Now we have to master the stage Umeå - Uppsala. For the most part we enjoy good weather and the fantastic landscape of the "Höga Kusten" and the "Kustenväg". Just the kind of change we needed after the north!

Saturday 02.09.

Cozy mornings can be so beautiful! After we had chatted forever last night, we agreed that sleeping in was the order of the day. After everyone had slowly arrived in the kitchen, Tilman suggested making pancakes. Could the day get any better? So we had pancakes with the best filling ever: cloudberries and blueberries - indescribably delicious. Once again we ran the risk of chatting open end with the two of them. So I suggested that we head to the planetarium, since the show was supposed to start at 13:00. Our setup was once again the eye-catcher. Filip in front on his own bike, behind him me on the recumbent and behind him Tilman on the cargo bike with Leila in front. This funny team then rode through the city center of Umeå, towards Bildmuseet at the river, where the new planetarium is located. 5 years ago it was still affiliated to the observatory and was small and cute a bit outside the city center. I don't have to mention that I visited it more than once during my time here. Well, good old times... The new planetarium opened in 2020, the perfect year, and is part of a science center of the university. Accordingly, there were many other things to discover and it has guaranteed not harmed the museum to be located on the art campus of the university. Unfortunately, at the reception I learned that no one specifically from the planetarium was in the house. But well, that's how it is sometimes. The planetarium was more a "Dome Theater" than a planetarium. Noticeable especially in that it was again pointed in one direction and was tilted. I think this format is very good if you want to show movies, but of course the "real" planetarium experience misses out. We saw a movie (in Swedish) about dark matter and after the movie we all agreed that even though we all had a science background, this topic is really hard to understand. After the show, of course, I took the time to chat with the projectionist at the master desk. Apparently there are a lot of students working here, which is why they don't offer so many public live shows so far, but rather movies. Since the planetarium is still relatively new, some things still have to get used to.

After the show we discovered many other things in the "Curiosium". Tilman practiced his building skills and the rest of us tried our hand at origami.

Since it was getting later and in the evening Filip promised do sitting for his sister, we drove back home. The dog was extremely sweet! A mixture of Labrador and poodle or something like that. In any case, he had fur like a teddy bear. After a short nap Tilman and I drove another round around the good Nydala lake. Super beautiful, super idyllic and ingenious, if you want to make a small fire in the evening! There some memories came up again!

Back at Filip's, we ate the "leftovers" from Taco Friday, which were easily enough for another meal. And then Tilman had his turn. In the Curiosium he already practiced to build towers. These skills came in handy when we played Tokyo Highway. A very funny and entertaining game. Almost like Mikado, but for adults.

Sunday 03.09.

Filip and Leila prepared us a super delicious breakfast with scrambled eggs on bread. If that does not give energy for the rest of the day! The parting from the two was super sad! On the one hand, we thought it was nice to "arrive somewhere" again after such a long time, on the other hand, we immediately felt at home with Filip and got along great with the two. Really a pity to have to leave again... When saying goodbye on the road, it was obviously not so easy for the two too let us go again....

We first drove to Lidl to restock our supplies, and then continued our way south again. To avoid the big E4 we took some detours and followed mostly the local bike path "Cykelspåret". But also here and there, we took one or the other detour. Not always the best decision... Suddenly we found ourselves on a sandy route with big stones - by far not pleasant to ride... In the village on the half of the road we asked again for water and if the road would continue to be so bad. The answer was: only until you reach the top... So for me it was the next kilometers to push the bike up the scree. After that it actually got better. Not a road you want to ride forever, but still rideable. When it slowly got dark and the stones were less and less visible, we decided to finish the day and set up the tent on a flat place with less stones. Unfortunately the moon was too bright to see the northern lights. The forecast was not the worst though.

Monday 04.09.

