Sweden: Afloat in the Baltic Sea and Stockholm Archipelago

Our route, in red. 
I boarded in Kalmar in the south, and departed from Stockholm in the north

Thursday evening I boarded my ship, the Eye of the Wind. The captain was the same captain I had two years ago, in Scotland. All the rest of the crew was new to me.

I was delighted with my cabin (which I had to myself), an upgrade from the one I've had the previous two years. It had a full-size bottom bunk, and a single-sized top bunk. The bed was boxed in by walls except for a yard-long opening to get in and out. Very cozy and snug and secure! The cabin also came with a built-in seat and little desk, (which my previous cabin didn't have), a closet, and a nice little private bathroom with shower. 

My cabin, showing boxed-in bed
All the mahogany woodwork is gorgeous!

That first evening, we had an orientation to the ship and then a welcome dinner. There were six other passengers: a Swiss father and 20-something son, a middle-aged Swiss man on this own (something of an artist; he made drawing throughout the trip), an old bearded German seadog (proud of being 88 years old!) and an interesting English couple, roughly my age. The crew of 10 were German, Dutch, English, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. The Captain, Chief Mate, cook and engineer were millennials and true professionals, while the two deckhands and four trainees (ie, unpaid crew) were from 18-26. All delightful people, of varying degrees of extraversion. So the working language of the ship was primarily English, but often there were German conversations going on as well.

We set out the following morning for the island of Aland, with fair winds from the south driving us north. It was a warm and sunny day, but still, most of the time I needed a sweater. That evening, we tied up in the harbor of the wonderfully-named Bixelkrok harbor. Our ship is big enough that recreational harbors can't usually take us, we have to go to working harbors. In Bixelkrok, we tied up at the ferry dock, after putzing around just offshore waiting for the actual ferry to depart for the day. This holiday town had many transient boats tied up, and also a huge parking lot filled with camper-vans. The harbor master had promised the tourists something special (us) and as we pulled in, there was a large crowd gathered behind a gate used for the ferry passengers. Once we were tied up securely, the gate was raised and the crowd swarmed in. We all felt like doing the Queen's wave at them! Who knows how many holiday photos I'm in?

The next day we set out for the island of Gotland, quite a ways offshore from the mainland. This island has a rich history, set as it is in the middle of the Baltic sea. Many of the most informative Viking artifacts have been found in Gotland. Again, the good weather was mostly with us, and we sailed most of the way. However, we also ran the motor for a lot of the time - we had a long way to go, and needed to arrive while the harbor master was still at work to greet us. 

The town of Visby was definitely the highlight of the trip! It is a Unesco World Heritage site, and deserves it! We had time to check out the town before dinner, going up into the narrow cobblestone streets and wandering. There were many design and home goods stores, and I was sad they were all closed for the day (it was Saturday night, after 5 pm, after all). I wished for more time there.

 

The harbor of Visby was something else again! There were bars ringing the shore, including a shack with a very loud reggae-playing sound system. There were giant motor yachts, and on a Saturday evening, many inebriated young pretty people stumbling around them, dressed to the 9s. Very different from the modest little sailboats and camper vans from the night before! I was especially struck by the yachts that had Lamborghinis (multiple!) parked by them - did they sent their chauffeurs over on the car ferry while they sailed over? 

Nineteen hours of daylight makes
summer flower displays especially exhuberant

Next to us on the dock in Visby

The mate at the wheel during the
rough crossing. Note the two
crew members sacked out behind him

The next day, the good weather had deserted us. The captain had wanted to head to a nature-reserve island to the north, but winds were above 25 knots, forecast to be significantly higher still the next day. So, we headed west to the mainland. It was a wild and woolly ride! The seas were quite rough, and we had more than 50 miles to go. We set a couple of sails, even though the winds were not at the best angle, because the ship is more stable with them up. But the motor was working very hard the whole way. More than half of the passengers and crew were sick. I was again among the fortunate ones, not sick. I had seconds at lunch. It had cooled off, and I'm not sure if the high for the day reached 60 degrees. It rained some, but I think most of the wetness on the decks was actually from spray blowing off of white capped waves. As there was little needed in terms of tending the sails or other chores, I spent my time with my earbuds in listening to books (too rough to read comfortably). Eventually, after six or seven hours of bouncing, I felt a need to keep my eyes on the horizon and my stomach full of ginger tea. And always one hand firmly gripping something when moving about.

