Then I lugged my stuff to the bus stop and was waiting there by 6:33 AM to take the bus to Skaidi (right behind the hotel). As I was waiting a man was going to get on the bus with his bike, he told me he was part of a bike race that cycled from Italy to Nordkapp (The race started on 7/23/2022). He told me the first place person completed the ride 11 days ago (First place was Daniel Gottschalk (DE) - D 09 / H 03 / M 42; Distance ~3800 KM (~2361 miles)). The first place man averaged ~422 KM/ day (~262 miles/ day). The man with the bike at the bus stop told me 300 people started on the race and only about 200 people completed the race. When the bus showed up other cyclists came from the hotel and loaded their bikes on the bus too. There was probably about 10 bikes in the lower section of the bus. The bus showed up at 6:55 AM and I bought a ticket to Skaidi from the bus driver. The bus left at about 7:00 AM. There was no trees in the northern part of Norway and the scenery from the bus was great. By the time, we arrived in Skaidi there were little trees near the road. We had to switch busses in Olderfyord, I was confused and did not change busses. The bus driver told me a second time that I need to change buses and showed me which bus to board (I had two choices and picked the less crowded bus). I boarded the bus to Skaidi I guess they trust people here, when I changed buses they never checked to make sure I had a ticket on the second bus. It seemed like I could have easily taken the bus all the way to Alta. I assembled my bike and trailer at the bus station in Skaidi. I started cycling at about 7:47 AM. I forgot to find my gloves and went without my gloved for about 7 miles. The ride was close to flat, but there were headwinds. I arrived near Alta around 6:00 PM. I had a lot of trouble finding the city and then could not find a hotel. I bike a lot of back and forth looking for hotels. Once I found the hotels, they were too expensive or sold out. I ended out spending a lot of money for a room, at that point I thought I might want to campout until I arrive in Sweden. I found my GPS maps are not routable and had trouble figuring out my route. I had bought Europe GPS maps before leaving Portland, it looks like the maps did not include Norwegian countries or I was not using my GPS properly. I was up until about 11:30 PM working on stuff. (Daily bike miles 57.2 miles; total trip bike miles 57.2 miles)
Day 5, Friday, August 12, 2022
I had another bad night of sleep. I went to sleep at 11:30 PM, woke at 2:15 AM, ended up watching TV and tried sleeping again. I only half slept until 6:45 AM. Then I got my hotel-included breakfast at about 7:00 AM. I over ate in preparation of not eating again until late. I left my hotel around 8:30 AM. I ended out with a stomachache and had to take a bathroom break after about 8 miles. The ride had some tail winds, I got to one point with an 8% grade for 6 KM. It was not a bad hill climb, most of the hill was less than 6% and a small amount was nearly flat. For about the next 40 miles I gradually went up hill. I was following a river going up stream. I only got to about 1400 vertical feet and then gradually went downhill to about 1200 vertical feet. The rest of the day was flat but I was continuously gradually losing and gaining about 100 feet of elevation. The traffic was not too bad, but the road was not great for cycling (due to the very narrow shoulder). Most of the roads I traveled on this entire trip only had about 6” of shoulder, not great for biking. I saw one other cyclist going north (I was going south). I ended up camping for the night about 10 miles before Kautokeino. There were mosquitoes, good thing I had my tent. The ground I set my tent up on seemed level, but when I laid in the tent, I found the ground was soft with small bumps. I tried to go to sleep at around 9:00 PM, but it was cold and I did not sleep great that night. I did not have a sleeping bag, I had the synthetic blanket I had bought at Costco before going to Norway, 2 light coats, long pants and my rain gear on to try to stay warm. I was still cold and therefore did not sleep great. (Daily bike miles 70.16 miles; total trip bike miles 127.36 miles)
Day 6, Saturday, August 13, 2022
I stayed in bed from 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM. It seemed like I was not sleeping at all, I was very cold. I had my two coats on and I was wrapped in my synthetic blankets (Good thing I bought that blanket at Costco the day before I left for my trip). I did not think I slept at all, but I was not that tired in the morning, so laying there all night must have helped. I got out of my tent at 6:00 AM, packed my tent and gear. There were several mosquitoes swarming, but not biting, I guess the Deet really helps. I left my campsite by 6:39 AM. I cycled to Kautokeino and since it was Saturday, I figured nothing would be open. The gas station said it opened at 9:00 AM, it was 8:00 AM. They had a hose at the gas station so I filed up my water bottles. Then I went to the Thor Hotel and bought a bunch of snack/ junk food from the hotel. I figured that was all I could get that day before 9:00 AM in that town. Well, I continued biking and the town was bigger than I though. I found an open Reme 1000 grocery store and bought stuff there. I wish I would have skipped the expensive snacks at Thor hotel and just bought stuff at the grocery store. I had a sore butt and looked to see if I had brought biking shorts. No luck! I realized stuff I had forgotten to bring with me from Portland. I forgot biking shorts, flashing tail light, no travel book and chain lube (I found the chain lube in my toolbag a few days later.). I thought I had a good checklist. I saw several cool mushrooms in the northern part of the Norwegian countries. I made it to Enontekiö, Finland at about 6:30 PM (5:30 PM Norway time). I rode through town and found a nice hotel. It was set up for skiing; it seems so flat in that area, not sure where they downhill ski. My room had four twin beds. The internet was very slow at that hotel. I had a reindeer burger and fries at the nearby burger joint, it was very tasty. I worked on my journaling until about 10:00 PM and then went to sleep. (62.75 miles (38.92 miles in Norway and 23.83 miles in Finland); total trip bike miles 190.11 miles)
Day 7, Sunday, August 14, 2022
I woke up around 5:30 AM after my first great night of sleep since arriving in Norway (my first night in Finland). The hotel-included breakfast was not until 8:00 AM, so I repacked and worked on internet stuff until breakfast. The internet was very slow at that hotel, it takes about a minute to bring up Facebook, email is slow, but it did works. I arrived at breakfast a couple minutes early and several people were already eating. All previous hotels on this trip started breakfast no earlier than the stated start time. Oh well, if I had known I would have had breakfast earlier. After a large great breakfast (all the places I have stayed at so far had great all you can eat buffet breakfast (except when I went camping). I started cycling around 8:45 AM. I started slow and seemed to make good time. I was planning a short day. I took a long break at two gift shops in the middle of nowhere in a village called Sonkamuotka (between Palojoensuu and Muonio). Then I continued thorough Muonio (I missed the town, I saw part of it, I was expecting it to be a little further and then I noticed I was leaving Muonio). I saw a place a little out of town called Harriniva Hotels & Safaris and thought about seeing if I could get a room. However, it was only about 3:30 PM and I decided to continue until I found another camp area. I cycled a couple more miles and found a sign that showed what was around. It looked like there might be another place close to where I was; when I got there, it did not look like a place to stay. I liked the fact that Harriniva had a sign saying “best in wilderness”. I decided to ride the 3 miles back to Harriniva and found that it was closed (it looked like it might be permanently closed, maybe an effect of COVID). By then I was close to Muonio so I decided to try to get a room at the hotel I had seen at a gas station my first time past town, well it was full. They told me about a place with cabins, I went there and they only had one cabin left with a sauna (The cheaper cabins were all rented, at first she had me in a cheaper cabin, but could not find the key. She made a call to someone and found out the cheaper cabin had already been rented. I did not want a sauna and it was more expensive.
