July 19, 2023
Falkenberg to Frillesberg, Sweden (July 19, 2023)
Some Days are Just Like That
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One thing about a longer term cycling trip: you can’t be on a trip for two and a half months and have it feel like vacation all the time: it really is just living, with all the ups and downs that living involves. Today was a bit like that.
We had to make an early start because we had one of our biggest days ahead of us — 70 km - so we committed to get on the road by 9 am (which turned out to be 9:15 am, which was pretty good for us). Weather forecast was generally good.
I know that after this trip is over and people ask me what I remember about Sweden, there are so many good things: beautiful wildflowers, tidy properties, friendly Swedes, mussels, oysters, pickled herring, a well-coordinated bike route, and a ton of other cool stuff. But what I will remember is the WIND. It is just unrelenting. Today we experienced it in full force all day. Perhaps after five days of riding in it we were just bored with it, but it was an emotional struggle on this day. It was really too bad, because we rode through some lovely country and the town of Varberg, our lunch stop, looked like an interesting place to stay. It has a castle and impressive fortifications and a high tourist appeal. We stopped for an early lunch there at a terraced restaurant overlooking the ocean. It was too windy for us to sit outside (many Swedes did) but we enjoyed our Swedish version of a schnitzel inside with a nice view out to the ocean. The schnitzel had gravy on top of the veal cutlet, and came not with frites but with a healthy tomato salad. (Of course we blew the health angle of the salad by purchasing a beer and a bag of Parmesan chips to go with it!) It was a good break and we got back on the road for the final 30 km to Pension Frillesberg in Frillesberg.
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Honestly, Pension Frillesberg turned out to be one of my lamer accommodation choices (and I have already had a few to put on the Lame List). It is an old house with maybe 11 rooms but it was just dumpy. The somewhat unkempt yard, which could be nice if it were in better shape, looked worse because they had construction equipment sitting there as they are supposedly doing repairs to the facade. Everyone in Sweden is always tending their gardens so this really was an outlier. They had a shed for our bikes that had a couple of electrical outlets but in keeping with the overall lameness factor, they didn’t work. Dave started hunting around the exterior of the house to find outlets so he didn’t have to lug our batteries upstairs. No luck, none worked. In our room (tiny with twin beds) there was one free outlet and we created another by unplugging the tv. He wound up recharging our batteries down the hall and downstairs in the foyer. (I know, I know, this is first world drama). The ultimate whine for Jill was the fact that the room did not have a blow drier. The positive: the proprietor sold Dave a beer, and the room cooled down once we opened the window. We also talked to two nice Norwegians doing the Kattegatte-Leden in the same direction as we were.
Lame being the order of the day, there was one open restaurant in the entire town. Frillesberg didn’t even have a bar. The restaurant was the kind of random pizza place that had dubious pizza toppings, as well as burgers, kebabs etc. (So, not exactly an authentic pizza joint….) The “salad bar” had one salad - a sauerkraut kind of thing. We had a ham pizza and ordered a bottle or wine - the bottle Dave asked for had a cork and the guy at the counter couldn’t find the corkscrew (an indication of how much wine they sell) so he selected a screw top varietal instead. (Lesson learned: always carry your corkscrew with you when you travel to obscure parts of Sweden). The restaurant had a nice deck but as you have already heard on numerous occasions, it was too windy for us to sit outside. Afterwards, we had a hankering for an ice cream but the google-search identified the nearest ice cream parlor to be in the next town (5 km away), so we came up with the brilliant idea to visit the grocery store, where we were able to purchase an acceptable ice cream delight. I think I was just determined to be cranky!
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 737 km (458 miles)
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