Day 16 – today we're really going back to the Swedish mainland!

So I packed up our mats and sleeping bags – we've been sleeping in the hut on the airfield at Kumlinge, haven't seen a soul yet, they leave it open. The day looked bright and all was well. The Julian checked the weather & I went out and looked up. Oh. So then Julian started looking into going East to Finland instead, hmmm. We're basically in the middle of a high (came through last night with rain) and a low, here now, which means that the weather is less ideal across Scandinavia. So we had a think about what to do and I got ready to go swim at a nearby beach I'd scouted out from the air as we came in to land yesterday. And the thunder started, so I got Julian to come with me before the weather got too bad. Hmmm the rock entry to the water (no reeds the other nearby entries to the water are obscured by reeds) takes us past 2 houses, both of which appear not to be habited. Luckily in Scandinavia you have a right of way across all land, even private. So we were 5m from the water when there was a massive lighning bolt accompanied by really loud thunder which made me cover my ears. I was behind Julian who saw the lightning strike the reeds on the other side on the lake area we were trying to swim in..... So since the rain was pretty heavy by this time we decided to take our wilderness wash (non-toxic to the environment) and have a rain shower. Julian washed and rinsed out his hair before I decided that I would manage this feat too, which I did. Luckily the rain here is warm unlike the cold Melbourne rain and it really was just like taking a shower, apart from the splashback of tree bits up our legs.

Back at the hut I got bitten behind the knee by a horsefly, which over the course of a couple of hours blew up to 20cm diameter and 1cm deep and really quite sore, why do all the bites etc. happen to me and none to Julian? This is definitely an ad against expensive hair removal, maybe hairy legs would have saved me????

Day 15 - tick blues and flight training

Well we kept the tick in a zip lock bag (thanks Nick for all those small zip-locks!) and took it first thing to the Apotek, which I had luckily seen in my travels the previous day & my German allowed me to recognise as a chemist. It was a pretty amazing place from the 1860s with all the brown glass ground neck bottles, wooden drawers of various herbs and chemicals and a lovely wooden cash register (no longer in use). The chemist explained that we'd got all of the tick out (phew), I was worried about breaking off its head, which apparently isn't that bad either, and that my tick was a 3 year old female, cool. She also told us what to look out for if it had given me either of the diseases and reassured me that the bacteria needs the tick to have lodged itself in you for a few days, phew, just have to watch out for flu-like symptoms and go to a hospital if they occur.....

Old style chemist

and from the outside

So after that reassurance we decided to check the weather and continue on back to Sweden. Well it was looking wild and woolly in Sweden so we thought we'd go to nearby Mariehamn on a larger island of the Aaland archipelago. We'd been told that Mariehamn was a party (and ferry) boat destination with duty free alcohol so we were expecting something a bit wilder than quiet Kumlinge, but to be honest with you it wasn't. It had a lot of downmarket looking bars, clothes shops and a large supermarket, a few sand beaches (d'oh no bathers again and the Scandinavians again failed to live up to their nudist reputation), we spent about 3h there and then moved on.

a church in Mariehamn

Total landing bill €25, fuel €2.44/L (quite expensive), place: cycle paths 9/10; town 2/10; beaches 6/10

Kumlinge 1: Mariehamn 0

The weather started looking a bit iffy around 5pm so after picking up some smoked salmon from the smokery on the fishing harbour we happened to come across (€18.90 / kg), we hurried back to the airfield and my flying lesson continued back to Kumlinge.

It's funny but I've been telling everyone else, but never told Julian it appears, that I had the intention to learn how to fly in our plane, so since he realised he's been telling me the theory and getting me to practise turning etc. I'm already pretty good at straight and level, as sometimes there is stuff on the ground that needs photographing out his window / maps that need folding / he needs a rest. Before this starts to scare you, the pilot in command (P1) is allowed to let anyone fly a plane under their supervision, which in practice means that the co-pilot (P2) of your Boeing / Airbus is often doing the landing of your plane, with their 250 hours of experience (50 of which on a flight simulator) – have you ever wondered why your Ryanair / Easyjet flight lands which such a bang on the runway???

Anyway I'm no where near taking off or landing yet :-)

Day 14 – Skaa to Kumlinge - tick magnet

We flew over Stockholm itself and then across the sea to the start of Finland the Aland archipelago.  We landed on Kumlinge, an airstrip ending on the sea & beautifully quiet. A lovely undisturbed ecosystem with a whole variety of different plants & wildlife (inc ticks, mozzies & horseflies). The runway is lined with bluebells, cornflowers & reeds. I picked up a bluebell to have a closer look at the flower & discovered there was a fat bumblebee head down in the flower and let it fall again in a hurry! 

