Yeah, it did not rain the whole day, yeah I have arrived in Stockholm. Getting in to Stockholm was a mix of emotions of happiness, sadness, yeah I got to Stockholm in 7 days from Amsterdam, it was hard sometimes, the last 20 km to Stockholm from Skansholmen was the hardest, it was an up and down ride with small hard hills, narrow roads, small step descents it would have been a great training ride, after 160 km on the bike by the time I got to this section, it was hard work, I could feel it after I completed.
I meet some interesting people on the way, I Jönåker I took a break, got some food from the local supermarket, they had a picnic bench outside so I sat there eating my food when I guy my age came walking in from the main road. He asked me where I have come from, we talked, it turned out he was on a hiking trip from Stockholm to Malmö. That is about a 615km to walk, he expected that he would finish within 30 days. He told me that he had a bike through Sweden a few times, he gave me a few tips on the best roads to take up to Stockholm.
Later a few kilometers outside Vagnhärad, Sweden – I was overtaken by another long-distance biker, he was dressed as a Giro d’Italia cyclist – he was on a race bike with a bike rack for his baggage, he passed me so quickly I did not think more about at the time. Just before Vagnhärad, Sweden he came from behind again, this time he slowed down, we start talking he was from Italy, young fellow.
We start comparing notes, he was heading to Stockholm, after Stockholm he was heading to Oslo, from Oslo he would bike all the way up to Nordkapp. We check how many kilometers we have done, I was at 1300 km – he was already at 2800 km, he had had no breaks since he got left his village in Northern Italy. His bike was a carbon race bike, with some modification to fit a rack in the back so he could carry his bike bags – by the way the same type and brand of bike bags I was using, on top of his bags he had a solar panel which he used to charge the mobile phone that he used for navigation.
You think I’m doing some crazy long distance biking, there are many people out there doing long distance biking. During the ride from Norrkoping to Stockholm, I meet or saw at least another 10 people out on long distance cycle trips.
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