The point of this photo is that
a rock lurks just beneath that breaking wave

Within minutes of moving into water protected by the offshore islands ("skerries"), everyone felt magically better. Dinner was delayed by a half hour to allow more recovery time, and everyone showed up at the table cheerfully. We were just anchored, in a relatively protected area, but quite a distance from anywhere to go ashore. 

The view in Akersund

 

 

 

The next day, with the brutal forecast winds showing up offshore, we wandered among the skerries and ended up docked at the little town of Arkosund. Filled with holiday homes, they had a supermarket (with ryecrisp sandwiches!) and an outlook. I wandered happily looking at cute gingerbread houses and vistas across rocky waters.

Is this a rock or a White Whale?

Tuesday, we headed north with calmer winds and seas. The captain was obsessed with tying the ship up to a rock or a cliff in one of the many nature reserves all along the coast. We motor-sailed all day to go the almost 50 miles to the spot he had picked out. By the time we got there, smaller sailboats (many of them) had taken most of the good spots. But he found one he thought we could use, a fairly steep cliff face with a few spindly trees. This mooring was clearly his white whale- he had been talking about tying up to a rock since the first day. We nestled up to the cliff face and a nimble young deckhand jumped ashore and tried various ways to afix some substantial ropes to something solid ashore. It took at least an hour of attempting various things to finally get us secure (but again, there would be a serious anchor watch all night). By the time it was done, dinner was an hour and a half late. The cliff was so steep I had no desire to try going ashore. (The English couple climbed up the rock face, but needed to put on climbing harnesses and suspend from ropes managed by the crew to come back down safely.)

Gingerbread house in Dalaro. 
There were modern houses, too, but not so picturesque.

View from Dalaro, my ship's masts in view.

The next day, we were once again making our way north, this time to the holiday town of Dalaro. We were now fairly close to Stockholm, and the town was full of large homes and looked prosperous. There were a couple of bars in town, but I took myself on a long loop surveying the peninsula, admiring the houses and the vistas and seeing a couple of wild deer along the way. The weather had warmed up again, still sweater weather, but not TWO sweater weather like before.

And we went for a rock to tie up to again the following night, Thursday night! First, we sailed south, just for fun and scenery, before turning the ship north and towards the entry to Stockholm,  This time, we went into a bay with many lobes, and even though it was crowded with boats before us, we found a spot. The exit and shore was a little more friendly this time, and I went for a walk in the deep piney woods. I found a giant slug, as big as my hand! 

The following day was warmer still, as we motored our way through the serpentine channels between islands to get to downtown Stockholm. It was fun to arrive by sea, and to recognize places I'd visited for the first time just ten days ago. We had time to reconnoiter (I figured out how to get to the train station) and then we had a fancy dinner with all the crew, and some drinks. 

Sailing

Still life with color-coded boots, port and starboard

Navigation aid

I spent a lot of time pulling on and then coiling these ropes!

Brave people going aloft

More brave people

Cute ship.
One of our crew had sailed on her last year
so we saluted each other

Stockholm bridge

I left early Saturday morning via Uber to the train station, high speed train to the airport, and an entirely uneventful trip home. When I got in, I dropped my bags and lay down on the floor and was completely endoggened. When I finally stood up, I was covered in white and black hair from head to toe. 

Stockholm sunset

Lovely trip and always good to get home! 

 

Scandanavia: The Voyage

 

At the harbor in Oslo

I boarded the ship the evening of the fourth night I was in Oslo. I handed my bags to the crew aboard, and was quickly introduced to my roommate (a German woman in her late 40s with hair a brighter shade of red than mine), and she quickly agreed to take the top bunk. (Thank goodness, I'm not sure I would have been able to get up there!) Each cabin had its own tiny bathroom with toilet, sink, and shower.

We had an introductory dinner, met all the passengers and crew, and spent the night at the dock there in Oslo. This is the same ship I was on last year in Scotland, but all of the crew (including the Captain) were new to me. There was a full set of passengers - 12 - and 10 crew, including Captain, two Mates, Engineer, Cook, and five deck hands. The crew hailed from Germany, England, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands. The passengers were four couples all 60+ in age, a family of four (mother, father, a boy and girl 18 and 20), and my roommate and me. One couple were English, one couple were Americans living permanently in Berlin, and all the rest were Germans. But everyone spoke English, and most of the ship's business was conducted in English.

