Siggi

Late night last night, late start in the morning. I wasn't up until nine which is quite unusual nowadays. After a long breakfast I started making the salad i was assigned to make for the double birthday party tomorrow. We reckon fifty people will arrive, I think there is enough because everyone is meant to bring whatever they want to grill, while salad is on us (me) to fix.

After lunch and salad-making I considered myself entitled to an ice-cream at the harbour nearby. There I met Siggi, who just arrived by the bicycle-ferry from Kalmar. He lives just across the German border in the southernmost part of Jutland in Denmark. He's a pensioner but is still working at his upholstery workshop during winters. Every summer he makes trips using his bicycle around Europe. He's cycled from Jutland to Sweden and has arrived at Öland, where he wants to see the windmills and whatever fits in his sphere of interest. After Öland he goes To Gotland, then Stockholm, Åland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and then back to Denmark. Impressive trip and an interesting character. He looks like a vagabond but then he showed me his self-built wagon and bicycle. The wagon has electric fans and heating and he cooks himself of course. On the roof he has solar panels so that he can charge his batteries for the wagon and bicycle. The bicycle has double brakes and two electric motors, one for each wheel, necessary because the wagon weighs about150 kg so he uses it only when he goes somewhere flat. In Norway and Iceland, he used another, lighter wagon. He uses GPS and has no hurry.

I'm glad I met this interesting man and had a good chat. Apparently he's very good at his job and has done some work for the Royal Danish court. 

When I asked him when he planned to be back in Denmark, he just shrugged and smiled happily.