Day: August 1, 2025

We had a brief chat with Roger, our AurBnB host, this morning, learning that “Kinda” is the name of the municipality. We also learned that, despite Linda’s desire, there aren’t many rabbits (or hares) in the region. She’s been wanting a picture of one ever since we saw one in Stockholm and she missed her chance. Not many squirrels either. In theory there are hares on Gotland though.

The first 10 km from Kisa took us from 106 m to 243 m, the highest elevation of the trip so far. In steep increments. We’d first planned this trip sans e-bike, and that would have been a disaster.

We’ve been passing scat by the side of the road for the past few days, and wondering at its source. Sadly, we passed a dead badger by the side of the road today, but at least now know the creature involved. Not bunnies!

We stopped for lunch next to a lake with a group of teens settled in for their own lunch. While we were there two more groups of ~15 arrived, also by canoe(s). They’re Germans on a 2-week canoeing expedition.

52 km today to Vimmerby, home of Astrid Lindgren (and the all-important Astrid Lindgren World theme park). Tomorrow will be longer, but have us arrive in Oscarsham and the ferry to Gotland in a couple days. There may be bunnies

When we walked out for dinner and groceries, Linda complained of a rock in her shoe. When we got back to the room she couldn’t find one, so she removed the insole only to find a metal spike! At some point, weeks ago, she’d stepped on a nail and it’s been aggravating her since. Fixed now.

Every day we hang up laundry to dry. In this hotel we had a mini-split AC unit, unusual in that the hotels we’ve stayed in haven’t had AC (and the rooms have often been quite warm). However, clothes don’t dry well with cold air. The hotel had screwed the battery-powered wireless remote control to the wall so you couldn’t change it. With a torx screw. Which is part of my toolkit… Some adjustments later and we had everything dry in the morning. I even remembered to set the control back the way it was!

Friday, August 1

Kisa to Vimmerby, Sweden

This morning I walked around the garden at our Airbnb.

Then we headed out. Rick started us out with a shortcut on a small “road”.

We had to do a bit of walking on part of the “road”.

After that, we spent a lot of time going up what some would call a hill, but it seemed like a small mountain to me. All lovely forested area. Me buzzing along on my e-bike behind Rick as he pedaled away. No, I do not feel guilty. As I told Rick, if not for the e-bike, I’d just stop and say “Call me a cab!”

Scenery snapped from the bike:

Most interesting road kill: a badger. Looked kind of like this one

but lighter markings on the face and of course, more dead. I speculated that he had pale markings because he was elderly. Maybe his eyesight wasn’t so good either.

We stopped for lunch on a rock by a lake. Turned out to be a popular area. There were 3 groups of German high school aged kids doing a 2-week summer adventure camp. They canoed up, found separate shady spots and gathered for lunch. There was some brief singing – the kids, not us.

Made it to the town of Vimmerby, known for being the home of Astrid Lundgren, author of Pippi Longstocking. There’s even a Pippi Longstocking theme park in the area! Info on it notes that all the plays are in Swedish because everybody knows all the stories, so the language won’t matter.