not wth a roar but a whimper

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Well, the biking is pretty much over, 1300km in 13 days, a bit of a sore knee. I'm in Stockholm, couldn't bike all the way from Goteborg as planned but took a train to the Gota Canal, stayed with Elsa there and biked along it , then a trian for the last section to Stockholm before leaving my bike outside stockholm station (most trains and buses won't take bikes here, its crazy) and spending the night in Uppsala with an old german friend of mine (he is sad he can't come to estonia, espacilly when I told him about some of the girls that will be coming, but he has to fly to srilanka to visit his aid worker girlfriend)... he propsed an alternative plan whereby I would take a 3 euro ferry to the islands between sweden and finland, then a free ferry to ferry and see Turku, where we studied, before taking a bus to helsinki and a fast ferry from there for Tallinn, rather than this 200 euro ferry I'm taking tonight... great plan, cheaper and could have seen Turku again - I'm sure eeva would have liked to see a pic of our old flat but of course the bus to the first ferry wouldn't take my bike, the tourist book said it would but the bus driver had other ideas... so night ferry from stockholm to tallinn it is.

Angela wants less 'this went wrong' and 'this sucked' and more ' I love europe'.. so, yeah actually its been fantastic - amazing to see the coutnries in this way, its also an amzing sense of achievemnt to have moved yourself under your own power such a long way and the people I've met along the way have been great, lots of little stories I haven't had the time to write here. The countryside in the netherlands and northern germany simply is nothin special compatred to nz but sweden was peretty spectaculor... the towns are something, the sheer size of hamburg, the old buildings, the crowds, the variety.. but I didn't go to any muesums so can't tell you that stuff.

so some stats:

about 1400km all up, 1300km on the actual road journey, the rest mucking abround in Amsterdam and Stockholm. Bit of a dissapointment not to be able to bike into Stockholm but thems the breaks.

One flat, and replacemtn tyre needed, which the people of provincal Netherlands were fantsitic help with.

One unplanned dismount, I landed on my feet so its ok.

Rained on five times, three of them in Sweden, thanks sweden - that said its a lovely day in stockholm today.

Injuries, none to speak of - my lef tknee gets sore avfter a few hours and my shoulders can get this stabbing pain from being bunched after about 6 hours but the pain has defintately lessened over the days while my speed has increased sharply... the tummy's also decreased sharply, you ladies will be glad to hear.

So, to estonia......

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