The sauna was full of stuff, it was used as a storage room at the cabin. I could not have used the sauna even if I wanted to use it. I guess the extra cost was justified, it was a big cabin with a restroom, kitchen and separated sleeping room.
However, I did not want to continue biking, so I took the room. I could have camped at the campground , but it was not that much cheaper. I felt I should not have ever turned back to see about getting a spot at Harriniva, not sure why that place was closed. Harriniva looked like a good place. I got groceries at a store near the campground and worked on stuff. I went to sleep at about 9:00 PM. (Daily bike miles 57.71 miles; total trip bike miles 247.82 miles)
Day 8, Monday, August 15, 2022
I woke up around 6:00 AM Finland time (5:00 AM Norway/ Sweden time) and took a little time getting going. I left the cabin at the campground at about 7:30 AM Finland time (6:30 AM Norway/ Sweden time) I biked good all the way to Kolari, Finland. I really only stopped at one fishing store near the river a long ways from any towns. I was in Kolari by about 12:20 PM Finland time. Once in Kolari, I bought souvenirs and food. I was not leaving Kolari until about 2:30 PM Finland time (1:30 PM Sweden time). I was slow and did not get to Pajala, Sweden until about 4:00 PM (5:00 PM Finland time). Once in Pajala I found a nice big hotel that was closed (Like Harriniva). Not sure why these places are closed, maybe it was closed due to COVID or were these hotels/resorts used for the winter. I rode through town and then to the campground where I found a cabin for the night. Nice quit place, mostly empty cabins. (Daily bike miles 68.31 miles (51.4 miles in Finland and 16.91 miles in Sweden); total trip bike miles 316.13 miles)
Day 9, Tuesday, August 16, 2022
I woke up around 4:50 AM and slowly got ready for the day. I was packed, left my cabin, used the restroom one last time and left the campground at about 6:00 AM. Very slight rolling hills lined with small trees in tundra, reindeer, lakes and rivers. Very much wilderness. I needed to travel several miles, so I did not stop for much. I did stop in the town of Korpilombolo of to get groceries. When I was there two women arrived that were from Finland and carrying camping gear. They were on a 4-day camping trip in the wilderness. I arrived at the Arctic Circle at about 2:15 AM. A Diesel Truck pulling a trailer was parked right in front of the Arctic Circle sign. That spot would have been the perfect place to get a great photo of me next to the Arctic Circle sign. As I was, maneuvering myself to get a photo of the Arctic Circle sign with my bike the trucker got out of his truck in his underwear to take a leak and then got back in his truck to sleep. I am sure he could tell I was trying to get a photo, if he was thoughtful he would have moved his truck forward a little. I managed to get fair photos by going in the grass to avoid the truck. The truck had something leaking out of the back that smelled very foul. The Arctic Circle was about 17 miles north of Överkalix. I then went south of the Arctic Circle. The previous 7 days I have been north of the Arctic Circle (in Norway, Finland and Sweden), for the remainder of this trip I was south of the Arctic Circle. I continued, about 10 miles before Överkalix I stopped and checked out the river at a nice rest stop. It had small cabins as outhouses and free firewood by the picnic table fire rings. I arrive in the town of Överkalix around 5:00 PM and got a camping site. The cabins at that campground seemed too expensive and did not have restrooms. It is a lot warmer in Överkalix than it was for my first campout. The campground had WIFI and I found a waterfront camp spot. I saw another man on a bike camping, he had started from Italy and cycled about 160 KM that day. He told me that I would not be able to bike on the main highway, he called that highway the Autobahn. He showed me that he had an app with the route he had to take on his bike. I think it was from www.opencyclemap.org. He was really moving, he expected to get to NordKapp in 5 days. After his ride, he would meet his family for vacation in Finland before returning to Italy. I worked on stuff and went to sleep around 10:00 PM. (Daily bike miles 74.15 miles; total trip bike miles 390.28 miles)
Day 10, Wednesday, August 17, 2022
I woke up around 5:00 AM, packed up and left camp by 6:00 AM. I kept thinking about how the cyclist from Italy said I would not be able to cycle on the highway in costal Sweden. Well things went smooth until I reached Tore (Sweden Coast), I tried riding the highway, but too many vehicles and no room on shoulder. Now that I was near the Sweden coast, the ride became a navigation challenge. A wide truck carrying a boat honked, I waited until he passed and I realized I would not fit on that part of the road with trucks like that (that section had guardrails and dividers between the bidirectional traffic – barely enough room for a truck, the one with the boat covered the small shoulder). The shoulders there was only about 6 inches, not a great place to cycle. I had only travel about 100 feet on the highway before turning back. I turned back right before the road narrowed with gaurd rails on both side of the one lane/ side highway. I used google and searched for bike routes, it put me on bad dirt road, which lead back to the highway. I was trying not to use my cell phone, I did not want to use up data and have a large international roaming cell phone charge. Well for the rest of the trip I would turn off airplane mode on my phone, use google to get direction, then put the phone back in airplane mode and work off line with the directions. I thought I was all set, I bought GPS maps for Europe before I departed the USA, but the GPS maps did not appear to include the Norwegian countries. However, I had figured out approximate biking route using google and printed the map segments before departing from the USA. Some of the google bike routes where on E4 and some of the routes avoided E4. It turns out that you are not allowed to cycled on E4 (part of google route), but I tried and found it was excessively dangerous. Therefore, I had to find alternate routes. This day was my toughest day of navigation so far on this trip. (I ended up on about 25% dirt roads). Most of the dirt roads are not bad, low traffic and scenic (it’s like going on a hike). I then cycled the highway to near Råneå and then I used my cell phone data with cell phone GPS to get me on a bike trail. Too bad my GPS maps I bought before my trip did not work. I bought stuff at gas station in Råneå, but two of my credit cards did not work. For the next day, until I tried my credit card again I was worried I might have issue getting money. I think they just did not know how to deal with my ID, since my passport only had nine characters and Sweden ID have 10 characters. They said that was the problem, not a problem anywhere else after that place. I took a paved road a long ways towards Boden, I was supposed to turn on a dirt road, but kept cycling. Then I noticed my destination was getting further, so I used my cell phone to find a route. I passed my turn by 2 miles, so I biked back to the dirt road and took the turn on the dirt road. It was getting late and I could not find camping. I tried one spot but the tundra was too uneven, then I tried another spot and it was just not flat, I continued to Skogså and found a park. I ended up setting up my tent in the park and it stated raining a lot. I got in my tent about 7:30 PM and did some journaling. I put the new AAA batteries in the travel clock, but it did not work. I have had the cheap travel clock for years, I guess it just died. I ended up trying a few more times to get the clock working, but eventually threw away the old alarm clock. I went to sleep around 9:00 PM and it rained hard for hours, things inside my tent even got wet. However, I did sleep well. It started out hot, humid, and about half way through the night it got cold and I had to but on my coat and rains pants to warm back up. (Daily bike miles 71.76 miles; total trip bike miles 462.04 miles)
