Labdien,

Kilometers cycled so far: 13386

I lost track of the days a bit lately, so this month's Lowedown is a little late...

Denmark:

After the last update I spent a few days in Copenhagen, fully appreciating this fantastic city. I checked out Christiavia, a squatters camp set up over thirty years ago. It's still going strong in its alternative and laid-back way. Then it was off to the State Art Museum for a bit of culture.

For culture of a different kind, I couldn't miss the Carlseberg Brewery. I went with a couple of girls I'd met at the hostel and met another Aussie cyclist there. What was supposed to be a half day visit turned into a full of beer tasting as the generous guys behind the bar didn't mind handing out free beer coupons. Then a visit to Tivoli, a permanent amusement park in the centre of town. Tivoli was not typically my thing, but it topped off a very good day out.

I left Copenhagen and cycled north to have a bit of a look at the spectactular Frederiksborg and Kronborg (Hamlet's) castles. Then it was onto the ferry for the short trip to Helsingborg, Sweeden.

Sweeden:

I knew bugger all about Sweeden before I arrived, excpept that it was expensive. But I was pleasently surprised with how rural it was. It was easy to fine quiet (often dirt) roads winding through lush pine forest and lakes. And the beautiful sunny days made it extra nice.

It's legal to camp pretty much anywhere on public land to light camp fires in Sweeden, so I took full advantage of this. So I stunk of smoke and looked like a bit of wild man when I went into town after three days of doing this - makes for a few stares in the supermarket.

So I headed north-east and hit the eastern shore of the big and beautiful Lake Vattern. Another interesting stop was a visit to the largest runestone in Sweeden at Rok, which I found pretty much by accident.

Stockholm was another great city and I could have spent much longer here. But in my short stay I managed to fit in a ride around Gala Stan and out to the grand Drottningholm palace and a visit to the Vasa Museum. The Museum was especially interesting and houses a magnificently preserved, 360 year old Sweedish battleship, complete with about 700 carvings, which sank just 20 minutes into it's maiden voyage.

Estonia:

After a 13 hour overnight ferry trip from Stockholm, I hit Tallinn in the morning and immediatly liked this city. Its a fairly small city and has an interesting medieval old town. As I checked into the hostel I met another Aussie bloke, so we hooked up for a couple of days to see what Tallinn had to offer. In Sweeden I had given up the beer for the two weeks while I was there (if you can believe that). Estonia has no shortage of good, cheap beer, so it was time to refuel. After a couple of days in Tallinn I headed south to Tartu and Otepaa, before crossing over to Latvia.

Latvia:

Still heading south I had the plan of taking in the Gauja valley, but the weather turned a little grey. So I had a nice stop at Cesis to see the impressive ruins of the castle before gunning it to Riga.

I'm waiting for my Polish visa, so have been hanging out Riga for quite almost a week. It's a little larger than Tallinn and has a very nice, cosmopolitan vibe. I went out on Saturday night and hooked up with a bit of crazy Latvian bloke. We in turn met up with a larger group and I vaguely remember linking arms and singing (yelling) Latvia songs as we walked to the next club - a very good night. On a more sobering note, yesterday I went to the Latvian Occupation Museum which details the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Latvia, it was very interesting and well done. It also showed me how little I know about European history.

So that's about all from this month's edition. From here its on to Lithuaina and then Poland.