From now on we are only heading south. Through our beloved Sweden, which welcomes us with a really sunny autumn!

Of course we had one big goal in northern Sweden: Umea - the city where we met and fell in love during the Erasmus :)

Saturday 26.08.

In the morning, the tent disappeared in the fog. The swaths were so thick that you could hardly see to the other end of the clearing. Very mystical!

It was a miracle that we were able to pack all the things neatly again. From time to time, however, the sun also began to fight its way through the fog. On the road, the fog worried us more. Especially the Finnish cars, but all seemed to drive with reasonable speed and overtake reasonably. Arriving in Muonio, we went to the smarket to drop off deposit bottles and restock supplies. When I got out, it was bright sunshine and no one would have believed me that 10 minutes earlier it was still thick fog. In Muonio there was the possibility to drive over the bridge to Sweden on a road less traveled. That's what we did!

As it turned out, exactly the right decision! Every 20 minutes we saw maximum one car. Otherwise pure nature. Perfect road and now and then a few well-preserved, cute houses. Although we still made some kilometers, we noticed how Sweden decelerated us internally. We were deeply relaxed. With all the beautiful resting places at lakes that were not built on, the rolling hills and endless forests, there was no other way as being relaxed. In the end, we ended up with our tent in one of these small woods and hoped for a continued clear sky overnight. Maybe there will be another opportunity to see the northern lights?

Sunday 27.08.

We woke up comfortably at the edge of the forest on the trail where we had pitched our tent yesterday. The first kilometers we drove down the mountain to Pajala with the sunshine in our face. Since there were not many roads, we had no choice but to follow the road further to Överkalix. In between we passed forests, fields and really nice little villages. The Swedes really did really well to equip every little village with a bus connection and to have at least one small supermarket within a reasonable range. We drove further along the road and passed again the Arctic Circle. Now we were back in the south of the north or the north of the south. I guess it depends on whom you ask. At the sign, of course, we paused briefly. I was a bit wistful because crossing the Arctic Circle would also mean that we would no longer encounter cute and whimsical reindeer on the roads. I will miss them and their innocence....

At the sign itself we were then approached by two German young men who were obviously in a hurry. One wanted to talk to us and the other wanted to drive on. Apparently, they just speed through with the car in the direction of the north and must be in a few days also already back down in Germany. Very sporty speed!

Following the road a bit further, we soon decided to look for a place to sleep. Before, however, I asked at a house on the roadside if we could have a little water. It turned out that the residents were Czechs, who are only during the summer in their summer home in Sweden and were just about to make everything ready so that they can go home again tomorrow. The woman also gave us two pieces of homemade chocolate cake :-) Enough sugar for the next kilometers. We drove into a somewhat hidden parking bay. Here were, typical Nordic, of course, dry toilets and fireplaces. Probably for fishing right on the river. We searched for a nice place where we can not be seen so well from the road, cooked in good teamwork food with the wood gas burner and fell asleep in peace of mind.

Monday 28.08.

The next morning it was not far to Överkalix to the supermarket. Before COOP we met two other cyclists. They were younger than us and started from Cottbus. Their goal is the Nordkapp and they want to collect donations for an action in the Harz on the way. It sounded a bit like it was their first tour. Especially because they asked us how we would do it with the laundry. Our answer: "We stink". Usually we wash once a week, if we are with people. However, the north was an exception in many aspects and so the washing of the clothes remained somewhat on the distance. On the way, there was fortunately the one or the other lake where you could jump in briefly. So far we were only on the E45 on the way, but behind Överkalix the E4 meets the E45 and on it we had really no desire to drove with the cars, so we tried as well as possible to avoid the road and immediately had a funny encounter, when we asked for water. We communicated in Swedish and English, but the gentleman was so excited about our bikes that it was difficult to direct his concentration at all to our lack of water. In the end it turned out that he was also just a guest in the house and in great excitement about the bikes he got his friend out of the house, who then gave us water and had to admire the bikes. Already cuddly these Swedes!

Although we tried to avoid the big road as much as possible, we had to take it for 10km.... It was certainly not the worst road we were on but also not the most beautiful. Especially in the rain.

Fortunately, the next exit was not far and we had to sit down on a bench and recover from the unusual stress. Suddenly another cyclist came and joined our break on the bench. Michel from Hamburg. Apparently he often does cycling vacations in Scandinavia. We immediately got along very well with him and if we had gone in the same direction, we could probably have accompanied him for a few more days without running out of things to talk about. It's just a pity that we drove in different directions. So we had to say goodbye sooner or later. We towards Lulea, he towards Överkalix. Because of the medium sized intermezzo we didn't make it as far as we wanted to, but that's not too bad... In the end we landed near an antenna at a semi good sleeping place. But at least safe and in such a way that the tent would withstand the night rain.

Tuesday 29.08.

We woke up relatively early, but then decided to wait for the rain shower. We are not in a hurry anyway. After the sky was more or less clear again, we drove the 30km to Lulea and passed really beautiful and livable neighborhoods. Apparently also at an old, well preserved village something outside of the city. In Lulea we had one thing on our plan: The planetarium in the science center of the university. I had announced myself by phone a few days before and Mia received me warmly. Later I learned that they were under reconstruction and would reopen in two days. All the more I appreciate the time she took for us!