Day 11, Thursday, August 18, 2022
I woke up around 5:00 AM, packed up camp and was cycling by 5:32 AM. Some of my stuff was wet from all the rain that night, the rain seeped through my rain flap a little bit. That was my rainiest day yet on my trip. There were many mosquitoes where I was camped, I sprayed myself with Deet and they did not byte me. My phone had used about 60% of it change the previous day by using it to navigate. I used my juicer to recharge my cell phone, it took over an hour to charge the phone. I cycled to Boden, but never went into town to check it out. I should have checked out town, since my dad graduated from Boden College in Maine. I did buy stuff at a store on the Boden town bypass highway with my credit card. They did not have trouble with entering my identification card (Passport number) at that store and the charge card work. That was a relief to know my credit card worked. I then continued to Alvsbyn and decided to take the detour to check out the town. It was a waste of time checking out Alvsbyn (I think Boden would have been a better town to check out), I continued to Piteå and checked the prices on the rooms at Kust hotel. The rooms were 1700 Krone/ night (~170 USD). I did not want to pay that much and asked if there was a cheaper hotels in the area. Then the woman at the Kust hotel desk said I could get a room at the BnB run by their hotel and that was only 795 Krone/night, the rooms even had private bathrooms and breakfast included from the expensive Kust hotel. I also asked the woman about biking on E4, she said it was against the law and I could be arrested if I tried cycling on highway E4. She looked up the route cyclist take to go south on the internet and helped me plan a route for the next day. I walked around town and then worked on this journal. (Daily bike miles 71.86 miles; total trip bike miles 533.9 miles)
Day 12, Friday, August 19, 2022
I woke up around 3:30 AM and only half slept until the morning. I decided to get out of bed at about 6:20 AM and packed up my gear. Then I went to the 7:00 AM Kust hotel breakfast. Breakfast was a good buffet, but not as good as previous hotels. I tried to exchange my Norway money at the bank for Sweden money, but they did not do money exchange at that bank. They told me about another bank down the road, but I could not find it. I ended up finding an ATM at the mall, but it did not work at first. Then I figured out how to get it to work, but the maximum I could withdraw was 1000 Krone, so I withdrew 1000 Krone from the ATM. When I was getting money there was an alarm that went off in the mall. I thought the alarm was because I did something wrong at the ATM. Then they made an announcement over the intercom to leave the mall there had been a fire reported in the lower level. I was in the lower level and did not notice anything that appeared to be on fire. I left the mall and went back to my hotel room. I packed up, checked out of the hotel and was on my way at about 9:00 AM. Google indicated a very steep hill on my route, so I figured I would not get far that day. Well, it was a gradual uphill, after about 50 miles I was at about 700 feet elevation (started at sea level). There were slight ups and downs after that, but no very steep hill. When I was leaving Piteå my cell phone route took me to a bridge that was under construction and they made me turn back. The man working on the bridge gave me direction on how to get around the bridge. I had been using my phone data to figure out route around the E4 autobahn. It was another challenging day. I followed the route the woman from the hotel helped me create when I was checking into the hotel the previous night. The ride went smooth. My cell phone route took me on a dirt road near Hemmingsmark, I think I should have taken the route through town it would have probably been paved, more interesting and about the same distance. I was only planning to go half way to Skellefteå due to my late start and the expected very steep hill. I kept going and ended up making it all the way to Skellefteå. When I arrived in Kåge, I ended up merging onto E4, google said there was not another route. However, I found a dirt road that went along E4, there was a sign and I thought it had something to do with the road being impassable. I cycled about 3 miles on the dirt road and finally found a paved road. I kept thinking I might end out on a dead-end road and having to cycle back. I was glade when I found the paved road and it lead me to a bike trail all the way to Skellefteå. It was my latest night of cycling yet on this trip, I arrived in Skellefteå at about sunset a little after 8:00 PM. I first checked out the campground, but no cabins and no one to register for camping at the reception desk. In addition, the campground appeared to be setup for campers and I did not see any tent sites. Then I went to town and noticed a Scandia hotel, I did not want to pay over $200 a night again. So, I looked for a hotel using Orbitz.com, I found a similar hotel for less and reserved a room. I could see the Scandia hotel, so I went there and asked if they could tell me how to get to the Quality hotel where I reserved a room. The woman at the desk of the Scandia hotel told me go to the church and turn right. It seemed like she indicated the hotel would be right near the church. I could not find it, then I asked someone and he did not know. Then I was going to ask at a restaurant, but they were too busy to talk to me. When I reserved the room, I could find it on the Orbitz.com map, but it did not give me the option to get directions. I finally decided to try to google the hotel name, well that worked and I got direction from google to the hotel. I was concerned about using up a lot of data and getting changed a lot by my cell phone company for international data roaming charges. Well, I did end up using about $120 worth of international data on this trip. After checking into the hotel, I walked around town, the hotel location was great. I did not go to sleep until about midnight. (Daily bike miles 73.17 miles; total trip bike miles 607.07 miles)