We lunched on a quiet rock by the water: smoked reindeer bought in NK department store, which tasted almost resiny from the pine smoke – very thin slices with loads of flavour. Also the divine French washed rind goats cheese found at the covered market in Stockholm and a very ripe Swedish blue, described as being 'like Rocquefort'. Not to forget the smoked eel (very rich) and beautiful smoked salmon, with a lovely crispy skin. 

We bumbled around all day on the bikes, coming to the conclusion that 399 inhabitants (or 370 depending on which part of the local authorities' website you find most up to date) means that you really see no one around. We went to the ferry port and there were several tourists' cars (mainly Finland & Estonia), and tourists on hire bikes but really not much else. It's funny the island is Finnish, but 95% of the population speak Swedish, and all the guest house ads stapled to the barn at the ferry port were written in Swedish. 

waiting for the ferry

We continued on our way trying to explore all the main (& many of the minor roads) & finally came upon the Remmarhamn (guest marina): the significance of this place is that in looking on Kumlinge's website I discovered that they hold a market every Tuesday evening (18.30) at the Remmarhamn, which is not marked on any map, so was causing me a large amount of (understandable) worry. We took the bridge over to a neighbouring island but decided to turn back and have a closer look at the marina, getting there at about 6pm. At which point there were 3 trestle tables and not much else. Hmmmm. So we chatted to some Finns who were sailing the archipelago and drinking in the marina's pub and by the time we turned around again the entire island's population were queueing up at the trestles. So we hurried back, as one of the few items already laid out was one of the traditional carved wood Swedish bread knives, which I'd been looking for, and I had a gut feeling that someone else would buy them. But I was lucky. Julian scored an amazing gooseberry tart, really a very simple thing, just some fresh gooseberries baked on what was essentially a shortbread base (shortcrust pastry with extra sugar), but lovely. I got a local fish of some variety, that was selling remarkably quickly at 12€ a fish, as well as a huge block of lovely cured salmon (5.50€) - dill on top, a bit of sugar in the cure at a guess, along with some great citrus notes – I guess grated lemon & orange rind. So we changed our dinner plans and had the smoked fish with steamed veggies for dinner.

the market going off

Julian with gooseberry pie

After which I discovered I had a tick on my back, and did the usual 'just get it off me!'  So despite my better knowledge I had Julian burn it with a cigarette lighter, then once dead I got him to do what would have been the right thing in the first place & twist it out with my tweezers. The sight of the little legs scrabbling as it munched into me was too much to bear. So for all you Europeans reading this blog: I have never been bitten by anything nastier than a mosquito in Australia, but in Sweden I have been bitten by a tick potentiallly carrying a nasty bacteria or TBE virus and in London I have been bitten on the face overnight by what I think was a spider as my cheek was numb for over a month. Which just goes to show that if you want to sleep safe and sound in your bed at night, avoid Europe and come to Oz.

Day 13 - Swedish bug horror stories

Today we rode into Stockholm, did a bit of a loop around town, went to the covered market in Ostermalm for some awesome cheese and smoked fish that we ate beside what we thought was a canal but turned out to have been the waterway separating 2 islands, so we found ourselves yet again cycling the same coast line.  We had a few difficulties as the cycle path ended up taking us through a museum's grounds and sort of disappearing, but otherwise it was a good ride.  At Mats & Tina's we had really good hamburgers and heard all about all the nasty diseases Swedish insects can carry and about the one poisonous snake they have over here, which all sounds a bit worrying!  Otherwise a great fun evening.

Day 12 - rain rain go away

Sweden is being hit by a series of lows, and with the inclement weather, we decided to take a day off and chat to Jarl & Esther.  Esther is a big black dog in search of a home in the Stockholm region, Jarl is great to chat to & one of the reasons we stayed in Stockholm so long.  In the afternoon we met Mats & Tina, and will be going to visit them for a bbq tomorrow.

Hmm, haven't kept up to date with the blog as I would like: I seem to have missed a day.....

