Reaching Ostersund

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Leaving Sörbygärden was straightforward. The St Olavsleden route follows the road beside the railway line pretty much all the way into Ostersund.

What was different was the number of other people who used the quiet roads for exercise. This wasn't obvious to start with, when quite early on a miidle aged bloke jogged past, and a short time later came jogging back. Then it was a couple of older men walking a dog, a cyclist, several more runners of various ages, and then a couple training with loaded backpacks. And it then stopped.

I had reached a parking area which I now suspect was a convenient place to start a pleasant run along a quiet network of tracks and roads in a nature reserve of some sort.

It was now a rather mundane traverse of a light industrial area, railway yards, and negotiating my way to Hotell Zäta, where I stayed for the next two nights.

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Visiting Verkö island

There were plenty of things on offer to adequately fill a rest day wihout being necessarily very strenuous in nature. I chose to visit Verkö island, and booked my ticket on the M/S Thomée that evening.

The M/S Tomée, built in 1875, takes about 90 minutes to do the trip, and the main attraction on the island is the castle, Verkö Slott, and the buffet lunch. There might be other things to do and see there, but the whole round trip is nicely timed around having a pleasnt lunch on an island that cannot be reached by road. So that is what I did, and had a nice post-prandial snooze on the return journey.

There was just enough time to do one urgent bit of shopping on my return. The Swedish roads had proven pretty tough on the rubber tips of my walking poles, and one set had already completely worn out, with a second set looking likely to follow quickly. I had identified a place that might have a suitable replacement, grabbed my poles and made it with minutes to spare.

My last task was then to get stamps for a postcard, which I did while doing some other shopping. The woman serving me couldn't find the correct combination for the exact postage, and had to be convinced that the closest combination would be fine as I wasn't going to wait two days to get to a post office.

I was determined to avoid a certain fast food chain, but succumbed to a local variant that was just down the road from the hotel. Rather satisfying, even if clearly fast food at heart.

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