Day 13, Saturday, August 20, 2022
I woke at 6:40 AM, I thought I was getting up by 6:00 AM for the 6:30 AM breakfast. I fell back asleep a little before 6:00 AM. I then had my hotel-included breakfast. They had a good buffet (still not as good as the ones at the Norway hotels and the place I stayed at in Finland). It was a rainy morning, so I was not in a hurry to start riding. I walked around town for about 20 minutes then returned to the hotel, hardly anyone was walking around (it must have been the rain). I packed up my gear and left the hotel at 9:30 AM. I cycle the google bike route. It started following highway 364 and then the route changed a little, so I followed the google route (near Burtrask/ Bodbyn) and ended out on more dirt roads, I could have and should have stayed on paved highway 364. The route I took was about 50% dirt and 50% great low traffic paved roads. I stopped at an ICA grocery store in Bygdsiljum, I decided not to buy anything. The store had one teller and there was about 15 people in line waiting to pay. I did not want to wait in the long line so I continued cycling. There was a campground in town, but it was too early to stop for the day. The road then turned to dirt and then 4-mile of heavy gravel road that I mostly had to push my bike pulling the trailer. All the dirt road made it my toughest day of cycling yet for this trip. This was my lowest millage cycling day thus far on this trip and maybe the most tiring day of cycling for this trip. I stayed at Sanabadets campground which is about 4.1
Kilometers (2.6 miles) south of Botsmark. I asked campers how to register for camping and they showed me where to pay. No one was near the lake at the campground, so I set up my tent next to the changing room (Place to change into your bathing suit to swim in the lake). I figured I would need my tent to keep the mosquitoes out, so I set up my tent, put all my gear and bike in the changing room (since no one was around using the changing room). The people I asked about camping, had me over for dinner. They feed me great red wine, Swedish potatoes and pork meat dinner. It was a very hard day of cycling and the rain was starting again. I went back to my camp and was very tired. I decided to lay down in the changing room and there were no mosquitoes so I slept in the changing room for the night. I did not need to set up my tent after all. The forecast was for rain today and tomorrow then clearing for a few days, then rain again. When I went back to my tent after having dinner with the other campers, it started to rain. I went to sleep around 10:00 PM. I had set up my tent, but fell asleep in the changing room. (Daily bike miles 56.01 miles; total trip bike miles 663.08 miles)
Day 14, Sunday, August 21, 2022
It rained hard on and off all night. I woke up around 5:30 AM and was slow at getting up due to it still raining. I walked around and checked out houses near the campground. I felt like my arm muscles were sore from all the pushing I did the previous day. I left camp a little after 6:30 AM and the rain slowed to a trickle or less for about 3 hours. When I left camp I was not paying attention to my route, I stayed on the paved route and missed the turn to highway 364 (I think the turn was onto a dirt road). Then I stayed on the paved road past 2 more dirt road (turns suggested by my google map), but from looking at the google map I could tell the dirt roads ran parallel to my paved road. I stayed on the paved road to Bullmark and then found the road from there was paved to Umeå. I think my route was the best one, light traffic with paved roads most of the way to Umeå. Then I started getting on and off rain. Then it seemed to be hard rain and then light rain for the next few hour. I got soaked through even with my rain gear on. The water got into my plastic suitcase/ trailer and even got my notepad wet that was wrapped in plastic. I got to Umeå at about 1:30 PM and found the hotel I saw on Orbitz, I asked about the Orbitz cost for the room and they said I would need to reserve with Orbitz to get that price. I could not check in to my room until 3:00 PM, so I left my trailer at the hotel and cycled around. I checked out the train station and found I could not get a train ticket there, it seems like the only way to get train tickets is with a cell phone app. I cycled along the waterfront and got groceries at the Max ICA supper store. At that store it was a challenge paying, I needed help and I needed to register my passport at ICA to use my credit card to pay. I biked the waterfront back toward my hotel, but I missed the turn and had to turn back to find the hotel. Once in the hotel I totally unpacked and hung out my wet stuff. Then I tried to figure out what to do next, I was tired of trying to figure out how to navigate without the right maps. From looking at routes in google, it seemed almost impossible to find a legal route to Ornskoldsvik. And then continuing to Härnösand also appeared hard to avoid E4 per google. From google it appeared that south of Härnösand the cycling routes were easier to figure out. I decided I wanted to take the train to a place that would be easy to navigate again. However, I did not want to miss the High Coast of Sweden (recommended by the campers that feed me at Sanabadets campground). The lady at the hotel, told me the popular places were Skuleskogen National park for the forest and Skuleberget for the mountains. She also showed me where these areas were on a map. Both areas were located between Ornskoldsvik and Härnösand. However, she felt it might be hard to find a cycling route to the high coast attractions from Ornskoldsvik her home town and it might be easier to cycle there from Kramfors. She suggested looking up routes on google. When I looked up cycling routes on google, I could not seem to find a clear cycling route. I somewhat wished I would have only taken the train to Ornskoldsvik and figured out a route, but I decided to go to Kramfors instead. If I had spent more time at the High Coast, I probably would not have gone 1000 miles of cycling on this trip. I really wanted the 1000 miles, so I guess I did the right thing. This trip will probably be my last fully self-contained bike trip. After I retire, I think I want to go on group bike trips. However, those are more expensive than the type of trips I like. The woman at the hotel also told me that if I took an SJ train I would need to box my bike. However, she said I would not need to box the bike if I took at Norrtåg Train. I worked on email, Facebook and this journal until 10:00 PM. My hotel room had no windows. (Daily bike miles 50.84 miles; total trip bike miles 713.92 miles)
Day 15, Monday, August 22, 2022