Day 10 - cycling and canoeing around Stockholm Drottningholm (Kings palace)

It took us a while to get going and prepared in the morning. The low pressure system was causing gray skies and forbidding weather. So we cycled part of the way to Stockholm to hire a canoe. It was really nice on the water and it is surprising how slowly you (I) go in an old fibreglass hire canoe. We decided to turn back after 30mins and only make it an hour's rental, but we were lucky in that we got to see the bridge open from the water to let all the boats through.

massive bridge opens

Then we went to Drottningholm, only to discover that it closes at 4.30pm..... Which would have given us less than an hour in the castle, so we contented ourselves with a look from the outside and a stroll through the formal gardens. We are constantly surprised by the closing hours here in Sweden (same problem in the Nordiska museet), which just goes to show that we probably shouldn't have stopped off to look at some really very lovely furniture at Ekeroe Mobil, a large wooden framed barn. I found my perfect armchair: a lovely comfortable moulded fibreglass form with leather on the outside and fabric covering the seat and back. Fabulous. Yours for only 40 000 SEK (approx £4000 or AUD $8000), yours, not mine!

That night there was a massive downpour, which was so loud that I actually couldn't sleep for the drumming on the roof! If only we'd put the cover on the plane.

Day 9 - Skaa Edeby

Day off! Time to catch up with those blogs.

Day 8: Stockholm

Today was the day to try a real bike ride. So we went to the local store to get some cash out to buy bus tickets. Long story short, we ended up riding all over the island and then when we got to the bus stop we discovered it was card payment..... And then the bus arrived before we'd managed to work out the system. Luckily the bus driver said just hop on, put the bikes in the back. We were ???? so he came around the back and showed us the special bike rails on the back of the massive bendy bus and watched us tie it on securely. As an aside, one thing that really amazed me was that everyone in Sweden and Denmark, bus and truck drivers included speaks excellent English. In fact the older generation (I'm talking 70-80 year olds) speaks better English than the 20 years olds.

Anyway we caught the bus to Brommaplan then decided to ride in from there. Brommaplan is where Stockholm's main airfield is located and is the equivalent of being outside the M25 or peripherique. So we started our ride in an industrial area and I thought to myself, what a stupid idea to ride this far into town.  We crossed several bridges with great vantage points on the city and were in the centre in 8kms.  Well with a little stop off at a beach to eat lunch and bemoan our lack of forethought in not bringing our bathers!  A lot of Sweden (so far) seems relatively new, even for us Aussies, but really very nice.  The lovely city hall was built in 1915. Apparently the church with cast iron steeple I was admiring is actually one of the oldest, but I think the steeple is new.  

City hall

The weather has been unusually warm (read heat wave) so we took it pretty easy and had a few naps under trees, ending up at the Nordisk Museet at 4pm.  We didn't realise that it closes at 5pm until 4.45.....  It was a fascinating ethnography museum with costumes, furniture and even re-built rooms from houses.  It was surprising to see how much the Swedish standard of life has increased post-WWII.

The ride back to Skaa was fine, lots of gear changing as we went up and down hills and under roads and beside tunnels wherever the bike path took us.

Random beached ship we saw in a canal on the way back to the airfield

Total kms 50

Day 7: Bornholm - Stockholm (Skaa Edeby)

So we sadly said goodbye to Bornholm today, and set off on the 3h journey up to Skaa Edeby (Stockholm).  I have to admit that I had a bit of a nap in the middle so excuse the lack of photos and detailed way description.  I was amazed by how much sparser the population in Sweden is & how many more forests we flew over.

Skaa Edeby airstrip

When we arrived we met a lot of people and were shown the best place to put up our tent: under the wing of an Antonov - an old Siberian air transport machine that apparently took 10 people, 10 goats, and several hundred kilo of potatoes.  It's a really massive plane and currently out of service with no intention of putting it back in, due to the amount of fuel it uses (radial 9 cylinder engine).  Its name is Boz so they're planning to make it into a pub, which sounds like an excellent idea to me!  At the time of writing (several days later) I've been using it in the traditional Siberian manner: using it to hang my washing out to dry.....

real camping under the wing

Not much to report as we just socialised.  Julian made tuna mornay on rice for dinner, which turned out surprisingly well, considering that we had no milk and the carton we borrowed from the fridge was actually mjolke, a kind of yoghurt....

Mjolke

The sunset was really lovely that night, but as always the camera was inferior to the human eye...

Day 6: Bornholm

I was determined to make it to Svaneke. And we did, but got the bus back.... Most of the ride was through a big pine forest in the centre of the island, which is really lovely, especially in the really remarkably sunny weather we've been having. Svaneke itself was pretty, but pretty full of tourists, so we kept going pretty quickly. 

Forest cycle way

When the bus brought us back to the main town, Ronne, we went for a walking tour in one of my brochures – lots of lovely half timbered houses with massive rosebushes and maybe tree peonies growing out of little holes in the cobblestones. The brochure struggled a bit to find much more than a 1915 church and lots of pretty cobblestoned streets lined with half-timbered houses, but they did their best. 

