So finally the day when I get to bike an armadillo bike.

I have an appointment with Johan Erlandsson Velove.se, the man behind the armadillo cargo bike, the ultimate cargo bike, the king of cargo bikes. Yes I want one.

So after a short ferry ride and some rain Johan arrives and we have fun with cargo bikes, and I get to test drive the armadillo, it’s amazing, it’s a quad bike with Rohloff and electro-support, there is suspension on all four wheels. On top of this there is a semi-trailer connected to it.

It’s super fast, it’s super versatile, it’s super everything, yes I want one.

Funnily enough Johan doesn’t want to trade bikes, not even if I throw in the alu-box and the spare tyre, such is life.

If you are lucky enough to live in Stockholm I have heard rumors that the armadillo will be there on the 19 September 2015 for the cargo bike exhibition on Skeppsholmen (Lastcykelmässan STHLM 2015), so go there and have a look at this amazing vehicle. Keep an eye out for a Bullit with an alu-box that might be there as well.

Johan lets me tag along as cargo bike messenger ( pling transport ), it’s great, our first assignment is to buy 8 boxes of nice beer, imagine what a great job, to bike the armadillo and haul beer, it’s like living a dream. Then Johan tells me that we actually can not keep the beer, we have to give it to the customer, ok - I knew it was to good to be true - but it was great anyways.

Johan, thanks for the test ride and see you in Stockholm !

As I am about to leave Göteborg I see a solo bike tourer several times, she’s going up and down the streets looking for something. I ask her if she needs help and she’s looking for maps of Sweden for her journey back to Germany. Since I nearly understand the locals I ask one if there is a bookstore near and there is, we ride there and I watch her bike while she’s shopping for maps. She tells me that she’d just arrived by the ferry from Denmark, she wanted to go yesterday but the ferry was fully booked. So my guess that one ferry on Monday was not enough was correct.

Getting out of Göteborg is not so easy, but after some bumping around I find what looks like an old rail road, nice and smooth all the way to Sjövik. I had about enough for one day so I ask around a bit and there is sort of a hostel there called Sjöviksgården. The room was 190 SEK.

I go there and there is a cheap room in the "Retro-hostel", they have gone for the retro look.

It’s nice to know how furniture looked 20 years before I was born, if they had cleaned the hostel would have been even nicer.

Tomorrow it will be full speed along the Sverigespåret, hoping for nice weather and many smooth kilometers.