Day 76 After a too short night I woke up at 5:30am and at 6:30am I was ready to leave. Åsa and the kids were still sleeping. I followed road 3 back to Mariehamn, enjoyed a last time the nature and headed directly to the Viking Line terminal at the Western Harbour. There I could directly enter the ferry. It was 8:00am. Most of the passengers having got onboard in Turku were still in their cabins and it was strange to find only a few passengers walking around in this huge ship. Bars, cafeteria and restaurant were still closed and I had to wait until 9:00am to have breakfast. As the duty free shop opened, I bought several chocolate bars for the coming cycling days, while most of the passengers showed only interest for alcoholic drinks. At lunch time I had a long chat with Rogério, a Swedish passenger from Stockholm having a simular information technology background, but prefering sailing rather than cycle touring, even if he used to cycle around with his road bike. We had a lot of fun until the ferry arrived in Stockholm.
I left the ferry with the first cars and followed the cycle way to the city centre. It was strange but pleasant to cycle through the well-known city and it did not take so long to reach my hotel in Vasastan.
Further information about Stockholm on Wikipedia
Stage 62:
149 km 26.4 km 7:23 18 km/h 210 m 190 m 5,566 km 5,927.7 km
Day 77 After a very good breakfast, I left the hotel around 10am and cycled to downtown Stockholm. At Nybroplan I notice a large contingent of policemen, followed the prestigious Strandvägen boulevard to Djurgårdsbron, passed the bridge to the Djurgård island and walked through the open-air museum Skansen. As I was there police helicopters flew for a while above the nearby city centre and I heart the forty cannon salutes given in honor of crown princess Viktoria, whose 40th birthday was celebrated on that day. After having leaved Skansen, I went to Stockholm’s old town Gamla Stan, pushing my bike through the tourist crowd.
Stage 63:
21.6 km 2:37 8.2 km/h 130 m 130 m 5,587.6 km 5,949.3 km
This entry was posted in By ship, Cycling, Hiking
