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Day 21 Breakfast in the bay, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

Delicious breakfast of boiled eggs spread on warm fresh bread rolls, fresh coffee, and fresh orange, in the morning calm at the harbour bay.

Day 20 Last day in Sweden, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

When you’re travelling by bike, some days are about just getting to the next place. Some are about visiting a new place. Some are about the challenge and the adventure. And some, like today, are about just enjoying the ride. Blissfully hot weather, no traffic, great roads, magnificently pretty scenery, and no stress. Just sitting back and relaxing. Ending up at a hostel right on a lake is just icing on the cake.

Day 20 Off-road, Swedish style, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

Just enjoying some dirt roads on my way west.

Day 19 Living in a train by a lake, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

Glorious weather, glorious roads, glorious lack of traffic, glorious peace thanks to the quieter new helmet I bought in Stockholm this morning (many thanks for the glorious service delivered by the guy at Stockholm’s MC Varhus, possibly the best bike shop I’ve ever seen, and possibly the best service I’ve ever received, anywhere, ever), glorious scenery in the Swedish countryside of pine forests, wheat fields, lakes and postcard pretty wooden houses in the traditional copper-mining residue dark red, a gloriously cold beer in the town square, and spending the night on a train carriage converted to a youth hostel, with a glorious view across a lake, and at the end of a glorious day’s riding it’s still gloriously hot and sunny and so gloriously picturesque it’s hard to believe it’s real and not a movie set. A glorious day. If this was my groundhog day I wouldn’t mind at all.

Day 18 Scorching Stockholm, originally uploaded by Big Al!.

Hot enough to be eating ice-cream today. Top tip for Stockholm – get the city card for free public transport and museum entry. Other top tip – go on a diet, start working out, and get plastic surgery to look like a supermodel, and buy a lamborghini or a ferrari, so that you fit in with the locals. And get very rich so that you can afford to eat or drink. Hmm, maybe that’s why they’re all so thin. You’d have to be a gazillionaire to get fat here. Another tip, don’t go up the tv tower, it’s pants. So is the changing of the guard, but that’s probably true at every guard changing everywhere. Unless you’re a pick pocket, then you probably love it. Back on the road tomorrow.