Saturday 28th June

After a late bit of a sleep in and some breakfast I went to the bike shop and eventually purchased a very nice new road bike. A LeMond Versailles. It’s an all carbon frame with Shimano 105 (mid range) components. I spent more than I probably should have, but it doesn’t sound as bad when the number is in Euros, and I figured that I needed something that I could really enjoy. After picking a bike I then went about choosing some riding gear, so I left the shop with quite a lot of stuff. After playing and bumming around at home for some time, I finally went for a ride that afternoon. I was going to ride to a small town 20k’s away and then back. But when I got there quicker than I expected and still feeling very strong I kept going for 10k’s more and finally decided it was time to turn around. After changing direction I realised I had been riding in a tailwind the whole time which meant that it was going to be much tougher getting home.

On Sunday I went on a ‘Sauna Sail’ (for want of a better term) with some other foreigners. This was basically a barge powered by two outboard motors mounted under the deck. On top of the barge were located two timber huts with fake thatched roofs. In one hut was an open fire in the centre with seats around the outside, the other hut again has seating around the perimeter but this time has a Sauna stove in the centre, such comprised of a timber fuelled stove covered in rocks with a easily accessible source of water and some aromatic oils. Once aboard the barge the lines are cast off and it’s motored out into the centre of the lake, the anchor is dropped and the ‘captain’ gets in the tinny he’s towed out and leaves you there for 4-5 hours. The Afternoon was then spent swimming (sometimes very briefly) then getting in the sauna for 15-20 minutes and then swimming again. It’s a surprisingly relaxing experience and once we’d had enough we dried off and entered the other hut and ate smoked fish and bread and other things we’d brought with us, drank beer and waited for the captain the return and take us back to shore, not that we were fussed if he took a while. After leaving the boat it poured with rain almost immediately (it was well timed).