Tales from the Saddle

Blog from Norway, August 11, 2008

The sun is trying to peek out of the thick clouds in chilly Oslo, Norway and I’m a few hours from pedaling my way towards Tvedestrand to meet some friends Finn and Aslaug for some pedaling in next few days. It’s hard to believe that I only have a few days left here in Scandinavian Europe before start my adventures in UK and Ireland.

I’m still behind on my official newsletters but have a long boat ride and some time to catch up on the way to UK so hang in there. For now the latest quick update:

The last sun we would see was our ride out of Malmo before the storm

The weather not only turned when I hit Sweden, but turned downright nasty just after my last blog report. My 2-day ride I had planned with Paula turned out to be just one over one after a massive storm with scary winds came in with vengeance. We got totally drenched. My long lost au pair Carina from 1979 had mercy on me and picked me up in a posh Volvo with her sister Anne to take us up to the beach house we had planned to ride to. The winds were blowing down trees and shut down the train system too. It was nuts!

Out of the nasty storm and into the great company of Anne, Bernt & Carina

After 29 years apart Carina still loved to cook for me :)

Carina and I got along like peas and carrots from the get go and spent a few days in her home town of Gothenburg, Sweden’s 2^nd largest city. We were able to get out and meet some of her friends, check out the city a bit and catch up on some administrative work before we started our 3 day ride up the coast towards the border of Norway.

The stunning scenery in Sweden makes ya smile!

Body Power! We made it to the border of Norway!

The ride could not have been better. Carina was strong, positive and a great guest rider. We had endless chats, escaped all the heavy rain that seemed to only fall when we were off the bike, and built a friendship that no doubt will last a lifetime. We rolled into Norway and she hoped a train back to Sweden and I rolled on to Oslo where I spent an action packed weekend with some of my Danish soul sister Mette’s crew out on the town dancing, catching live music and even a day at a big outdoor music festival where the sun came out and rainbows were dancing!