One of our craziest, most frustrating, and wettest bicycling days of the trip. It started innocently enough with breakfast. Then I went to check out the monastery’s Lutheran church.

There was a rune stone in the graveyard behind the church.

Then we boarded a pink bus and headed for Stockholm.

After a three-hour bus ride, we arrived in Haga Park on the outskirts of Stockholm and had lunch at a nursery at the edge of the park.

A view of part of the greenhouse.

We walked past more beautiful flowers.

Haga – which means meadow – Park was founded in the late 18th century by Gustav III and is a favorite recreational area of Stockholmers.

We followed bike paths around the park, its lake and gardens, but felt like we were in the countryside. We walked our bikes past Ulriksdal Castle built in the mid- 1600s and which became a royal retreat by the late 1600s. No one, however, lives there now.

We also rode by the Copper Tents. Gustav III had these constructed in the late 18th century as housing for his guards. They were designed to resemble ancient Roman tents.

We saw lots of runners, bikers, and strollers along the park’s divergent paths.

Rain had been threatening all day and Ross and I had a late start from lunch due to missing gloves and a bike bag that did not want to get itself attached to my bike. And even though the ride was only ten miles long, we had a few issues with directions – as did everybody – that caused us to backtrack once or twice or maybe three times. As a result, we somehow missed riding by Haga Castle where Swedish Crown Princess Victoria  lives with her family.

And we missed the Echo Temple built by Gustav III in the late 1700s as a summer dining area.

We did pass by one of our landmarks – the green ice cream stand.

After about seven miles of our ten-mile route, we were on the sidewalk beside a four-lane highway and the skies opened up and it poured on us. We briefly took shelter under a tree but then rode through the rain to a gas station. Even though we only had three miles left to ride, given our current record of spousal-map reading, we figured it might be midnight before we finished so we called our guides to rescue us. And we were soaked – I took off my shoes and tried to wring out my sopping wet socks – and tracked and dripped water all over the inside of the station. But the clerks there were very helpful and we purchased hot tea and Magnum Bars while we waited for Bodhi and Phillip. They took us to the Elite Hotel Marina Tower, our home for the next three nights.

We were ready for a hot shower in our comfy room and then dinner in the hotel restaurant, glad this day was over.