Todays adventure began in the small town of Sigtuna, once home to the viking kings, but now home to a bunch of rich people and airline pilots (because of its proximity to Arlanda airport). The town still retains its charm, with old church ruins dotted around the place.

The day before Patrik and i had come out here to check out the ice and go for a skate, but unfortunately in my dozy state i had forgotten to take my skates with me..... stupid bastard. Still we went out on the ice, and i got to try the P man's free heel skates, which was great. The ice was making lots of splitting noises, and cracks were appearing all over the place. The ice was thick (10-15cm) but the noise was a bit unnerving. However today the ice was much more quiet.

Not the earliest of starts but by noon we were on the ice and heading south towards stockholm, on the old water way used by the vikings to get from Uppsala to Stockholm (see vikingaranet). The ice was good, and although there was a bit of snow,there were more areas of nice black ice than there was snow. Along the way we were greeted by the slightly unusual sight of a guy cycling along the ice.

After about an our of reasonably paced skating we came to the area notorious for open water. We met an old guy out on the ice, and he said it was easier to take the bay to the left, and walk through the reeds, rather than take the bay to the right. So we followed his advice, and soon enough found ourselves trying to find a sensible path.

We saw a track that others had used, and 2 other guys raced in ahead without any problems. Patrik followed through and ended up knee deep in the water, the ice was a bit thinner than we thought. Not put off by this Gösta and myself took a route to the left, and soon enough were in the knee deep water/mud, leaving Jenny nice and dry on the ice. Bollocks to this! Skates off and walked back onto thicker ice, and found a drier passage onto land. A quick walk through the trees, and then back onto the thick ice on the other side of the open water. We skated on south towards Kungsängen, where we took a small break for lunch.

With the sun lying low in the sky, and having had our fill of coffee we made the 20 km journey back to Sigtuna in just over 1 hr, assisted by a slight tail wind from the south. This time we didn't get wet, and arrived back in Sigtuna as the twilight glow plunged into the long Swedish winter night. Home for a sauna and dinner...... not such a bad day.