Sweden & Norway Done

We are in Stockholm and so are done with our traverse of the lower parts of Scandinavia. 

The regions of Norway and Sweden in the lower latitudes that we have travelled through have not exhibited any spectacularly remarkable scenery but has been a sensational bike ride through rolling, green lush agricultural land in the height of a very pleasant summer. 

Yes it rained a bit on us, moderate for a few hours early on in Sweden and a few showers here and there since. Our friend Knut informed us that well what did we expect after we had crossed the border in to Sweden. 

The friendly rivalry of countries that border each other is alive and well up here. A lot of the time we have ridden in perfect cycling weather on bike trails, empty dirt roads or quite roads. Maybe twice a car has come a bit close (1meter). The people have been patient & polite to a tee.

Now although I said we have felt that there has not been remarkable scenery there was a sunset one evening that is as good if not more sensational than any I have ever come across. A short memory helps here. But not to dilute the fantastic feeling of the sunset on the Skansen fijord it was good. One of the attributes of a Swedish sunset is the shallow angle that the sunsets at is that it goes down slowly unlike our Australian sunset that is very quick. As the long evening was settling in at Skansen we were out  on a timber jetty while a gorgeous white swan was paddling around with her cygnets on the shoreline alongside. They were oblivious to us, she was "talking" to them and they were feeding at the same time. My ears picked up a gentle, sound of air beating behind me. As I turned 180deg I was presented by two swans in full flight about 50m out in the fjord, flying by. They were at water level using the ground (water) effect for enhanced aerodynamics which in turn helped reverberate the sound to me. These were the only two audio tracks on the planet as the sun kept changing the pinks, violets and crimson mixes in the west. I'm still tingling with the sensation.

Unfortunately we did not have our cameras out on the jetty, this is a pic from our dinner table 2 hours before the sunset came on with full effect.

30 kms to Stockholm

There is so much more to Sweden & Norway but we cannot do it all. We are now in Stockholm and had a full Indian Tamil breakfast at our Airbnb. Vida & Bala's Airbnb is very nice out in the northern burbs of Sweden's capital city. We had a quick walk around Stockholm last night and will give it the full tourist snappy, museum, art gallery workover today and tomorrow.

This is typical of Sweden, a beautiful young soldier guarding the palace in Stockholm. While we were there an American guy stepped over some decorative rope barriers nearby, she levelled her gun and said something loud in Swedish to him. It scared the living bejeasus out of him and he promptly jumped back to where he should be, on the public side of the fence.