Day 15: short ride to Oskarshamn and a ferry ride to Gotland

another wonderful day in paradise!!  blue skies and warm sunshine - only 2 layers today!!  a quick ride into Monsteras (mostly along a bike path) was followed by riding out into the farmlands on this area - there seemed to be lots of horses - especially small ponies - and the barns were large but not sure what was in them - or had recently left.  did see one large mob of black and white cows - and there were piles of rural-smelling cleanings from those barns...  as well as pedalling through some thick pine and birch forests - new bird for the day is the Jay...  haven't checked the Swedish name for it yet - but I don't think I have seen them before!  so smiles.
rode thru a lovely little town, which had a small river rushing through it and am guessing it was dammed somewhere not far away...  but the houses were all so pretty and so well looked after in typical Swedish style - wildflowers growing crazy in front lawns and very little mowing happening just yet.  just gave off good vibes.
the last 10km was along a newish road built for cars and not bikes, but the motorists don't seem to mind that there's a cyclist pedalling along the shoulder.  apart from the tooting when I was riding over the bridge to Oland, I haven't been abused, had things thrown at me and generally allowed to share the road...  nice!
so arrived in Oskarshamn - with hours to spare before catching the ferry to Gotland - it left at 8:15pm and will arrive in Visby at 11:10..  yawn....
Oskarshamn does not like to acknowledge the fact that Gotland is more popular than it...  it is a small town and has a Stortorget (large square) and a lilla torget (yep, little square) but the grey clouds that sprung up and dripped large rain drops on all, sort of spoilt the feel of the town.  I did check out the big church, but it had closed for the day - so wandered around the cemetery (exciting stuff!!) And I saw 2 squirrels in a nesting box - that took fright and ran up the tree.
there was one grave site that told a sad story - mother, father, daughter and son - all died in the tsunami in Thailand 2006.  they must have been having a family holiday....  so far away....

so have downloaded the photos from my camera, but don't think I have the patience tonight to do any editing and uploading - bear with bear with!!  they will come..