Early the next morning, I was one of the first up, grabbing coffee, and watching the quiet early morning Oslo harbor. I was struck throughout the trip how quiet and not busy early mornings were - I got up around 6:30 or 7, but I didn't see much of anyone in town or on the water until closer to 9. Ship's breakfast was at 8, and people came trickling in slowly. Breakfast was always European breakfast: hot and cold cereal, yogurt, cold meats and cheeses, excellent bread (not toast) baked on board, and fruit salad. 

Our track

We began what would be our usual pattern: the Captain briefed us on plans for the day, we left the dock around 9, and sailed south until mid- to late- afternoon. In contrast to Scotland, this sailing area was well set up with plenty of dock space even for a big ship like us, so we were tied up to shore every night. (In contrast, in Scotland we were mostly anchored out, and had to dinghy ashore. This was both physically difficult - climbing down and up the ship's side and the dockside - and logistically constraining - meeting a scheduled dropoff and pickup. Dockside was much nicer!) The overall plan was to sail south, out the long Oslo fjord and along the Norwegian and Swedish coast, in and around the many islands, to Gothenburg, Sweden. It was about 200 miles, and a four-hour train ride, but we were taking eight nights to make our leisure cruise.

 The first night, we stopped at an island in Oslo fjord, Oscarborg. This little island was in the middle of a narrow part of the fjord, and thus strategically controlled the seaward approach to Oslo. It was an important military site throughout history. When Germany made a surprise attack on Denmark and Norway in April 1940, the cannon battery on the island fired on and sunk one of the largest German warships. This slowed the Nazi advance, and allowed the government and the king to escape north and eventually to Britain. As a result, Norway never surrendered. So this site is pretty much the most important Norwegian WWII battle site. I toured the fortress with my roommate, read all the placards, and wondered how all the Germans thought about this now.

At Oscarborg Island, 
where the Nazi ship was sunk.

 

Many, if not most, Norwegian and Swedish families have summer houses at the seaside, or in the mountains or forests. Some of these are tiny houses with maybe 10 square feet of yard, some are much bigger.  The coast we were traveling was thronged with these houses, painted white or red. Everywhere were flowers - 18 hours of daylight really helps the annual plants to grow vigorously! There was corresponding infrastructure on the islands, from nice big marinas to ferries, some for people-only and some carrying cars. The islands we stopped at (never the mainland until the last night) ranged from tiny with no cars to much larger, with traffic. They were all rocky and for the most part only sparsely forested. There were sheep and cows as well as houses and people. Every island we stopped at (except one) had at least one little cafe that sold ice cream and beer (probably other things, but these were the things I paid attention to!)

The narrow chasm I failed to climb

One of the bigger and busier islands we stopped at had an Ingrid Bergman park and display. Bergman's daughter, Isabella Rossellini, is my pretend friend and neighbor. Her Instagram featured a post just a couple of weeks before about her trip to the family summer house on a tiny island reached from this bigger island we were at. Just missed her! This island also featured a high stone ridge behind the harbor, reachable by climbing up rocks through a narrow chasm that at one point had rocks wedged in the top over you. This was where a famous movie scene had been filmed, all the crew mentioned it. I started up this climb, and realized that I was only able to crawl over the rocks, no semblance of walking. I only went part way up and then backed down, which was harder than continuing up. I was chagrined to realize that not only was there a more gentle way back down from the top, there was even a wooden staircase all the way up! But I never got to the top.

Another night, we tied up directly to a stone cliff face - no dock! These islands are adapted for this - there were iron spikes driven into the rock we could tie the ship to. And, there is essentially no tide in this area, so tying up is much less complicated than if we needed to keep adjusting. There were several other boats in the cove on the island, and one house and some cows. But most of it was rock with small heathers and other plants. We climbed around, played with wildlife in the tide pools, found comfy rocks to sit or lie on, and ended the evening with a shoreside barbecue and sea shanty sing. 

Tied directly to the rocks!

We sailed and motored through this archipelago, sometimes through very narrow passages. During the days, we moved around on deck, watched the ship work, chatted, watched the scenery, and read books. We were invited to pull on ropes. Some passengers also took a turn at the wheel, and a couple went up the mast or out on the bowsprit, accompanied by crew. The passages were very smooth, except for a couple of times. One day took us out a very narrow passage into an open seaway, where the Skagerrak Channel between Norway and Denmark meets the Kattegat Channel, between Sweden and Denmark. The water was very confused, not just waves from one direction, and the wind was fierce. Several people got sick, but I am lucky in that regard. However, I sat outside, hanging on for dear life as the ship staggered about irregularly, and kept my eyes on the horizon. You never know when the luck might run out! We were only in the big water for a few hours before finding sheltered water behind more islands. Another afternoon we encountered a lot of wind and some big waves for a couple of hours, but all the waves were from one direction and the ship rode through them much more smoothly.

