Vaxholm-Grinda
Island
Archipelago
Cruise
The Stockholm Archipelago (called Skargarden) has 24,000 islands
(including skerries), extending eastwards from Stockholm, about 60
kilometers into the Baltic Sea. There are two main towns in the
archipelago (besides Stockholm): Gustavsburg and Vaxholm.
One
of those white ferries (like the
Storrskar
we saw in Stockholm harbour yesterday) can bring you to Vaxholm from
Stockholm in just under an hour. Lucky us; Goran and Ingrid drove
us here from their home farther north.
We're
going out on a steam ferry, visiting an island, then coming back to
Vaxholm for dinner in the century-old Waxholms Hotell with an all-round view of
the harbour.
Below:
Does that ferry leaving the dock look familiar? It's the
Storrskar, from
Stockholm, which we saw yesterday. It plies these waters regularly. The
ferry we're waiting for this morning is somewhat similar in shape,
colour and size, but steam powered.
Is There A Beowulf Connection?
Yes!
In the historical period in which the poem is set (about 500-600 CE),
the Geats (in southern Sweden) and the Swedes (or Svea, who lived around here) were at
war. Beowulf remembers that
"... evil and violence and wrath were exchanged
over the wide water between Swedes and Geats,
hard war-hate, ... (lines 2472 - 74)
He says the Swedes
"wouldn't work for / peace over the water" (2476-77).
Rivers, lakes and other bodies of water cover about 9 per cent of
modern Sweden, and its long coastline is lengthened by many bays and islands. This
was great for people who liked to prey on passing ships, or launch
pirate or trading expeditions to other regions, but it was also a
handicap in that it left the Svea open to attack by other seafaring
peoples - such as the Geats.
The
gloomy outlook for the Geats, prophesied after the death of King
Beowulf (lines 2910 - 3030), makes even more sense when we realize how
vulnerable each tribe was to both the land-based and amphibious attacks
of the other.
While Brenda and Ingrid settle down for a chat,
Goran and I go for a (- can you guess? -) quick look round.
To
the left is Waxholms Hotell, where we're having dinner. After a quick
stop to mail some cards, we head up this street, with trees lining the
shady side and cafes along the sunny side.
Vaxholm reminds me of a town near me,
Port Dover, Ontario. It's a charming but grittier port town on the
north shore of Lake Erie, which with more trees and less
vehicle traffic could rival Vaxholm.
We walked north to the
Batteriet,
(battery), an old gun emplacement. I asked Goran to adopt a suitably
military pose, so he good-naturedly gave me the shot below.
There are many
charming wooden houses
in this town. I read somewhere that a century or so ago an ordnance
required all structures to be of wood so they'd burn down in an attack,
and not afford cover for enemies.
Fortunately,
they're still here.
I was very interested in the
clapboard house to
the left, which so resembles some of the
clapboard timber-frame houses of Upper Canada from about 1800 to 1850.
Even the colour, which in old Upper Canada was called cane
yellow, is like that on the Duff Robertson house, a very handsome
Georgian house at Upper Canada Village.
To the
right is Vaxholm's
Radhuset
or town hall. Look at that sky! It was going to be a wonderful
afternoon.
We strolled down
another
charming street (below) to the ferry dock.
(Below)
here comes our steam ferry, the
Norrskar.
Below, we're
looking over the stern toward Stockholm, which is about 25 kilometers
(15 miles) southwest of here.
There are places on this passage which reminded
me of Ontario's Lake Nipissing or the bigger lakes in Algonquin Park, with their
smooth planes of volcanic rock sloping into the water.
Inside,
the passenger cabin is spacious and neatly appointed in wood. Being
steam powered, the
Norrskar
is very quiet.
Below, here we are at Grinda Island.
This is a nature reserve, about three kilometers long and one wide.
Below, after a walk
past grazing heritage sheep and through some spruce forest, we pass
these sunbathers, then a little further come to the marina.
Never
mind lying around; it's time for lunch!
Grinda
and the other islands would have been considerably smaller in Beowulf
and Ongentheow's time, because the land hereabouts has been rising,
from glacial rebound, at about 5 millimeters (nearly 1/4") per year.
Being in this pleasant spot feels a lot
like my South-Ontario-based notions of being "up north" at a cottage by a freshwater lake, on
a fine midsummer day. But these waters are actually Sweden's eastern
seabord, and open out into the Baltic. Below the railing were swans,
politely asking us to share lunch. We were warned not to.
Grinda
Island is a mini-Sweden in that it possesses both arable low-lying land
and mountainous terrain with poor soils and coniferous forest. Above
you see a bit of the forest, carpeted with ferns. The trees seem
familiar. They look like Norway Spruce,
(picea abies), a
popular imported tree in southern Ontario. Our early settlers got
carried away in their war on trees, so this species later became
popular as a windbreak.
The information board tells
us these are Gute sheep, a native Swedish breed. There has been a farm
here for at least three centuries. The sheep are fenced in, by the way.
Left, here comes; right, here goes, the
Vastan,
heading back to Vaxholm.
I wanted, and finally got, a shot of Goran, Ingrid, my viking sister Brenda, and the Swedish flag.
Goran took this picture of
your humble author and his trusty Lumix.
Dinners in Swedish restaurants are
expensive by Canadian standards, but really good. This one was
excellent.
From the windows of the Waxholms Hotell
we had a panorama of the harbour traffic, from big ferries and
industrial vessels to small pleasure craft. At no time on Swedish
waters did I see idiots whipping around in overpowered small craft,
or in those sea-do things.
Although I too
live in one of the world's best countries, I really think Canadians
should be spending more time asking the Swedes (politely) how
they managed to create such a liveable, lovely, well-managed
country.
