It was an early morning for us, waking up at the farmhouse at 6am but the sun was shining. We had to be up so we could leave early as we had a 2 ½ hour journey to Montreas. We had an appointment at MTL custom bike shop to get our brakes sorted at 10am that we couldn’t be late for, as they were already squeezing us in. After quick showers and finishing packing, we managed to still find time for breakfast pastries and coffees though to fuel our journey. Our lovely host was already up and about so she checked we had a good stay, showed us some of the newborn calves (very cute) and then wished us all the best on our journey.
The journey was smooth and beautiful in places, driving through the Swedish countryside in the early morning light. However due to it being so early there was the morning chill as the sun hadn’t actually managed to warm up the air yet. We were happy to have a very quick stop to fill up the bike and to walk around the warm inside of a coop quickly. We still had another hour to go though so we were soon back on the bike and whizzing through the countryside.
Before we knew it we were at MTL custom though and were greeted with a very friendly Mattias, who took our bike keys from us to service the bike. MTL was a lovely shop full of boats and bikes, both suzukis and then there was a room at the back where they had custom motorcycles. An old Indian motorcycle was pride of place by their bar. We spent the next couple of hours looking around the shopping, taking advantage of free coffee at the bar and reading the motorcycle magazines. It was not a cheap day, and it took a couple of hours but our brakes were fixed and not making any noise. However they did let us know we needed a new rear tyre and our oil change light came on just as we had come into the shop so one set of problems fixed but others that we had to find another garage to sort later on in the trip as MTL didn’t have the tyre or time to do the other bits.
Kalmar, where our airbnb was just half an hour away and we couldn’t check in yet so we stopped at a local Willy’s along the way to pick up groceries for the couple of days we were staying there and also popped into an ikea for a cheeky cheap hot dog, because we had to do it once whilst in Sweden! Holding onto the groceries between me and dave we thankfully only had a 10 minute uncomfortable ride to the airbnb. In Kalmar we had rented a small annexe building, that had everything we needed to be self-sufficient for a couple of days. It was well designed for a small space and was basking in the sun. We attempted to have some lunch on the sunlit patio but abandoned that after a couple of minutes as the wind had picked up and was bracing. Instead we enjoyed the sun from the inside of our apartment.
In the afternoon we went for a walk to check out Kalmar and its small island neighbourhoods. Just passed our airbnb we passed Lindovagen bathing lake and nature area. This small island had good views over to the old town, even being able to see Kalmar castle. After this we walked through some pretty residential areas with lots of cherry blossoms in Angopark to the waterfront where there were lots of boat docks and small huts. This also looked across to Varvsholmen where there were lots of modern new flat blocks. We walked to the tip of this island for a good view of the impressively long bridge over the Baltic Sea to Oland island. From here we then walked to Kalmar old town, where there were lots of colourful old houses, cobbled streets, the large yellow Domykyrakan and lots of people sat in the sunshine enjoying the many bars and resturants. Our last stop of the day was to walk through the lovely park to see Kalmar castle. That completed our tour of Kalmar and we headed back to the flat after this both a bit chilly as we had tried to wear shorts and despite the sun shining it was cold from increasing winds.
The following day we had initially planned to explore the beautiful Oland island. However we would have to have done this on our motorcycle and it would have meant another full day minimum of driving as all the sights were very spread out and it is a large island. Instead, we were both feeling quite tired and decided to have a day off. Oland will have to wait for another trip, where we have the time to explore it properly. This gave us a day to catch up with videos and blogs that we hadn’t managed to do for a few days. To get outside we walked to the local Galleria mall exploring the large supermarkets and the local alcohol shop- systembolaget (alcohol above 3.5% cannot be sold in supermarkets and has to be sold in this special chain of shops that are government-owned in Sweden). We got some freshly baked pastries from Lidl to snack on and then headed back to the apartment to work on some more bits. A very productive day, and sometimes that is what is needed. In the evening we chilled out and watched the new Batman film- which was brilliant.
We are headed to the seaside in Ahus after this, for our last night in Sweden.
Thanks
Alex
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