Overall, a great time! 

Here are several more pictures:

Passengers and crew leaving Oslo

 

Sailing down the fjord!

Just one of the islands was really wooded.
It had a campground and bathing beaches
and working farms with cows and sheep

 

Island barbecue

Tidepool friend

Summer houses and the rocky ridge above

Another day aboard

Under sail, no engine, through narrow passages!

Rob, the intrepid English sea dog (passenger)
assisting the crew

The crew furling the sails

More narrow going

Looking down (photo by Rob who went up)
It really is narrow!
We are using the engine here!

The same place, looking forward from deck

In the narrow spots, it was hard to look away!

Swedish holiday houses

A new development of holiday houses?

And more holiday houses

One of the cutest islands

Who needs a yard?

We were usually the big dog in harbor
People would bring their kids to see us

Even more narrow going

Coming into Gothenburg
All over!

Scandanavian Holiday: Part 1

TL;DR: It was fabulous. Oslo is my favorite city I've visited on my own, the weather and sailing were fabulous, there was terrific company on the ship, the food was amazing, and my body stood up to the challenge. I arrived home to air you could cut with a knife, bone tired and covered with bruises but only one injury that will take another few weeks to clear up, a garden looking like a jungle, a deluge of vegetables requiring harvest, and a bunch of chores and projects I had successfully convinced myself could wait until my return but which now feel very overdue.

I want to capture what happened while it's still relatively fresh, but "productivity" and "responsibility" are tugging at me. Squeezing out a few moments, I'm going to start until the clock strikes, and post what I have so far, hoping to come back before too long.

 

PROLOGUE:

Five days before I was to leave I got sick - probably food poisoning. Very very sick, very very unpleasant and messy, totally debilitating. For 48 hours I moved only between my bed and the bathroom, with heroic efforts to get to the backyard door and let the dogs out. Through it all I kept a countdown to the trip - I certainly couldn't travel if things didn't clear up. It left me shaky and weak. Luckily I had done major laundry just before getting sick (and I didn't wear any traveling clothes while down for the count) so packing didn't require a lot of work. The most major thing I didn't do was go for a pedicure - my toes went to Norway unadorned. The day I left, I was five pounds lighter than the day I got sick, but I was clearly a long way along my recovery. Just cautious in what I was going to eat. Also very aware of restroom availability, in case of emergency, but it never was required, thank goodness.

THE TRIP AND OSLO

 I arrived in Oslo Friday afternoon, although my bag did not. Because I'd figured I'd be somewhat dazed and weak upon arrival, I'd planned on a taxi to the hotel. But when I didn't have my luggage, just my carry-on shoulder bag, I decided to try out the train. $6.50 instead of $80! I had to walk a few blocks, but the hotel room was ready and I was able to collapse. I thanked my mother for her rules of travel: always pack a change of clothes in your carry-on. I only had underwear, but it was great to be able to change. Lufthansa was tracking my suitcase and sending me regular updates, so I wasn't worried, just resigned. After freshening up, I ventured out. 

I had studied maps of Oslo and planned out several things to do. But immediately, I realized my mental scale was off. Oslo is so much smaller than I had been thinking! When I stepped out of the hotel, I looked to my right and saw the harbor. I had been thinking it was much farther away. Instead, everything was right there.

I spent the next few days walking, taking the tram, walking and looking more, and sitting at sidewalk cafes eating fish soup and drinking beer. Only one museum. The weather was in the 90s! I went back to the hotel in the middle of the day each day, and then sallied forth again. The Norwegians apparently eat dinner earlier than any other country in Europe (like, 5:30 pm!) and so I got by on the hotel breakfast, a mid day snack, and late afternoon dinner at a cafe. One day I had 19,000 steps! and 16,000 another! Way to go, body, carrying me along!

Norway has decorative manhole covers.
This photo is one of a series from other visits.

Oslo has a small river, complete with waterfalls, flowing through it
I took a tram up the hill, and followed the river back downtown.

Showing I'm in Norway

Many spots around the harbor people were swimming.

In a fun modern development area, public art.
I like the way this motorcycle moose echos the other photo.

The waterfront has been entirely rebuilt in the last 20 years.

The one museum I went into - the Museum of the Resistance.
I read a lot of adventure stories in my youth. The reality was grimmer.

These two notes in particular hit me different right now.