Day 4 : Sunshiny ride to Ystad - smoooooth ferry to Bornholm

this pedalling along in the wonderful Swedish countryside is so much fun - well, yes... the wind is still there and yeah...  its usually blowing in my face - and there were a couple of tough sections where the farmlands of just new grain crops and no shelter....  but the sun is still shining brightly - the sky is totally blue, hardly a smudge of cloud on the horizon and summer in Sweden has arrived - why bother with spring!!

so my pedal today was ever eastwards - right along the coast, so blue seas dotted with beautiful white swans and a variety of other ducks, cormorants, terns and sea gulls - along with all the twittery little birds that fill my ears with their happy sounds....  so yep - its all good.

I had a pretty good breakfast - typical Swedish fare - muesli and yoghurt, scrambled eggs, tomato, capsicum as well as a yummy hard cheese, not cheddar probably closer to a Yarlsberg - fresh full-grain rye bread plus a sour dough bread roll topped with sour cream and jam - 2 cups of coffee and an orange juice....  so yep, didn't really need lunch!!!

had a quick tour around the Viking Ring Fortress in Trelleborg - timber fort - been excavated and thought to be really really old!  pretty impressive.

its not Wow!!  breathtaking (like in Japan in places) but its just beautiful - so here's some photos....

Rune stone at the Trelleborg Viking Fortress

example of viking home - no windows so a bit dark inside

tradition viking loom - interesting to weavers only :)

sleeping quarters

a guide, decked out in his linen (summer) costume

the outer ring of the fortress - it is quite high!

between the walls

adobed hut

the only entry point - guarded with a portcullis

front the ramparts looking for enemies

portcullis

swanky hotel I stayed in 

an avenue of flowering almond trees - supported by canola
on both sides - what you can't see was a golden pheasant strutting up the path

thatched home

looking south

Sweden's most southerly part

for Erica - tulips and jonquils

and bunches of beautiful Forget-me-nots!!  they are so tiny but so pretty

for an Ikea catalogue

the rest of the house is on holidays

in a week or two this will be one seriously shady bike path

another example of southern Swedish thatching - the timber decoration
along the roof spine is a typical southern Swedish addition

hill side of canola I had seen from way back

a mini stonehenge just on the edge of a little town

kids playing soccer at the edge of the pier.... why?

well, if you missed the ball - you gotta get it amidst loud shouting and jeering.
the water would be freezing, the wind adding its bite - but hey the sun is shining
and Swedish kids must swim!!!

almost time to buy another bag of chips!!

yep - it was a cooooool breeze

for Carl - a truck that scoops the snow from the railway tracks
and brushes them clean again

waiting in the ferry line with my bikie mates - as always