Southern Archipelago

On Saturday morning we woke up and seeing the positive weather report, had breakfast. Though not quite as fancy as the previous hotel’s breakfast, this one was still very nice and included Swedish pancakes. Today’s first new experience was purchasing an all day transportation ticket at the local 7-Eleven, which had a very impressive salad bar as well as lots of other fresh, good looking food for sale. Wow! For $12 each we got a 24 hour pass that we could use on any of the buses, trams or ferries in Gothenburg. It was quite a deal as we ended up traveling on the tram and ferries quite a distance. 

After a quiet tram ride from central Gothenburg to Saltholmen, we hopped on the ferry to the Southern archipelago where no cars are permitted. We got off the ferry at Donsö and rented bikes from Popsicle, the local summer café. I don’t think I have ridden a cruiser bike since I was at UCSB! Luckily it was fairly flat terrain on the islands. We saw a little bit of Donsö then took the bridge over to Styrsö. I had read that there was a summer café there called öbergska, which is very close to my maiden name of Oberg. We quickly found it, a gorgeous café with a lovely outdoor seating area filled with wildflowers. Since it didn’t open until 11, we rode out bikes around, finding the local church where there were several headstones of people with the last name of Oberg, so it is likely I have some relatives who lived on the island. 

People get around the islands mainly on foot and by bike, though there are golf carts as well as mopeds with large flat racks on the front which are used to transport everything from luggage to lumber to passengers! It looks fun and terrifying at the same time. By the time we had a look around part of the island it was time to head to öbergska where we sat outside and enjoyed our Fika. It was lovely and sunny, and we were happy to have an excuse to sit in such a beautiful spot. Later we rode to a different part of the island where we decided to hike up to a viewpoint, leaving the bikes at the side of the road, assuming all would be well as we were not given any bike locks and no one seemed too concerned about where to leave bikes. It was a cool, forested trail emerging at the top with a 365° view of the surrounding islands. We could see little groups of houses everywhere. On one part of the viewpoint there was a sectional couch and armchair! It was very comfortable, but I can’t imagine how heavy it would’ve been to lug that all the way up there. I guess that’s what passes for entertainment for teenagers on a tiny island. We stopped briefly at öbergska again as the weekly rotating art gallery was now open. The artists this week were two sisters who spend a few weeks every summer on the island. They had paintings, embroidered pieces and jewelry from wood and metal. They recommended other parts of the island to check out, including a fisherman‘s village. 

The weather was starting to look a little dark so we decided not to do that and instead headed back over to Donsö arriving back at the café and parking our bikes just as the rain set in. Our timing has been very good weatherwise for this trip! We managed to get a table inside that was only slightly drippy, and hummus and vegetables for lunch. I checked out a display of cozy looking knitted sweaters and hats by a local artisan. When I went over to check them out, I realized the finished garments were not for sale, but there were balls of yarn and the knitting instructions that you could purchase. That totally reminded me of New Zealand 35 years ago! I suppose if you live on a small island during the winter time knitting sweaters would probably be a good pass time, especially in a place like Sweden where in the middle of winter you get very few hours of sunshine.

The rain let up, and we decided to take a short ferry ride over to Vrångö, where we hiked up to the viewpoint, then went for a walk through the nature reserve, another beautiful spot. This was definitely the least touristy of the islands that we went to, it was a very quiet, peaceful place. Because it was forecast to rain on and off for the rest of the afternoon, we decided to take the ferry back all the way into the city. Luckily, we were getting on at the start of the journey so we got seats by a window and enjoyed our final views of the archipelago as we wound our way back to Gothenburg. 

I am hoping the weather is nice enough when I am back in Gothenburg the last couple of days of my trip so that I can come back and explore both Donsö and Styrsö some more. I’d also like to check out one or two the islands in the northern archipelago. That one does allow cars so I’m sure it won’t be quite so peaceful, but I’d still like to check it out. After we got back to our ship Stacy got herself all packed up and ready to go. After dinner we headed to bed ready to get up early the next morning to take Stacy to the airport. I can’t believe how fast the week went and how much we saw! We are making plans to go to our local IKEA to see how their Swedish meatballs compare to what we had in Sweden and see how many Swedish words we can identify!