When we woke up, it was quite stormy and the apsis was pushed into the tent, also because we had fixed the two loops only with stones. The wind had one good thing: it drove away all the clouds and we had sunshine all day :)

Today was also going be another hilly day, but a beautiful hilly day - we followed the"Höga Kusten Väg", so the "High Coast Road". Accordingly, it was hilly, but the views were simply breathtaking! The big rock formations mixed with the forests right on the coast - a dream. First we had to leave the bad road from yesterday behind us, and eventually met a paved road. Happy to finally be able to roll reasonably again, we passed one or the other cute Swedish village. Unfortunately, we were not so lucky with the road. Thy were about to renew the asphalt and we were led over rough gravel over the construction site. Once we reached the top of the mountain, we took a break in the sun. Then a Swedish woman came hiking up. Obviously amused about us both. On her way back she passed by again and was even more amused. It's a pity that we can't speak Swedish so well yet. But we also caught up with her again as soon as we went on and rang the bell and honked goodbye.

As we drove along the "Höga Kusten", some sections looked familiar and I remembered that 5 years ago I was in Skulleskogen National Park with my friend for two days hiking. Some very good memories came up again!

Towards evening we made another break at a break station for hikers, where they even had fresh water from the tap! In some things Sweden is way more advanced than Germany! Motivated by the beautiful landscape today, we wanted to climb at least the last hill. At least we don't have to do it the next day. At the top, however, it was already realtively dark. One thing we really have to get used to after the long time in the north.... The disadvantage of finding a tent site in the dark is that you can't really examine the ground, so we put the tent up in a way that it could keep rain off well. It was far away from perfect. But we were so tired that we fell asleep almost immediately!

Tuesday 05.09. - "The bridge day".

Sometimes you regret the decisions of the evening only the next morning. This time it was our tent site. In the morning the moderate to heavy rain started and somehow, in a place under our tent, in a hollow, the water accumulated and pushed through. We must have missed that spot last night in the dark.... Fortunately, it was only in one place and thus the puddle was well localized. Besides, we knew that we could sleep tonight in the dry house at friends of Julia south of Sundsvall. On the other hand, we still had a few kilometers to go, so we decided not to wait for the rain, but to start already. According to the weather forecast it should not last the whole day. So we packed up our stuff and drove in the rain down the mountain from yesterday. Luckily we didn't have to drive up it. Therefore, our decision yesterday to drive to the summit had not been so bad... After an hour in the rain, we were of course also wet... But we could not do much about it. Standing still is even worse, because then you get cold.

Eventually we stopped at the "Högakustenbron" in Kramfors. This structure was just too impressive to just drive over it! The highway E4 leads over it and we found it very courteous that for the short section of the bridge also cyclists were allowed on the E4. Even with a wide shoulder!

Now here are some fun facts about the bridge: It is the second tallest structure in Sweden and with a maximum span of 1,210m almost as long as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
(https://www.bridgeinfo.net/bridge/index.php?ID=130)
The fog around it made the whole sight even cooler!

A few kilometers after the bridge we drove under a small pedestrian tunnel that led under a road. Here's a little suggestion for the German city planners: There are fewer accidents between cars and cyclists or pedestrians if there are fewer points of contact between them. I think the Swedes have often (not always) solved this well. Under every major road - even in cities - there are pedestrian and bicycle tunnels to avoid crossing the road as much as possible. In addition, they also provide, in our case, a good rain protection. Another look at the rain radar revealed that the rain would continue for about an hour. Since we were already wet and cold, we decided to sit out the rest of the rain under the bridge and put on dry clothes. Maybe we got a little too comfortable when we started to warm up noodles and bagged onion soup under the bridge....

Eventually, even the worst rain passes and we continued our journey in bright sunshine. Sometimes the weather really does play a little crazy!

The day is not called "bridge day" for nothing, because close to Sundsvall we crossed the second big bridge of the day. This bridge, however, impressed not by aesthetics but with the sheer plumpness of a bridge over the river at Sundsvall. The view was nevertheless very nice.

The last kilometers could probably have been more relaxed if someone had not torn down the bike path over several kilometers and instead of gradually rebuilding it, simply closed it completely.... So we had to share the last kilometers to David and Johanna once again the road with the cars. We had forgotten how stressful that can be! As the last obstacle between us and the two there was still "the mountain", because their house was guaranteed to be the highest house in the area and so we took our last strength together and climbed the mountain. David was already waiting for us, as it seemed he is also an "outdoorsman" and adventurer. He welcomed us with a homemade Swedish stew, which made us forget the bad weather of the morning. Johanna then joined us a little later and we chatted again too long...