The whole Science Center in Lulea is once again a good example of the Swedes' art of planning exhibitions. There were two floors, where in the middle of the lower one could loosely look at the upper one. From the bottom you could see on the left side the mountains, where mining etc. is explained and on the right side there was the sea with harbor and everything. The two parts are connected by an artificial river. And there you have a small version of Norbotten, the northernmost state of Sweden. Ingenious, isn't it? But of course, that wasn't the end of it. In the harbor, many different goods are shipped from Sweden to the world and each one is explained separately. In the upper part the food production was presented. From bees to cows about the general harvest. One is led through a kind of tunnel and comes out at the end at the restaurant! In addition, upstairs is the small planetarium, which recently got a new projector. I found it cool that they had a fixed skyline of Lulea at the edge of the planetarium and that they also put a lot of emphasis on interaction with the audience. Given the size, that lends itself to it as well. You can't fit that many people in there. She also showed me one of their shows, where a bear travels with his flower through space, visiting the different celestial bodies to see if his flower could survive there. Except for a song to remember the planets, nothing is spoken in the film, but the projectionist animates the children and parents to participate in the show. Finally, no over-animated production but a format that actually stimulates the imagination of children! Mia and I understood each other so well that the time flew by. At the end of the day there was a short photo session with the PR manager and then Mia had to say goodbye because she still had a lot of work to do. I enjoyed the time in the planetarium and in the whole center very much and I really appreciated that Mia took the time for me!

When driving out of town, we stopped again at Lidl, where as a matter of course a bicycle pump was in front and stations where you could charge the batteries of the E-bikes while shopping. Instead of the E4, we now followed a mixture of the "Sverigeleden" and the "Cykelsparet" and perform a dance around the E4. It leads through small villages, as you would find them in a book about Sweden and although we made again not the kilometers that we wanted, we were quite satisfied with the day and our sleeping place and hoped again for northern lights in the evening. Perhaps we have yes luck!

Wednesday 30.08.

The northern light thing will probably nothing more... Either we have clouds or if there are no clouds, we have just unfortunately a pretty full moon, which makes it impossible to see the faint auroras.

But we could see many cool little and snug villages during the day. That's how you imagine the idyllic Swedish country life! It remained hilly and while I was on the phone with Sonja we found at a rest area even a kind of sand pit where definitely people had their fun with quads and motorcycles.

It seems that we are also really lucky with the Swedish autumn, because it gives us quite a few sunny days. Like today again. On one of the small roads along which we drove, we found a really nice developed site, which would certainly have been a nice campsite! Directly at the lake with a small jetty for swimming, outhouse and mowed lawn. Two campers seem to have already made themselves comfortable there and we watched the fight of the swans with the native ducks on the lake at a safe distance. A funny spectacle of nature!

By the way, we passed many lakes on the way and in one of the towns they were even nice enough to build their own pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the lake - a bit away from the noisy highway bridge.

Towards evening, when it already began to dawn, we drove through a village with the funny name "Slut". As our water was running out again, we asked in Swedish/English a gentleman who was locking up his garage. He quickly went into the house and fetched his wife, who knew better English. She came back not only with our filled water bottles but also with a whole basket full of homegrown tomatoes. We could not say no and accepted a few as a snack for in between. The two were extremely sweet and also super interested.

At some point, however, we had to continue and with the "tomato energy" we even made it to our targeted destination: a lake with space in front away, so we hoped to be able to put up our tent somewhere there. It was a bit more busy than we had hoped and thought, but we just hid a bit further behind the trees and bushes. In the darkness you can't see us so well back there anyway. For dinner we had again something fast and warm and since we have discovered mashed potatoes for us that was our dinner. Super tasty and easy and quick to make!

Thursday 31.08.

Final spurt to Umea! Although it pissed on us the whole day now and then, it could not kill our mood! The route until Umea was very relaxed, until we suddenly came on a road where somehow all were very much in a hurry. Maybe because it was end of work? Who knows... It was in any case a hard contrast to the yet relaxed driving so far in Sweden.

Luckily, we found another bike path that took us off the road into town. On the way, of course, we stopped by the Magic card store again for Tilman. A pretty big general game store with tons of cool games and puzzles!

Around 19:00 we arrived at Filip's place, who seemed to be very happy to see us again. For those who don't know: Filip and we had a lab project together 5 years ago in Umea, which really brought us together. By the way, during this time Tilman and I also got together :-)

After we showered, I went with Filip to the ICA to get frozen pizza. The "joys of a normal life". Over pizza and Pommfrit we caught up on what had been going on with us for the last 5 years and it felt like the 5 years in between hadn't existed at all!

Friday 01.09.

Friday morning we had breakfast together with Filip until he unfortunately had to go to work. After that Tilman and I took care of our laundry, which desperately needed to see a washing machine from the inside. The cool thing is that in government rented apartments in Sweden, washing machines and dryers are often shared and you just have to sign up for a list. In my world a reasonable concept, because then not everyone has a machine standing around that is only turned on once a week anyway. So we waited until everything was ready and then went into the city to see what has changed in 5 years. The bike lanes are fortunately still the same, so we easily found our car-free way into the city. There we strolled around a bit, walked along the waterfront and treated ourselves from Lena's sponsored money a cocoa and pastries in a cafe in the library, which I still had in good memory.

Of course, a side trip to Alidhem and the university could not be missed. In the evening we arrived back at Filip's apartment and prepared everything for the Swedish Taco Friday (yes that's a thing here!), while Filip picked up his girlfriend Leila from the airport.

The four of us ate way too much Swedish tacos and there was still a lot left over, so we can probably still feed on the next day. Leila is a super cool and intelligent woman and we were really happy to get to know her. Actually we wanted to play a game together but - as always - we chatted until it was way too late to start a new game.