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Where am I?:^mistymornings-->Cycletouring-->2007-->Scandinavia.-->Day 7

Day 7-2. Hällevikstrand to Hamburgsund

Once on the ferry we waited to cross and then disembark, the few vehicles that had cross with us were well ahead of us as we got underway. The scenery was quite different to the Ginstleden now, and since crossing the Hakefjord the day before had become rather reminiscent of Norway. This on section was the spitting image of a bit of the run from Voss up to Upsete at the start of the Rallarvegen and the winding road gave us glimpses of the next section every now and again. As Damae wrote on the map "Lovely uppie downie" with an arrow pointing to the island between the first two ferries. The Dutch guide we had been using on and off described this rather more dryly. The Dutch perspective on this section was "Er zijn flink wat pittige klimmetjes" or "There are a lot of short and steep climbs".

It took us only a half hour to arrive at the second ferry, which was also ran on cables. By now there was more traffic about so we waited for all the cars to disembark, and were left with a relatively quiet road. Within an hour we arrived in Fiskebäckskil. Making our way through a section of the old town reminiscent of Skudneshavn or the cute bits of Stavanger we found the third ferry of the day that would take us to our lunch stop in Lysekil waiting in the harbour. This was a somewhat longer than the first two ferries and was a real boat rather than a barge and two sets of cables. We were enjoying the sun and the crossing; life is good as Yonas would say and the last night's mosquitos could not have been further away.

On disembarking, Damae hit the Tourist Information in the hope of finding a better map for our route. At least we were now far enough north to be just on the Freytag & Berndt map of Southern Norway, but a better map of the route itself would have been handy. I sat in the sun by the bikes watching the world go by which was pleasant. The weather was once again just a little too hot but at least it was dry. Damae returned with the only mildly surprising news that our Eur2-50 guide we had picked up once at the Fietsvakantiewinkel was indeed the only 'official' one.

Seeing as it was lunch time we cycled slowly along the sea-front looking for a place to eat. We found a small Konditori serving the usual selection of pastries, cake and coffee and treated ourselves to some of the usual pastries, cake and coffee.

Whilst we were in there a Swedish woman of a certain age stormed in saying what we suspected were rather uncomplimentary things about someone. We kept a low profile but the two Dutch guys on the table next to us chose (possibly unwittingly) to show signs of being interested. On discovering that they were not Swedish the lady changed to English and continued her tirade against the place she lived, the other inhabitants and her life as it now was. She only started softening when she began to talk about the place in the countryside she had finally been able to buy and how she would be retiring and leaving the provincial life of Lysekil behind her.

It was is some way just a little bizarre, as if we had stumbled on a street entertainer who touring the cafes and Konditoris entertaining locals and visitors alike. Outside life seemed normal and as the lady did not pull out a begging bowl after finishing her performance, I guessed she had just been in Lysekil too long. Having been in the Netherlands too long I could sympathise on some level, and the small seed of an 'action point' was planted in my brain somewhere.

It was sunny and too hot as we headed back onto the route. The road and hence the route rose sharply out of town, and after another unplanned diversion we found the NSCR again, following the headland with lovely views of the water and from where we had just come. 'Fortunately' there was a stiff headwind today, which although it made going harder it kept us cool.

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