Day 13: Mot Stockholm! Mot Stockholm! Mot Stockholm!

During the night I slept lightly and woke up in the morning before my alarm, eager to get out of my sheetless bed. I got started well before nine o'clock, ready to tackle the 170km challenge that I had set for myself! One of the first things I saw that morning was the East Coast of Sweden and the good old Baltic Sea. It felt cosy and familiar, looking just like the Finnish coast. After a few kilometers the road climbed on a really high hill, straining my legs but rewarding with a superb view over the Sea.

The Bay of Norrköping, from top of a hill

The Baltic Sea

After pics, I continued towards my first destination of the day - Nyköping. Once more, it was a sunny day, but surprisingly cold! To my astonishment, I even saw some piles of snow here and there. It was the first snow I saw since the beginning of February. (That was when the two-week-long winter ended in Berlin). I also saw a huge dead boar on the side of the road, apparently recently killed by a car. After passing the cozy Nyköping, I decided to eat in the next restaurant I would find. A mistake! Interestingly, as I was closing Stockholm the habitation got scarce. There was no restaurants, service stations, or anything in the next 40 kilometers after Nyköping! Just forests and fields. I finished my water supply and already got really thirsty, before reaching the next village in the afternoon, where I finally rested and ate a pizza. Anyway, already more than 100 kilometers before the lunch. Good!

The 600 kilometers of the previous days were also taking their toll at this point, however. My left hand was getting numb and tingling almost constantly - blood was not properly flowing in it because of the bad handle of the bike. My Achilles tendon was aching too, so I was happy that it was the last long biking day.

After the break I had only 65 kilometers left to Stockholm, but this was where the struggle seriously started. My stomach swelled more than usually after lunch and I felt nauseous. Biking was slow and difficult, partly also because the terrain was the most hilly so far during the whole journey. Constant up and down! Luckily, I knew I had a great benefit tonight. I didn't need to save any energy for the next day, so I could and would give all that I got! Even more important was, that I didn't need to stress about accommodation and getting there early, since my friend had promised to accommodate me and I could arrive as late as I wanted!

Getting close!

After five o'clock I reached Södertälje and kept a long coffee pause there. That restored my energy. But I got a new challenge - the route. It got tricky here, twisting and turning endlessly, snaking through the endless suburbs of Stockholm. There was literally a hundred turns, forcing me to navigate with the iPhone every few minutes. Going was really slow and it got dark. I tried to change to a simpler looking biking route, which I found on the map. Turned out it didn't exist, so I got back to the original route. At some point I thought that I was surely already in Stockholm, but when I rechecked my location from iPhone, I saw that I was still 20 kilometers away. I felt like a turtle - only 20 kilometers in two and half hours! I also had a feeling that I must have surely seen every single suburb, park and neighborhood outside of Stockholm.

Reaching suburbs of Alby at sunset, 20 more kilometers to go.

I was getting really fed up, but then I finally found a big car road, which I could use for the last 5 kilometers before city center. This road led me to Södermalm island in Stockholm! I started to smile broadly, knowing I had only a few kilometers left of the whole trip. The 170 kilometer challenge completed, sweet! It was even better feeling to know that I could finally rest properly, relax in Stockholm and then get home! I was also happy to meet my friend, who had also prepared a delicious dinner which was just getting ready as I arrived. Awesome!!

Arriving at Stockholm. Happy feelings!