Day: July 31, 2025

Following the canal

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Linkoping, Sweden

I was feeling better today. We had a lovely breakfast at the hotel and hit the road. Riding down the main walk along the canal I found out how great it is to a have a bell on the bike. There were about 8 people across the path. One little DING from my bell and they all turned at once and swiftly moved over so we could pass.

Heading out of town, we continued on the gravel trail beside the canal.

Part of the bike trail is a bike ferry up part of the canal to a lake.

We then went on a lovely one-lane country road.

Oh look! A house with BOTH red and yellow!

Made it to Linkoping before 4 pm. It’s a relatively big city compared to the cute little towns we were in the previous nights. We searched for our Airbnb.

Is THIS it?!?

Um. Yes.

Ok, the back entrance looks better.

And it’s totally cute inside!

Oh, and there’s a greeter cat named Puma!

Went down town to see the sights and have dinner.

Then we went to what we translated as Church Garden. I LOVE gardens! … It was a cemetery. Not the plantings we had anticipated…

Should I have picked the other way?

OSMAnd provided two alternatives to get from Linkoping to Kisa. It flipped back and forth depending on whether I selected the “Consider terain” option. In the end I picked the option that appeared the most direct and easy to navigate. Not the route considering terrain.

We climbed more today with a number of extended hills. I considered before I left home replacing my current 32-tooth rear cassette with a 36-tooth cassette (something I swapped out on Linda’s bicycle to make her more able to climb). Kinda missed that I hadn’t done that for myself today.

We found a lovely AirBnB in Kisa. Linda spent part of the evening talking politics with the host.

Over hill, over dale, and another hill…

Thursday, July 31

Linkoping to Kisa, Sweden

Today was lovely! The weather was perfect – temps now in the low 70s, beautiful puffy clouds, and idyllic Swedish countryside. But also hills. Lots of hills! Did I say I LOVE this e-bike?!? Yes, I still do!

Got to our cute B&B in Kisa.

The host, Roger, was great. I sat and chatted with him a bit on the deck. He explained some basics of Swedish politics. We talked about how great the biking is in Sweden. He says the Swedish are very focused on safety.

He also explained the houses that are painted red. In olden times, the wealthy folks had red brick houses, often with sandstone on the corners. When less wealthy folks could afford to paint there wooden structures, they chose a similar red and would paint vertical corner slats in white.

He had no explanation for all the yellow houses, although I keep seeing yellow brick houses, so maybe it’s the same copy-cat explanation.