I woke up around 6:20 AM and had my hotel included breakfast. I was having trouble figuring out what to do next. I thought I could rent a car and bike at various location from the car as I made my way to Stockholm. I tried to find rental cars on Orbitz.com. I could not find a car from towns in my area or one from places in the high coast area, so I decided against a rental car. Then I tried getting train tickets, but could not figure out how to add my phone number to the SJ train web site. I needed a phone number on the web site to use my credit card to buy a ticket online. I tried all the option I could think of to add my phone number (I tried +1 for the USA country code, dashes between phone number parts, 001 for the country code number, but the web site would not take any of the formats I tried). I then asked the woman at the hotel counter and she suggested just the + with all the other numbers without blanks. Her way worked and I was able to buy my train tickets on-line. However, I did not receive a ticket in my email and she said all I would need was the booking number. She also confirmed that since I selected a Norrtåg train that I would not need to box my bike. I went up to my room and found a second email with my train ticket. I saved it to my smart phone and figured out how to get to it before going to the train station. My train ticket was to go to Kramfors. I left the hotel around 9:20 AM. My train did not leave until 10:36 AM. I went to the train station to figure out where I would need to catch my train. It was easy, so I biked around town for about a half hour and then went back to the train station. There was a woman and family of three waiting to catch the train with their bikes. They were all French. The woman was separate from the family and she was going north. She said the dirt roads were OK, when I showed her my map, she commented that I needed a detailed area map to show the small roads. I had bought an all Sweden road map earlier in my trip. The woman told me about something you could get free at the bus station. I asked her if you could always get free doughnuts at the bus station, (that was what I thought she said) and she said that she did not know you could get free doughnuts at the train station. I never did figure out what she said you could get free at the bus station, I think it might have been using the bathroom for free. Most of the public restroom in Erope cost to use them. The man cycling with his wife and son told me they were cycling to Norrfällsviken. Then he would cycle with his family around that area and then to Harnosand. That sounded like a good plan, so I decided to do the same. While on the train I had my all GPS on (22x), but it was not finding the satellites, I found it worked better by the doors. Then I found if I held it just right it mostly worked from my seat, I think the GPS was only tracking about half the time while on the train. When we left the train station the cycling family passed me, (I was very slow pulling the trailer) and I did not see them again that day. I thought I would see them at the campground in Norrfällsviken. I kept thinking I should have only taken the train to Ornskoldsvik and cycled from there. The scenery was very good to Norrfällsviken, but not spectacular as I expected. I think the area near Skuleskogen Nation Park is spectacular and would have some great hiking. I really wanted to get 1000 miles of biking in on this trip, but I should have slowed down in this area, I think it might have been worth it. I was in the high coast area of Sweden and I believe it is one of the nicest parts of the Sweden coast. I figured since Norrfällsviken was considered part of the high coast that I would see spectacular fiords from that location. However, I did not see the fjords from that location. I did see some great inside passages and cool fishing villages. The ride was hilly and hard, the final destination campground was very nice with some great hiking trails. The campsite reception woman said they had four reserves in the area. I bought groceries at the campground and reserving a cabin. I thought I had a microwave in the cabin, so I bought a soup where you add water, heat it up in the microwave and wait a few minutes for it to get ready. However, there was no microwave in the cabin. I ended up taking the soup all the way to Stockholm. I ate the soup using hot water in Stockholm, but it never cooked and had crunchy noodles, but I did eat all of it. The campground has about 6 kilometers of hiking trails. I cycled to town and then to the trailhead. I locked up my bike at the trailhead and hiked most of the loop, but I was not positive it was a loop and hiked back the way I came back to my bike (the longer way back, when I saw the trail sign). I should have taken a map, then I would have known it was a loop trail and could have hiked the entire loop instead of turning back. I went back to my cabin and worked on my travel journal. I squished a mosquito in my cabin and it was full of blood. Probably the mosquito was biting me. By then I had a few mosquito bites. I originally thought I got the mosquito bites hiking, but believe the bytes were from that misquote in the cabin. No free WiFi at this campground, it cost an extra 65 krone and does not work in the type of cabins I rented. They said the WiFi only worked in the expensive cabin and even then, it cost extra for the WiFi. I worked on trip planning for the remainder of this trip and journaling until about 11:00 PM. (Daily bike miles 38.65 miles; total trip bike miles 752.57 miles)
Day 16, Tuesday, August 23, 2022
I woke up around 6:20 AM and cycled to Hägget trailhead at Norrfällsviken Nature Reserve (located at end of campground road). I hiked this trail to where I was the previous day. That completed the loop trail I started the previous day near the campground. The trial was nice with a cool viewing point. When you rent cabins at campgrounds in Sweden, they often provide cleaning instructions, per instructions I swept the floor, empty the trash and left the room practically ready for the next camper. I departed the campground on my bike at about 9:00 AM. I cycled up the hill and then down to the ICA store in Mjällom. It once again looked occupied but seemed closed. I went across the street from the ICA to eat and drink at a picnic table. While I was across the street, I saw someone enter the store, buy something and then leave the store. I went back over to the store and it still seemed locked shut. I was confused and looked closer at the door, I realized the handles was not to put the door open, but to push it open. I tried pushing the door and it opened. Now I believe it was open the previous day too. As I was packing my groceries in my bike trailer, I saw the family from the train the previous day come zooming down the hill and the kid yelled a hello to me as they zoomed down the hill. I waved, they waved back and were gone again. They were biking around the peninsula and I was originally thinking I would do the same. However, I changed my mind and decided to go to Ullånger. I wanted to see if I could catch a bus from Ullånger to the Skuleberget National park. Once in Ullånger I could not find a bus station. I probably should have asked someone. At that point, I decided to go with the miles and forget about Skuleberget National Park. It seemed like the only way to go back to Kramfors was over the hill or try cycling on E4. I went over the hill, it was a good