Early Morning on Arkösund Bay
At 5am on Arkösund bay, it is so light it could be midday. The writer slips out of the pretty clapboard Arkösunds hotell, opened in 1895, as a small boat putters into the Baltic Sea, the sun sparkling on its calm waters. A wooden boardwalk invites exploration of a string of tiny islets as geese arrow overhead and a mother swan coaxes her fluffy cygnets into a nook under a bridge.
The Östergötland Archipelago: A Quiet Alternative
The east coast of Sweden is home to the Östergötland archipelago, a sprawl of about 9,000 islands scattered across the Baltic Sea a few hours south of Stockholm. Quieter and less crowded than the better-known isles off Stockholm or Gothenburg, it covers several pockets of coastline and smaller archipelagos: Arkösund, Sankt Anna, Gryt and Tjust. The larger islands are flecked with traditional red timber summer houses, and are home to seals, sea birds, and dense, verdant forests of alder, cedar, oak and pine.
A Slow Journey to the End of the World
The writer arrived in a suitably slow fashion. The journey to Arkösund – a 45-minute drive from Norrköping station along a road locals call the End of the World – started 24 hours earlier, with an early morning Eurostar from London to Brussels, then on to Hamburg via Cologne, where the SJ EuroNight Train was boarded to Norrköping. Sleep came while crossing the Danish border in the early hours and crossing the Øresund Bridge into Sweden. Dawn unfolded in pink, dusky waves as the train shuddered out of Malmö towards Östergötland.
Navigating the Islands by Boat and Kayak
Visitors navigate the region’s islands in sailboats, small motorboats or kayaks, spending elongated summer days swimming, fishing and hiking. From Arkösund jetty, the writer takes to the water with Åsa, a local guide, in a motorboat belonging to Kauko Lindstedt, a Finn who has spent 40 years living on the island of Aspöja, a four-mile crossing away. There is an unspoken rule, Åsa says, that if you spot a moored kayak or boat, move on. In the Swedish spirit of allemansrätten – the national law to roam and sleep freely in nature – there are enough islands for everyone.
Aspöja: A Year-Round Community
Aspöja is one of the few inhabited islands and Lindstedt, as with many islanders met, is industrious: building, hunting, smoking fish, running boating tours, and eager to share his home, where just 25 people live year-round. The group lands at his jetty and walks across grassy meadows dotted with lumps of granite and teeming with butterflies. There are no cars, though the jetty has a communal wheelbarrow for groceries and post. Helen is met, who farms sheep and cattle, knits, tans sheepskins, keeps bees, grows vegetables and runs the only restaurant, Forsmans på Aspöja, with her daughter. Lunch is smoked fish and boiled potatoes heaped with fresh dill, alongside a glass of Baltic seawater, filtered through the island’s small desalination plant.
Fishing Traditions Fading
On the trip back to the mainland, an island stacked with fishing nets, buoys and wooden crates is passed. A pair of craggy-faced men wave – brothers in their 70s, the final vestiges of a once thriving fishing industry, Åsa explains. They are the last two fishers legally able to catch eels; the licence can only be passed on through family, and with none it ends with them.
Sankt Anna Archipelago and Kayaking
The next day, Åsa and the writer drive further along the coast to the Sankt Anna archipelago, stopping for lunch at Mauritzberg Castle, a 400-year-old manor house rebuilt in pastel rococo splendour after the Russians burned it down in 1719. At the bay of Sankt Anna, a German tourist is met packing his kayak for a 10-day solo adventure. He says he paddles for days from island to island without seeing a single soul and adores it – it’s his third trip here.
From the shore, the writer clambers into a kayak alongside Andreas, a guide from outfitter Kajakparadiset, and they paddle into the languid, liquid landscape. They stop for fika – hot coffee and something sweet – on one islet, stretching out on sun-scorched granite as a sea eagle soars above.
Accommodations and Local Cuisine
That night, the writer sleeps at Skärgårdsbyn Mon, a hotel on the mainland shore, after a meal of buttered sea bream and potatoes eaten on the wooden balcony of the Boathouse restaurant, overlooking the marina, with the islands spilling out behind. Envy arises wondering which island the German kayaker chose to sleep on underneath the barely darkened sky.
Gryt Archipelago and Harstena Island
Waking to rain, but with temperatures averaging around 23°C, summer here is comfortable. Driving south with Åsa, it is learned that about 70% of the country is forested, and it’s crossed by hiking and biking trails.
At Fyrudden, a hamlet on the south-eastern end of a narrow peninsula in the Gryt archipelago, Magnus Lindkvist, a boat captain, is waiting in his grandfather’s wooden boat to take the group across eight miles of open water to the island of Harstena. It is where his grandparents once lived and he spent every summer of his childhood, and continues to go there today with his family.
A cluster of 18th-century cabins still stand. The old schoolhouse is a museum, depicting the history of these wild islands, where herring, eel fishing, seabird eggs and seal blubber were once the means of the islanders’ survival. A 1641 census registers two households, and a family tree traces local names back to their two families – including Magnus, and now his son.
Söderköping and Göta Canal
Back on the mainland, the group drives north and inland to spend the night in Söderköping, where in 1281 King Magnus Ladulås’ wife, Helvig, was crowned in its medieval church. This tiny town is steeped in history, standing at the eastern end of the Göta Canal, which the Swedes, in a bid to avoid Danish taxes, began building in 1810, connecting Gothenburg to the Baltic Sea. The next morning is spent cycling alongside it, stopping to sample ice-cream from the Smultronstället cafe and handmade chocolates from Jolla.
Norrköping: Industrial Past Transformed
By evening, the writer is back in Norrköping, an industrial city once booming with textile and paper mills powered by water. Today, the mills have been restored into a stylish district of bars, apartments and offices. The streets are alive at night as students celebrate the end of term and city revellers gear up for a weekend of national celebrations.
Departure and Reflection
From the train window the following day, as the writer heads back to the UK, the fields and forests unfurl as Norrköping station slides away behind, the summer light filtering through the trees and across the red weatherboard farmsteads. A skein of geese flies overhead in a V, and the kayaker searching for his perfect island to camp is imagined, and Magnus teaching his son to fish for herring from his great-grandfather’s boat – the delicate balance of nature and visitor continuing in harmony. The trip was provided by Visit Sweden. The writer travelled by rail from Eurostar London to Brussels (from £39 one-way), then to Cologne/Köln (from £16.50 one-way), and on to Hamburg (from £16.50 one-way). The SJ EuroNight train from Hamburg to Nörrköping costs from £40 one-way. Elite Grand hotel Norrköping has doubles from £80 B&B; Söderköpings Brunn from £93 B&B; Skärgårdsbyn Mon from £100; and Arkösunds hotell from £170 B&B.
