An Island of Our Own

When making our last-minute booking for a holiday cottage up in the Stockholm archipelago the other week, we initially, in our haste, overlooked the Swedish brochure’s phrase på egen sagolikt vacker ö, which, we later realised, means something like on its own fantastic, beautiful island.

So, for a week at least, we had one of the archipelago’s ca. 24,000 islands all to oursleves. Fortunately, it was reassuringly close to terra-firma, and only 500m or so from a large marina, making for a short each-way trip in the four-person, four-horsepower boat that was provided. There were a couple of bumpy landings during my first attempts at driving the boat, but I soon got the hang of it.

The house itself comprised a lounge/kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, with a low attic doubling as a second bedroom. There was also an annexe which consisted of another bedroom, and a sauna. Besides that there was a separate fishing lodge, away from the main house, where there were yet another couple of beds.

The island was about a hectare in size, well-forested, and home to many birds, frogs, bats, and voles. Alas, there were less pleasant fauna too, in the shape of mosquitoes, and ticks. Its northern extreme was rather rocky, but its southern and western shores sloped gently into the surrounding Baltic, with a miniature sandy beach next to the wharf where the boat was tied up.

Our dog loved the freedom of being able to run unleashed, without his owners anxiously fussing over him at every step. Somewhat apprehensive of the water at first, he was splashing unprompted into the shallows by the end of the week, and standing nose-forward at the prow of the boat, like a figurehead.

From our isolated base, we travelled up the coast to the nearby village of Dalarö, or more often, when in search of supplies, to the town of Haninge.

We also made a couple of daytrips to Stockholm itself, no more than a half-hour away, taking in the Vasa Museum, and the National Museum of Fine Arts. We did a little shopping too, merely skimming the surface, alas, of the big-city stores that, in the little town where we live, we can only dream about.

Below is a chart, digitally enhanced to highlight the island where we stayed. ‘X’, naturally, marks the spot…

All but the last of the images above were lifted from the Novasol web-site.

Posted by misteraitch at July 19, 2003 10:11 AM | TrackBack