One of the many pretty streets in Ronne with half timbered houses and large flowers

I got a big chunk of wacky Danish cheese, which I'm not too thrilled about, but Julian seems to like it. I also had some with carraway, but what Julian didn't eat last night, the hedgehog took care of in several long bouts of noisy licking.... I was curious at the time as to what piece of plastic it had bitten into at one point: turned out to be Julian's peanut packet...

Mmmm wacky Danish cheese in the eating area of the camp ground

Day 5: Endelave - Bornholm

I was awake early. So we were ready to take off shortly after 9am. We've been using the spare headsets, which are a more economical style, but the noise has been a bit much, so we switched to the old headsets, which was a huge improvement. 

Swedish church on the way to Bornholm

Ronne harbour, Bornholm

The flight to Bornholm was pretty smooth: good weather, Sweden, whose airspace we crossed, wouldn't even talk to us, they were so disinterested in what we were doing. Once landed at Bornholm it only took us 40mins to refuel, get cash to pay for the fuel, put together the bikes and trailer, then pack what we needed for a 1 to 2 night stay. The airport official who came looking for us to give us a booklet about Bornholm after Julian enquired as to the whereabouts of the islands best fish smokery, was of the opinion that Svaneke (300km from Russia and at the easternmost point of the island) was unmissable, so we set off with the intention of camping there. But then we thought that maybe 35km with the trailer might be a bit long for our dormant cycling legs, so we stopped at the first camping site we arrived at. And were gobsmacked. All French camp site owner (and English ones for that matter), should be made to spend a week in a Danish camp site. There was a fully equipped kitchen (3 peelers, 12 or so primus stoves, 2 whisks, toasters, coffee machines, etc. etc.), and then the play equipment! They don't have any set camp sites, you just find yourself a spot and it's all very nice and friendly. 

Ju in the camp kitchen, note all the stoves

Once set up we went to Halse with it's fish smokery for a late second lunch and provisions for the evening/ next day. Lovely. Bornholm is known for it's herrings, which used to be known as Bornholm's silver, but are now Bornholm's gold (smoked).  

Purchasing a cucumber from one of many roadside stalls on the way to Hasle. As appears to be usual in Denmark there was much more trash and treasure than vegetables, which is for me a little disappointing!

Outside the smoke house

smoked herring

smoking ovens

afternoon tea, mmm garlic smoked prawns

Day 4: Endelave

We left Osnabrueck yesterday to outrun the weather and get to Endelave, a small Danish island. Jens & Katrin Toft have a farm there, and cut an airstip beside their orchard 46 years ago. The airstrip is bounded at one end by sand dunes and the sea and the other by a road with ditches either side and his neighbour's barley field on the other side of the road. The landing instructions warn you to avoid the neighbour's barley, but I found the Piper archer with a broken nose leg from landing on the road and driving through the ditch an even more resounding warning about landing too early.

gratuitous shot of wind turbines, Jan's mother complains that there are not enough, but I have never such a large concentration, this is just one patch of dozens scattered across Niedersachsen.

coming in to land at Endelave

When we arrived we had afternoon tea with Jens and family (including some of their grandchildren). I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that the Danish actually do eat Danishes. These were a lot nicer than the ones you get in the frozen aisle of the supermarket. Everyone we've met here so far has been incredibly nice and offered some great suggestions as to where to go. Jensens cousin in Copenhagen has an airstrip too, which will will definitely be looking up, as our other option, Roskilde really is a difficult connection by public transport. 

Jens is very passionate about flying and machines, and look after what must be at least 50 bikes that they lend to visiting aviators to see the island. Jens repairs bits that I didn't even know existed on the bikes, which is very impressive and has painted all his bikes them red. Jens and Katrin both speak perfect German and excellent English. Meeting them reminded me that I need to work on learning a few more languages, at will at least pick up a smattering in the different countries I visit..Their former neighbours were around for afternoon tea too, and they drove an Ape (bee in Italian) – a little 3 wheeled 'truck' made by Piaggio – it's 2 stroke and has a front bench that is wide enough for 2 at a pinch, very cute and must be immmensely practical if you live in a village with narrow streets.

We put up our tent in the middle of their orchard – under hazlenut trees (much safer for the tent colouring than the nearby cherry trees!), not too close but not too far from the most attractive drop toilet I've ever seen - with a heart shaped seat and window in the door and an arrow going through the heart shaped door handle acting as a latch.