dirt road with a lot of uphill. Overall, the ride was not that bad. Once over the hill I had paved road, my google route was trying to lead me onto E4 and over that highway bridge. I saw photos of the E4 Bridge on google previously and it did not look bike able. So I knew better than taking the E4 Bridge. Then I changed my google search to get me over the bridge to Kramfors. Once over the Kramfors Bridge I changed my google search to get me to Härnösand. Once close to Härnösand my google routed took me to E4, but I found roads near the highway to take. I had to refigure my route serval times before making it to Härnösand. At one point I was routed onto E4 without any options, I found E4 had a shoulder at that point and would have been tough to avoid, so I cycled a couple of miles on E4. When I got onto E4 I saw a no bikes sign going onto E4 in the other direction, but not in my direction, it might have been legal for bikes on E4 in the direction I was traveling for the short distance I took on E4. I made it to Härnösand at about 8:00 PM and found a room using Orbitz.com. It was expensive and a hug room. Maybe Orbitz.com did not work well for that hotel. I bought groceries and used my credit card, I did not have my passport with me at the grocery store (I had left it in my hotel room). I was able to use my Oregon Driver’s license as an ID for the credit card purchase at the grocery store. I went to sleep around midnight. (Daily bike miles 63 miles; total trip bike miles 815.57 miles)
Day 17, Wednesday, August 24, 2022
I woke up around 6:30 AM and went to the hotel included breakfast at about 7:00 AM. Then I biked the waterfront and other areas in Härnösand. There was a neat historic area with old logged cabins and a scenic trail, Lövhällan trail. I then cycled back to the hotel I was staying in and checked out of my room. I left the hotel at about 10:15 AM. The ride had great paved roads without any traffic, but was a lot of uphill for the first half of the trip. I finished my electrolyte additives I brought from Portland. Once in the town of Sundsvall I got a room at the Quality Hotel, I paid on Orbitz.com, but my reservation took an hour to show up. This was the first time on this trip that I ordered a room on Orbitz.com and had to wait before they received my reservations. I bike around town for about 2 hours waiting and when I returned to the hotel, I was able to get my room. (Daily bike miles 57.31 miles; total trip bike miles 872.88 miles)
Day 18, Thursday, August 25, 2022
I woke up around 6:10 AM and went to breakfast a little after 6:30 AM. I left the hotel around 7:00 AM and started biking. The roads started out with a slight uphill grade and then it went to dirt with a steeper uphill grade. About half way through the ride it started gradually going down and the downhill road was still dirt for a short time. Not long after that, it was a paved road for the rest of the day. I normally carried three liters of water and had plenty left over at the end of the day. On this day, I only took two liters of water. Since it was a little warmer day with all the uphill, I used my first liter of water up in no time at all. Then I was concerned about getting more water, the towns were too small for any types of stores. When I came to Bergsjö I decided to go into town and I was able to find a store. It was very crowded (two lines with at least 10 people in each line), but I felt I needed fluid. Somehow, I was able to get into one line that suddenly got shorter, but grew quickly behind me. I got through the long line in less than 15 minutes. I think the school had just gotten off and that was why the line was so long. It seemed like as I was leaving the line was shrinking. After getting supplies at the store, I continued on my way. There was a lot of road construction, I probably cycled about five miles of road construction (dirt road with people flagging you through the one lane bi-directional section of the road construction). I noticed my google route was a little off from where I was riding on the road and when I lined up with my route, I ended up on a bike trail that ran parallel to the road with construction. On the correct bike trail route, I was able to avoid the road construction. I cycle slowly pulling a trailer on my small bike. I did not arrive in Hudiksvall until a little after 6:30 PM. I reserved a room at the Quality Hotel using Orbitz.com. When I went to check in to the hotel, they said it would take 30 minutes before they would receive my reservation from Orbitz.com. The previous night was the first time I had this issue. This was only the second time on this trip my Orbitz.com hotel reservation was not immediately available after I reserved the room. It happened that both times was when I was reserving a room at a Quality Hotel (i.e: the name of the hotel was "Quality hotel"). However earlier in my trip, I reserved a room at a Quality hotel without a noticeable delay (However, that time it took me about 20 minutes to find the hotel). I cycled around for 1.5 hours and returned to the hotel, they still did not find my reservations. I gave the hotel reception woman my confirmation number and she went in the back room on the special computers and consulted someone. She was finally able to confirm my room and I was able to check into my room. (Daily bike miles 67.43 miles; total trip bike miles 940.31 miles)
Day 19, Friday, August 26, 2022
I woke up around 6:27 AM when my cell phone alarm went off. Then I had my hotel-included breakfast. A fair buffet breakfast, not quite as good as most of the previous breakfast buffets. I packed up, checked out of the hotel and was cycling by 8:17 AM. This day’s ride was short and mostly flat. The roads where good most of the time. The roads often even had a shoulder on this day, something I rarely saw in the Norwegian countries. I made it to a Ljusnefors campsite around 4:00 PM and rented a cabin. The cabins were not as nice as one I rented previously (these ones where older and not as well maintained). However, these cabins where the cheapest cabins yet. I biked around the Ljusne area after getting into my cabin, not much to see, except some old stone buildings. In addition, no place to buy groceries, there was a gas station with a sign saying store closed on 5/22. I was able to get an ice cream at the campground. By this time in my trip, I had cycled about 990 miles. I wanted to cycle at least 1000 miles. Once I exceeded 1000 miles, I would take a train to Stockholm. Therefore, I figured that the next day would end with a train ride to Stockholm. I worked on stuff and felt really tired that evening. I went to sleep at about 10:00 PM. (Daily bike miles 49.96 miles; total trip bike miles 990.27 miles)
Day 20, Saturday, August 27, 2022
