stockholm's archipelago: svartsö

on the last day of our time in stockholm, we took a day trip out into the archipelago. for everything that had been recommended to us to do in stockholm, this was the activity i was most excited about. we hadn't wanted to do it on the last day, but decided to because that day had the best weather forecast of our entire stay (no rain! sunny and seventies!) and in the end, i'm really glad that we rounded out our little honeymoon with this adventure.

stockholm itself is made up of islands and just a short boat ride out of the city into the baltic sea brings you into a sea of islands that makes up the archipelago. even after spending hours on a ferry boat riding through all of these islands, it wasn't until we were on the plane the next morning that i could see just how many of these islands, some very tiny and some larger, dotted the seascape.

after reading about some of the different islands, and knowing that we only had one day for this excursion (if we ever go back, i would definitely plan to spend a night or two on an island), we chose to visit svartsö. it was just an hour and a half each way from stockholm and not touristy at all. there is one restaurant on the island, a campground, a general store, and a small village with a school and a library. the rest of the island is made up of houses and forest. we spent a few hours walking along a gravel road that at times turned into a full on footpath through the forest. we passed beautiful houses and boat docks, saw a deer, fields full of red clover (jared wouldn't let me pick any to bring home), vegetable gardens, and picked the most deliciously sweet and tiny wild strawberries. we got a little lost due to a very poor map of the island that we picked up at the general store, but still managed to make it back to the ferry with plenty of time to eat some lunch that we had brought.

we didn't really talk to anyone on the island, but spent a lot of time speculating about the people who live there (it's definitely a year-round resident and not summer community). even though this island was pretty small (we walked around half of it in about two and a half hours), it was definitely the largest of some of the islands around it. this was clear by all the folks who pulled up to the dock in their little motor boats with bags of recycling to drop off and then headed into the general store to do their shopping. i'll admit that i fantasized a little bit about what it would be like to live in a place like that. even if only for a short while...

this little excursion out into the archipelago was really fun, and was a great way to end our time in stockholm. back soon with the next leg of our trip:: scotland!

as always, even more photos over on flickr...