Julian having dinner under a hazlenut tree

Endelave itself is a tiny island, we rode from our westernmost tip to the easternmost tip today, to see the German beach: the best bathing beach on the island. There were some quite impressive kelp trees in the water, one of which had little barnacles growing from its leaves. Little family groups were dotted along the beach (3 within view of us, so not too busy), having picnics or lighting fires for bbqs: all very much like what we had seen of Denmark / southern Sweden on tv.

cycling on Endelave, didn't take many pix

Day 3: Osnabrueck

We managed to flee the nasty lows gathering around England at the moment and buzzed straight through France, Belgium and the Netherlands to see Jan in Osnabrueck.  I haven't seen him in 7 years, so it was lovely to catch up again.  Now the weather is looking a bit ominous here so we're moving on to an Danish island to camp under the wing.  More updates later!

Day 2: Osnabrueck

I met Jan when he was studying for a year in Australia and he is truly the nicest person I've ever met, so it behove me to see him whilst in the area. The landing at the nearby Bohmte-Bad Essen - airstrip was fine, but it turned out that my PPR (prior permission request) via email wasn't enough, although the reply I received lead me to expect that I could just fly in and park. The email had surprised me as my (correct) understanding of the German regulations is that someone always has to meet you on the airfield (which they did by hazard anyway), but figured that the person emailing me would know best! The astonished gentleman who watched us land explained to me quite nicely why it absolutely wouldn't do for people to just appear like we had done, although of course since we were overseas visitors it would be ok, but for next time, you understand! In the end they were very kind and worked out that if the wind got up again to the 120km/h of that Monday they would be able to juggle the planes and fit ours in the hangar. I feel very bad that the clubroom was shut when we left and we couldn't leave a contribution for the coffee fund.

While in Bad Essen we had a look at their lovely Fachwerkhaeuser (half timbered houses) and went to the Landesgartenschau, a several month long garden festival being held in the region. We started off with a local park around the swimming pools and nursing home, in which an artist had built a salt extractor: salt water from the sea or from underground salt is trickled down a structure of branches, and it crystallises on the twigs in the sun. Once a large amount of salt has crystallised out, the salt is knocked off the twigs and burnt to remove any remaining wood, to get pure cooking salt. We also went to a castle (Schloss Ippenburg) that we had seen from the air – a few years ago they allowed artists and landscape architects to come and be creative in their gardens as a display of their work, which really was most impressive and a fantastic idea. I wonder if I'll be able to convince some people to do the same on my suburban block???

Bad Essen town square

Salt extractor

The now closed indoor swimmingpool refunctioned as a plant exhibition

Schloss Ippenburg from the air, note nice gardens

and from the ground

In the evening we went for a quick look around Osnabrueck – at the old city walls and some of the Fachwerkhaeuser, it really is a lovely little town.  

Flight testing finished!

It took a little while due to some silly little things like my having dropped the bundy bushes out of one of the flaps in the test & trim again phase (which meant that it was really hard to land as the flaps are like flying brakes).  And wouldn't you know it that the only bolts I didn't tighten, because I thought they'd be coming out again, were the only bolts that weren't taken out 4 times in the course of testing, grrrr.

Anyway it's all finished now and flying well - apparently our fuselage is very straight (which I would like to take credit for, but can't honestly do so).  Gary who did the flight testing took me out as an observer for one of the flights, & we flew over the Welney bird hide, around Ely cathedral which somehow looks quite different from the air, and up to the Denver lock.  The system of canals around Norfolk is quite amazing, dug out around 1760 by a Dutchman, as before that the land was swampy.  I met a lovely couple on a sourdough bread making course at the Denver Windmill, Dov and Rebecca, who spend 4-5 months each year touring England on their narrowboat and who explained all about the canal system.

I have a couple of lovely photos of the windmill as seen past a barley field with poppies poking out amongst the grain, which I will add at some point I hope.  Apologies if I've gone all Denglish today, I've been working on places to go in Germany.

Back to the desk: it's time to plan!

Sorry for the lack of blog updates, it's all been pretty busy!

At the moment we're sitting in London doing some hard core flight planning - which is of course not 'just' flight planning, but working out destinations and what there is to see at the destinations etc.  So any suggestions of not to be missed destinations would be most appreciated!

I was pretty pleased to discover that Rothenburg-ob-der Taube isn't too expensive to fly into and even provides showers for camping visitors.  There are so many great places to go, but I have to admit that there is a great hole in my knowledge of middle Germany.  I am sad to say that Dresden and Leipzig are out as they don't seem to have any small airfields anywhere near them, ditto Nuremburg.  But we've also found some stunning looking places I'd never heard of before e.g. Blaubeuren.