I woke up around 6:17 AM and filled up my trailer tires (I noticed they were low. First time I used my pump on this trip, the rubber was stuck so I had trouble getting my pump working). It was wet outside and I think it had just stopped raining when I woke up. I thought I had heard the rain earlier in the morning. The rain seemed to have mostly stopped for the day, there was some humid times, but no real rain for the rest of the day. That day had a forecast of 85% chance of rain, so I would say I lucked out! I stopped at a store in Bergby and a guy told me how his son was planning to bike the Great American Rail Trail. I was not aware that such a bike trial existed, he showed me the map on his cell phone. The trail goes from New York City to Astoria. When I looked up the trail online, I found about 52% of route was rails to trails. did not stop and start in the same location as the online route. Maybe his son was planning a modified route. Someone once told me about the trail, but I did not know it was a completed route. I assume parts of the route are hard to follow since only 52% of the trail is complete. I might have to ride it someday. The man was thinking about going to support his son as he cycled the Great American Rail Trail. I told him he should go to support his son and I told him I believed it would be a lot of fun for him too. He told me that he once rode a motorcycle from Dalia, India through Pakistani and Iran. At 11:20 AM my bike trip odometer turned over (it went from 999.99 to 0.00). That meant I certainly had at least 1000 bike miles for this trip. The actual miles on my GPS were slightly higher. I have only had the GPS on my bike since resetting it in Skaidi at the beginning of my ride and have been recording my entire route with the GPS. I believe the GPS miles are probably more accurate. My bike odometer is probably not properly calibrated. That day’s ride to Gävle was easy. I arrived in Gävle around 3:00 PM. I found the train station and bought a ticket for the 5:04 PM train to Stockholm. Then I biked around and then back to the train station by 3:30 PM and went to disassemble my bike. I found I had lost the Allen wrench that came with my Bike Friday. It was there the previous day. I also could not find the one I thought I had brought to originally assemble the bike. I found the one I used to assemble my bike with my Smart Tag the next day. A lady tried to help me get an Allen wrench. But we had no luck. I figured out how to get the bike most of the way into the suitcase. I was glade to finally pack the bike in the suitcase, I was tired of pulling the trailer with my bike. However, the hotel I reserved in Stockholm was about a mile from the train station in Stockholm, so when I got to Stockholm, I assembled the bike and pulled my suitcase (trailer) to the hotel. I also pulled the suitcase (trailer) back from the hotel to the train station on my last day in Stockholm. When I went to get on the train in
Gävle, there was no train car #6, where my reserved train seat was located. Another lady had the same problem, we asked the conductor and he told us the missing train car #6 was a mystery to him as well. The conductor told us we should just pick a seat on the train cars that were there. I was able to get on the train with my less than perfect bicycle packing job. While on the train I used orbitz.com to reserve a room for three nights in Stockholm. I took the one that was further from central station and cheaper. It was a Best Western Hotel so I assumed it would be a great room. Well, it was a lousy hotel, no desk in the room, no storage for my stuff, no window and way too small. The elevator was the only choice to get up to my room. All the stairs in the hotel were closed. The hotel reception woman thought the stairs were open, but they were marked off with police tape. The breakfast room was crowded in the morning and no place to work on my computer. It was not a great hotel with respect to COVID precautions. I wore my mask when on the elevator, in the halls and when getting my breakfast in the morning. I worked on stuff and went to sleep at around midnight. (Daily bike miles 47.94 miles; total trip bike miles 1038.21 miles)
Day 21, Sunday, August 28, 2022
I woke up around 7:07 AM and got my hotel included breakfast. The Best Western hotel definitely did not have precautions to prevent getting COVID-19. The breakfast area was packed and had barely enough room to get around, the stairs don’t work and you must use the elevator to go between your room and the breakfast room/ hotel reception desk. After breakfast I cycled to find the Hop-On Hop-Off bus stop from the map I got from the hotel. Then I biked part of the route and found someone selling the Hop-On Hop-Off tour. He had the actual bus route (but not all the detailed roads and names) for the Hop-On Hop-Off tour and he gave me a copy of that map. So, I followed that route on my bike as best I could. Sometimes I was a little unsure of the route, then a Hop-On Hop-Off bus would drive past me and I would follow the bus for a few blocks. I did pretty good at figuring out and cycling the full route of the Red Sightseeing Stockholm Hop-On Hop-Off bus. I decided I would take the Red Sightseeing Stockholm Hop-On Hop-Off bus the following day. That day had a 90% chance of rain all day in Stockholm. The weather was threating all day, but stayed dry until about 3:00 PM. Then it started raining, so I had lunch at a covered picnic table and the rain kept coming down, eventually the roof over the picnic table started to leak. I prepared everything for the rain and then finished cycling the last few stops of the Red Sightseeing Stockholm Hop-On Hop-Off bus route in the rain (stop 16 and 17). The rain slightly let up before I left the picnic table, but did steadily rain until I got back to my hotel around 5:00 PM. By that time, I was soak through. I changed into dry clothes in my tiny room and then walked around until about 7:00 PM. Then I journaled and look up the Hop-On Hop-Off tour details. I paid for the boat and bus portion of the Red Sightseeing Stockholm Hop-On Hop-Off tour for the next day. I did not notice they had a premium tour that also included the Royal bridges and Canal route. I went to sleep around 11:00 PM that evening. (Daily bike miles 25.46 miles; total trip bike miles 1063.67 miles)
Day 22, Monday, August 29, 2022
I woke up around 7:17 AM, slowly had breakfast, my Red Sightseeing Stockholm Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour did not start until 10:00 AM (I had bought my tickets on-line the previous night). I left my hotel a little after 9:15 AM, was going to be early for the stop 18, so I decided to look for stop 1. I believe that was where the first 10:00 AM bus starts (per what the man said the previous day). A Red Sightseeing Stockholm Hop-On Hop-Off employee tried to help me quickly get to spot 1, then he saw a bus coming around a corner and we went back to spot 18 where I boarded the bus. He had a tracker for the buses, he told the driver his bus was not being tracked by the GPS on his Red Sightseeing app. I showed the bus driver my ticket and he barely looked at it. The guy that helped me find the bus said he already looked at my ticket. The bus was not crowded until we reached the Viking Line cruise ship stop, then the bus mostly filled up. I noticed people from the cruise line with their KN95 masks on, so I put mine on for COVID protection, seems like