26 August: Oskarshamn - Ekö (Kalmar)

1551.5km from Bergen in 90h43, (56*38'55"N, 16*16'51"E)
I stood up as usual (6:45), made a big porridge and wrote my daily report (yesterday evening I was too tired). When I finished to clean up my place arrived one of the two ladies from last night. We had a nice talk: she knows very well Denmark and showed me a nice way (far away from the highway) over islands to reach Flensburg quiet fast (the winter is coming). I think that I left my room a about 9:45, anyway: the reception was opening at 10am. Today I got no emails :-( But I used my time to surf on the net just to know what happens home and in other places of the world. I left Oskarshamn at noon after visiting the tourist information. I realized that I am back on RV10, the road I followed in Polen (the Baltic see road for bikers). It's a nice feeling to finish my Scandinavian tour on this road.

Kalmar

You already know that the weather plays a main role during my trip. And today I had just no idea what I had to expect from the sky: it was splited in 2 parts. On the one side there was a nice blue sky, on the other black clouds. I went on some very wet roads under a sunshine (so I was happy to leave so late the youth hostel) or felt a very light rain. At 3pm I survived a storm... During it was lightning, thundering icing and raining, I was eating a Calzone (the pizzeria was on the weight place on the wright time).

Juste bevor that storm I visited in Kronobäck (close to Mönsterås) a nice old ruin of a monastery built in 1479 by the order of St. John (medical care and medicine). The Monastery was about 63m long with a tower at the western end. Around it, there were several buildings such as dwellings, a hospice or stables (the monastery had its own farm). This monaster was important in the past (it was situated on the road between Stockholm and Kalmar) in reason of the many wars between Sweden and Denmark.

Kalmar

I really wanted to reach the island of Öland today. But I had to take the ferry or a bus (it is not allowed to go on the bridge with a bike). The south of Öland is under UNESCO and I think there might be some nice churches (I like the architecture of Swedish churches). But I did not wanted to pay any Krone the go there, so I decided to visite the city of Kalmar. Even if I visite cities Very quickly (crossing them by bike), I can see the difference between a Swedish city and a Norway one: we can read on the building that Sweeden was one of the two leading country (with Danemark) up here in Scandinavia (huge castles, monastery, military, big old cities, etc).

Sometimes... Blue sky