July 20, 2023
Frillesberg, Sweden to Gothenburg, Sweden (July 20, 2023)
A Better Day
Today was better. We slept well and hard in our little twin beds; the extra riding helps with that. We ate breakfast and were on the road by 9:30 with another long day ahead and the last day of the Kattegatte-Leden Trail. The weather forecast was iffy so we dithered on what to put on, which has been our pattern all week. We dither a lot….sometimes I’m amazed we ever actually manage to set off in the morning.
The wind was there but a little less intense and we enjoyed the ride for the first hour until we got some moderate rain. I had time to pull on my rain pants and it was okay because it wasn’t a deluge. (First travel tip: rain gear isn’t helpful if you don’t have it on). Twenty minutes later however, we got the deluge. I had been having trouble as my hood never stays up in a headwind but Dave fiddled with it and I now know what I was doing wrong . (Second travel tip: your rain gear’s performance improves greatly if you have it on the correct way). During the deluge we approached the town of Kungsbacka, pulled into a bus shelter and made the quick decision to stop for coffee and dry out. (Third travel trip - especially for Sweden- always do some research beforehand to have some ideas of where you can get out of the rain).
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Our coffee stop, Kaffeebaren, was a gem and was packed due to a number of cyclists being in a similar boat, ie: soaked. We had a long stop over and tried to dry things out a bit. We talked to a nice woman from Germany who was cycling solo. She had cool equipment including some handy Vaude over-the-shoe rain booties. When we asked how well they worked she started laughing and said they worked great if you get them on in time, which she hadn’t. (Refer back to first travel tip above). I think we may look to purchase some of those booties in Gothenburg. In fact, we are carrying Showers Pass neoprene socks that work great but - refer back again to first travel tip- neither one of us had thought to put them on this morning. We rode the rest of the day in wet socks.
Dave: I was the one who felt that the booties would be better for us. The Showers Pass socks served us well last year in the cold rain, but they're like a wet suit. They don't keep your shoes or your feet dry. They will keep them warm. The weather was relatively warm on this trip so cold feet weren't a problem, but wet socks and shoes were. I was hoping a waterproof covering, like the system the young German woman had, would be a better choice for us.
After an hour and with some nice sunshine, we gathered up our gear and rode 17 km to our identified lunch spot: Aloha Poke Bowl in Billdal. (My reconnaissance had revealed limited options, it was a poke bowl place or another bakery for lunch). In fact, the poke bowl place turned out to be great. It was guarded by Kinsa, a gentle, sweet pitbull puppy, and is run by a couple of guys from Iran. It was excellent and our salmon poke bowl came with miso soup which was delicious on this chilly day. We had a very nice visit with them and we’re sorry we forgot to do a photo, especially of Kinsa! We also visited with another local solo cyclist and he said the wind usually runs the opposite way from what we have been experiencing, so this is very unusual. Lucky us!
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I forgot to mention that we had some elevation today, all of 1400 ft, which is probably more than the whole rest of the week combined. We really enjoyed it and had some fun, gentle descents. We rode through the middle of two golf courses in the afternoon. In keeping with the “Swedes are hardy” theme, nobody uses a golf cart, but they carry or pull their clubs. Impressive. Plus they golf in windy weather….
The trip into Gothenburg was fun. It’s a big city but the cycling lanes were great. At one point Dave was stopped by an elderly British cyclist who was earnestly studying his maps. He and has wife were lost. They had about a dozen 8 by 12 maps printed out in a big lump of wet paper. We asked them where they were going and offered to find it on our phone but NO, NO NO, they didn’t know where they wanted to go and didn’t want to look at our phone! At one point we offered to lead them into the Centrum, as we were going that way, but they (he, actually) refused, being convinced that the center was in the opposite direction. We tried to show them on the phone but they refused again. We finally gave up and wished them luck and goodness knows where they landed. (I will need to remind myself of that couple the next time we're feeling hapless).
Two minutes later Dave stopped to take a photo of a cute little storefront called The Dog Bakery, a franchise operation out of Stockholm. While he was fiddling with his phone the owner, Marcus came out. He’s a serious cyclist (he rode across the US from Orlando to Vancouver, B.C.) and wanted to hear about our travels. He’s from Gothenburg but has travelled extensively. He opened Dog Bakery in 2019 and it really took off during the pandemic. We have noticed that Swedes look after their pups very well.
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Notice the Swedish spelling of Gothenburg, Göteborg, the pronunciation of which proved impossible for us, and most English speakers to utter correctly. We learned that about 20 years ago, the city decided to adopt the English spelling for all international uses.
We arrived at the Hotel Royal through throngs of people in Gothenburg Center; more on that later…
Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 803 km (499 miles)
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