The day did not begin well. On our way up to the main hotel for our breakfast, I looked at my bike. The tire was clearly close to flat. Obviously the patch, though it had helped keep me riding for a while, was not enough. But John reminded me that we had seen a bike shop in the village and that they would probably be able to put a new tube in the tire. We had a nice breakfast. I am getting a little tired of scrambled eggs all the time, and I have never really warmed up to the idea of sliced meats and cheese for breakfast, so it was deeply satisfying to discover that the Swedes apparently like peanut butter, too. Of course, since there was bacon, too, I had to make myself one of my childhood favorites, a peanut butter and bacon sandwich.
We went down to the bike shop when it opened. One of the men working there told us that technically they could not fix other bikes, but that one of the young guys who was not on his shift right now would fix it for 200 crowns. That seemed like a pretty fair price, and I readily agreed to it. He told us to come back in about a half hour. We wandered around the town and looked in the various shops. When we returned to the bike shop, we received some bad news. The tire on the bike was indeed a strange one, and they did not stock tubes for it. They could place a special order for it, but it would take a couple days to arrive from Stockholm. We explained that we were leaving tomorrow. I asked if they had bikes to rent. There was a large rack of basic three gear cruisers there. He handed me one. “No charge,” he cheerfully told us.
We went back to the room, packed our things for a journey, and headed out. My new bike was not fancy, but fortunately this island was so flat that it was perfectly adequate.
One of our first stops was the windmill, possibly the island’s most famous attraction.
The Utö windmill was built, as you might expect, by a Dutchman and it ground grain for the island for many decades. Set on one of the highest points of the island, there are some wonderful views of the archipelago.
John insists I have to include a couple pictures of me, too. But I prefer to include pictures of him. He is more handsome, anyhow.
We rode though lovely woods and by small farms. I probably should have taken some pictures of all of that, but I was having such a pleasant time riding that it did not occur to me.
There is a second village on the island, older than the one where we are staying, and it is the place where most of the islanders live. We stopped by the church.
In this part of Sweden, the churches are generally open most of the day for strangers to step in and look around. Of course, stepping into the pulpit is probably not what they expect. But John is not shy.
The rest of the building was plain with a historic organ
and these globe-like candelabras that you find in Lutheran churches all over Scandinavia.
There was a small historical display in a room off the narthex. One picture, dating from the late forties or early fifties, showed a visit from the bishop.
Unlike “low church” American Lutherans, the Swedes love vestments!
As we headed north on the island, we saw signs, mostly in Swedish, but some in English, too, warning that we were entering an army firing range. It seemed weird to place something this dangerous on the most touristed island in the archipelago. It seemed even stranger that even the army goes on vacation in July and that visitors were welcome to wander around the firing range. They were warned, of course, that there might be some unexploded ordnance. That seemed like more of a risk than I wanted to take, so I was content to take pictures of tanks both current
and out of commission.
We came to the end of the island, crossed a bridge, and what I guess is technically a second, separate island, Alö. There is a seafood restaurant at the end of this island. It looked good, but it was busy and we were not that hungry. Plus, we had brought along some snacks anyhow.
We had read that there was a beach not far from here and we rode there. I was quite surprised to find an actual sandy beach, even if it was not that large.
Cycling is probably the most popular pastime on Utö, so we passed lots of other people on bicycles. But I could not resist pulling out my phone and taking this picture as I rode.
That little dog was having a great time.
And I did, too. For a day that had begun somewhat badly, it ended wonderfully. Along with my day on Dugi Otok in Croatia, this is my second favorite day of the entire trip, I think.
Tomorrow we go home. Our adventures are coming to a close. What a great trip this has been.