Wednesday 06.09. - "The coastal day".

David and Johanna both had to get up early and of course we adapted to their rythm. Getting up early is also much easier when you don't have to take down the tent, but only pack sleeping bags and exchange the clean sleeping clothes for the smelly sports clothes. Too bad we only had so little time with them, but that's how it is sometimes when traveling. The good thing about the day was that we were allowed to roll down the mountain from last night. And more sooner than later we were back on the Swedish coast.

Since we had changed our route due to our visit to them, we drove the whole day very close to the coast. There, we discovered the "Kustvägen" (https://www.kustvägen.se). As the name suggests, the coast is never far and at regular intervals there are info signs on various topics. All very well prepared, with new benches, picnic tables and lots of information about the local flora and fauna. Topics were for example the local fish, bigger animals like bears, wolves and elks, the world of mushrooms and berries, etc. Besides, the sun shone down on us very pleasantly and we just enjoyed it. Took frequent breaks, snacked, slept and just really enjoyed the whole landscape. Such a sunny day you enjoy even more if you had rain the day before!

The day just passed and we also decided not to stress, because we knew that we can also arrive late at Ilinca in Uppsala in two days and the road should be mostly flat. So we ended relatively early and took a nice campsite right next to a lake next to an old railroad track. Out of the tent (good mosquito repellent!) we watched outside as the sun went down over the lake and said goodbye also quickly in the land of dreams.

Thursday 07.09.

In fact, not much happened on this day. On the railroad track we had to bravely drive through the one or other deep puddle, we had a lot of sunshine and at the end we unfortunately had one of the worst campsites on our tour... In the middle of the high grass the mosquitos suddenly attacked us and wanted to get our blood. The only remaining was the escape into the tent!

Friday 08.09.

The alarm clock rang early and that had its reason: still about 160km to Uppsala to Ilinca - Tilman's roommate from Umeå, whose parents we had already visited in Brașov/Romania. The start of the day was not so pleasant, because the armada of mosquitoes around our tent had not yet stopped, but felt even worse and we saw a tick crawling on the one net from the outside... When packing in the tent we even found a living on the tent floor crawling. Must have hidden itself probably in any clothes... That means probably a thorough tick control tonight under the shower. When we left the tent we had our "protective clothing" on - rain pants and rain jacket. As soon as we were out of the tent, the mosquitoes pounced on us. So fast as on this morning we have probably seldom got our things together and left. Who needs coffee in the morning when the adrenaline is released by mosquito and tick attacks?

So we set off and again felt the enormous difference it makes when you've had rather hilly country the days before and suddenly only have to ride flat stretches - you're suddenly flying. And since we had started early, there was also always a boost of motivation when we looked at the clock and saw that we had already covered a decent amount of miles. The warm shower and the dry bed without mosquitoes also motivated a lot, of course!

On the way, we always had our fun with the bus drivers, who were very amused when we took our breaks at the bus stops. On the way, we also passed one of Sweden's largest hydroelectric power plants. Super impressive how much energy water can deliver and how much power it has!

We also passed Gävle - the town where every year at Christmas time the straw goat is either burned or manipulated. The Swedes are just sometimes a little crazy. We sat on the road for a while, had breakfast and watched the people passing by. People with bee hats, funny clothes, weird gaits, etc. Overall, we felt like we fit in well in this crazy city.

The last kilometers to Uppsala were extremly nice. There was a straight road and you could see the skyline of Uppsala already from a distance. We drove through "Gamla Uppsala" - so the old Uppsala, along the railroad line, through the beautiful city center where the new students made their crazy actions and somehow we were already at Ilinca.

The reunion after 5 years was a huge joy for all of us! We stowed the bikes in the bike house and went upstairs to Ilinca's beautiful apartment, which she shares with two of her friends. And then we had frozen pizza - to Ilinca's disbelief we really enjoyed having "fast food" again, since we can't transport an oven for that on the bike... Although the cargo bike opens up completely new possibilities!

After 5 years we have a lot to tell each other and so we all went to bed very late again. After all, we will come back to Uppsala for a few days after Stockholm to spend some time with Ilinca :)

Good news: We are still tick free :)