June 17: Day 47, Bollnäs-Hassela
Today was a reasonable breakfast buffet! No pastries, but they did have good museli, yoghurt, scrambled eggs, bacon. Also pancakes but I thought I'd had enough by then.
The milk options are getting more diverse. It took me a few tries to find the yoghurt; there was a carton with strawberries on it but it contained something more like jam.
From left to right: yoghurt+milk options this morning. A randomly large bench in Bollnas. I passed by a dam.
The environment is getting progressively more remote. There's long stretches with nothing but roads and trees, instead of villages there are small groups of houses. Occasionally I'll see someone mowing the lawn or doing other outside chores. But there's few people to be seen.
From left to right: an unusually long straight road. Small cluster of houses; the dark brown is nearly universal. Lake at the top of the first climb.
It's also steep. Each of the last few days has had over 1000m of climbs. The road isn't often flat, usually it's going up or down. There were two big climbs today, in the morning and late afternoon, and they both weren't smooth, there were lots of ups and downs throughout. There's lakes everywhere, and they're not just in the lowlands: there was a lake at the top of each of the climbs.
From left to right: found a very nice cake, energy for the second climb. An island on a lake before the climb. All these trees were protected by wood; maybe from wildlife? Selfie from the top of the second climb. The note pointing me to my room. Dubious pizza.
The place I'm staying tonight is the only B&B for miles. It's either here, or ride another three hours to Sundsvall. When I arrived there was no-one around. I eventually figured out which building I should go to, and there was a note for me. The front door was unlocked, so I found my room and got everything unpacked. There will be more unattended B&Bs in future, I'm sure, but I was expecting them to work a bit better!
The Wifi doesn't work, the window doesn't open, and the blackout blind doesn't cover a quarter of the glass. Not entirely happy with how this is going…
There’s also only one restaurant within 20km, and it’s a pizza place with dubious reviews. Google said it’d be open until 9, but I was worried about it closing so I headed over right after my shower. Some of the reviews complained about undercooked pizza so I wanted to avoid chicken … actually avoiding meat was probably safest. I read the menu with a risk-averse eye, a decided a Hawaiian Pizza would be best; which included pineapple, banana and curry. The guy on duty was upbeat so I’d say it was better than the reviews suggested!
Tomorrow is a short three hour ride to Sundsvall where I'm staying for two nights, and taking a rest day. I'm in a cheap but well-reviewed place, I do hope its nicer…
What I’m listening to: Bratja / Michiru Oshima: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ok3UgYZye8