most people are not worried about COVID-19 in Norwegian countries. I rarely saw people wearing their COVID-19 protection masks. The bus did not seem as much fun as biking. I got off the crowded bus at stop 8 and took the boat part of my Hop-On Hop-Off tour. The bus seemed boring. The boat was much better. I feel I got my best photos from the boat. I noticed they had a platinum tour the included the Royal Bridges and Canal tour. I wish I would have notice that when I bought my tickets. I did notice they had the Royal Bridges and Canal tour, but I originally did not realize it was in Stockholm. I need to slow down and look at the details before buying my tours. I ended up paying an additional payment for the Royal Bridges and Canal tour at a slight discount (about $1.6 USD), but that was still $8.00 USD more than if I had originally paid for the platinum package when I bought my tickets the previous night on-line. No big deal, I went on that Royal Bridges and Canal tour and it was in my opinion the best of the Hop-On Hop-Off tours, they offered. The Royal Bridges and Canal tour was monitored for your ticket. I do not think it was a Hop-On Hop-Off tour. It was a once around the canal tour. The ticket they sold to me was scanned in when getting on the boat and the last stop (same as first stop) they made everyone get off the boat. That tour also had a specific time, that tour had more information and your tickets were needed. After the Canal tour I finished my Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour, again the guy on the bus barely looked at my ticket when I got back on the bus. There is no way he could have told the date or details of my ticket on my phone when I showed him as I was getting on the bus. The Hop-On Hop-Off bus/boat seemed very trusting. After the bus tour I walked Dottninggatan street and bought souvenirs. I saw the couple that tried to help me find an Allen wrench in Gävle. I said hello and we quickly talked. They needed to get going to their next stop soon. At the shops on this road the venders kept an eye on customers (at least me), my guess is there is shop lifters in this area. Normally everyone is very trusting in Sweden. One guy really watched me, I think he was surprised when I bought a couple of things from his shop. I walked back to my hotel via Dottninggatan street and got my bike. At that point it was about 5:00 PM and there were lots of bike commuters. I took a few videos with my camera and posted one on Facebook. There were not as many cyclists as Amsterdam, but still a lot. I cycled to an area with high cliffs that I saw from the boat on the old town island in Stockholm. I walked my bike down stairs and got stuck in a commuter bus terminal. I saw a sign that said no bikes on roads leaving bus terminal area. I asked a man working there and he said I would have to go back up the stairs and find some bridge to get to the nearby road where I could see serval cyclists. I cycled for miles looking for a way down to that road, I finally gave up. Then I cycled to the trails I saw on Djurgården Island from the Royal Bridges and Canal tour. They were great hiking/ biking trail on Djurgården island. That area was an intercity wilderness park. I then had to find my way back to the hotel, I did good. I got back to the hotel about 15 minutes before sunset. Then I bought food from 7-11 for dinner, took the food back to my hotel room to eat and worked on my journal. I packed my stuff, prepared a posting of photos for Facebook and worked on my journal until late. I went to sleep at about 1:00 AM. (Daily bike miles 16.13 miles; total trip bike miles 1079.8 miles)
Day 23, Tuesday, August 30, 2022
I woke up around 7:30 AM, took my laptop to breakfast and worked on sending the big Facebook posting I worked on the previous night with all my Stockholm photos. It was way too hard to do computer work in my room, no desk and no room to move. Horrible hotel, not even a common place to work on stuff. It was the worst Best Western Hotel I have even visited. Maybe it was just my room that was small. It seemed like my room might have been a closet converted into a room. It took a while to get my stuff ready to leave the hotel. I did not leave the hotel until almost 11:00 AM. Good thing I found and marked the Arlanda Express train stop with a GPS wave-point the previous day. I had to use the GPS wave-point I created the previous day to find the Arlanda express train terminal. I cycled around looking at the wave-point until I zeroed in on the train stop. Then I disassembled my bike at the train station and put it in the suitcase (bike trailer). I bought a train ticket and was told it was the first stop at the airport, the train said there was only 2 stops. I was expecting a Central stop, but I think that is for the commuter train (not the Arlanda Express train). I got off the train at the first stop and found my way to my hotel. I checked into my room, I was surprised that they let me into my room, it was not check in time yet (3:00 PM was check in time). Then I went to my room and used my computer to check in for my flight the next day. Then I walked to where I would need to check in my bags for my flight in the morning to see if I did everything right, I was told I was probably OK and just need to return 3 hours before my flight tomorrow. I walked around more at the airport and got prepared for my flight home. Such a nice hotel compared to previous night’s Stockholm room. I walked all over the airport, worked on journalling and watched TV. I ended up going to sleep at about 10:00 PM. (Daily bike miles 1.75 miles; total trip bike miles 1081.55 miles)
Day 24, Wednesday, August 31, 2022
I woke up around 5:00 AM, had my hotel included breakfast, lugged my luggage from my room to the airport (only about .5 miles, seemed long with all my stuff), checked in for my flight, paid for luggage and departed to Chicago (ORD) at about 10:20 AM. I stayed awake for all my flights, I wanted to get home tired and go to sleep at a normal time for Portland. I hoped this would prevent jet lag (I was back to normal almost as soon as I got home). I normally am not affected by jet lag, by either staying up or going to sleep at the destination night time. I worked on my journal a lot during my flight, I started from the beginning and did the first proof read and updates. The flight leaving Chicago was slightly delayed due to required plane maintenance. Once back in Portland I added the wheels to my suit case to make it easier to get my stuff home from the Rosa Parks MAX Station. I took the max to Rosa Parks MAX Station and walked to my house from there. I went to sleep at about 10:00 PM. (Daily bike miles 0 miles, Total bike miles 1081.55, Total ground transportation 302 miles. Total trip miles 1383.55 miles)
Day 25, Thursday, September 1-8, 2022
I took off work on Thursday and Friday. I went on a meetup hike at 9:30 AM Thursday and the Mazama Ramble at 6:00 PM. Friday, I did not do anything. Saturday through Tuesday I was at mason lake visiting my brother and his family. I did not go back to work until Wednesday (after Labor Day).