Day 2, continued: The High Coast Bridge

Click on the panorama and drag to look around, press Shift to zoom in, Command (Mac) or Control (PC) to zoom out. Click here to enlarge this panorama or see an ultra high-resolution version.

A wholly unexpected foretaste of my exploration of the High Coast tomorrow came in the form of a massive sleek suspension bridge that suddenly appeared at the end of my route for the day, where the High Coast begins. You'd think Swedes would be more boastful of this stunning construction — think Lord of the Rings esthetic, sans serif — but no: Never mind that it is the third longest in Europe (after the bridge between Denmark and Sweden, and the Humber bridge in the UK, and longer than the ones across the Bosphorus and the Tagus); not a single Swede had mentioned the High Coast Bridge to me in the five years I've lived here.

From the bridge, you can see a big wind turbine harnessing the height of the High Coast's hills. Once I checked into my hotel, I felt compelled to go put both the turbine and the bridge into a panorama. A setting sun helped.

There is a path to the turbine with stations along the way for exercises — not physical exercises, mind you, but mental ones: Each station consists of a poem (in Swedish) musing on the wind, the rain, the sea...

- During the course of driving North, I saw the composition of the forests change, from mostly deciduous to coniferous, with smatterings of birch.

- Here in the North everyone has started saying "jajamen" for yes, instead of just "ja". No doubt it's the equivalent of Canadians saying Ay.