Biking Saga

Mood: Much improved in recovery
Music: Beatles, Aphex Twin

Hey folks,

I'm feeling way better than yesterday... which was a day of super recovery for me. We went for a long bike ride the day before... our longest trek thus far, but spanning such a long amount of time that I have never ridden out of need or sheer mind power. I mean, when we figure the numbers, they're not that impressive, but in the moment, it sure was.

We biked 75 km or roughly 46.6 miles. It took us about 5.5 hours with a several stops to check our map for directions. It's crazy how un-representative the maps are to real streets, or how a bike path that looks clear as day on the map turns into nothingness and you just sort of lose yourself in a town or something. Sometimes, that really got on my nerve! But, it was a beautiful day, not too sunny/hot, and later in the evening, so we had more gentle sunlight to contend with than mid-day sun. Oh, and a really clear day. From the beach we ended up at, you could see Malmö with the Turning Torso building and the bridge to Copenhagen was clearer than when we've visited southern cities!

We biked north of Lund and then west to the coast and we rode to the beach, eventually to have an energy bar, where the beach had beautiful white sand and loads of campers and folks just resting in their evening. Real pleasant, that's for sure. We rode right past the nuclear power plant that's been shut down or is nearly done being shut down due to popular demand/complaints just to have it shut down. This is where we got a bit lost... ended up riding south as we hoped but then that path just ended and we had to ride back north to ride back south. Oh man, that's when I really started to get just tired. We had hoped to just ride along the coast south, but that obviously didn't work! Back north then south and we didn't see signs again for Lund, and were just about to the town on the coast south of Lund called Lomma (I've shown pictures of there before). Fortunately, we just found a route that would bring us into Lund from almost due west. Oh man, this was the stretch where we just had to ride slow and steady. Too far to walk, the gentlly setting sun (takes about 1.5-2 hours when it approaches the horizon, not at all like Chicago, where it'd be gone in a half hour or less) and shear exhausted muscles!

If we knew we'd be out that long, we would have stopped for a real meal somewhere. I think we thought it'd be 3-4 hours, not 5.5. We figured, no locks because we won't need to stop anywhere. Boy, what a journey! So, I spent all of yesterday moving migranely slow and just recovering. I was hurting so bad! I think the only 2 times that sorta compare would be my first few tries snowboarding with total body pain, or learning to roast coffee in that first week of serious heavy lifting! But, I must say, after taking it real and slow yesterday, even going for a slow nature walk to gently massage the muscles a bit, I feel really good today and I hope we can fit in another ride tomorrow!

We did want to go to Göteborg beginning with this Saturday, but we've decided to wait just a couple more weeks and try to get in a few more distance rides. So, we will head north to Landskrona (which we can take a short ferry to an island and bike around) and Helsingborg above that which we can take a ferry to Denmark and then bike down the coast to Copenhagen and take a ferry or train into Malmö or all the way to Lund. That'd be a nice long and beautiful ride; can't wait for that one. Also, we're planning to head south to where Doug's friend Alex (a guy a know of from the States also... high school days). That'd take all day too. Not sure if we'd take a train back or sleep somewhere, that sort of timing though.

But after this last ride, it's clear I need a little more working up than to head for Göteborg this soon. But we'll take a more relaxed rhythm when we go especially since we know it'll take 4-5 days of riding.

In the mean time, on days off, we've been making this place more homey. We've painted the deck/balcony. For some reason, the association thought pavement gray was a great colour! Well, we found a nice warm off white colour that just about matches the indoor walls to paint the exterior walls into a creamy warm and inviting colour. It's called Cafe Latte! And we kept the far wall gray that has all the windows. We hope to paint a plant style mural with 3-D origami flowers and leaves in a corner. Doug had added a cool wood floor to the concrete floor to make it more warm too. We've got a red and white stripe couch in our basement storage, but it needs a little TLC cleaning. Yeah, it'll be a great room to read in, enjoy the weather, type and read blogs!

Sorry I haven't posted the water lily pics, there's a lot of photos to photoshop and change their sizing, so don't worry, they'll be coming soon. They really are too beautiful to keep from you all!
Talk to y'all soon.

By the way, anybody seen the second Pirates of the Caribbean? We're gonna go on Saturday, but I hear it's selling really well in the States. Anybody seen, like, or hate it?

Peace.