We had a leisurely breakfast whilst a number of caravan owners finished their end of season packing and moved their vans off site. In light rain, we drove the very few minutes to the ferry back to Öregrund. We had a wait of about half an hour and then the crossing took no more than ten minutes.
Driving straight through Öregrund, we headed for Östhammar for wifi at a Swedbank to post our blogs and download the paper. We then drove for maybe twenty miles along a really lovely country road, mostly tree lined, before crossing a river bridge which took us on to the island of Vädoö. Our purpose was to find out about one of the ferries to the Åland archipelago although we hadn't decided exactly when we would go on to Finland. The Åland archipelago, although being quite close to Sweden, in fact are part of Finland, but Swedish is the principal language spoken there and its currency is the euro.
We first took a drive around the hinterland of Grisslehamn, windy roads and more forest, before having a lunch stop. Then back to Grisslehamn where we found a camperstop overlooking the harbour and ferry terminal. I walked over to the ferry office to get some information about the ferry. It is operated by Eckerö Linjen and does the two hour crossing to the island of Eckerö three times a day (08.00, 15.00 and 20.00). We had actually been vaguely planning to do the crossing further south from Kapellskår to Mariehamn, maybe spending another couple of days in Sweden, but the weather isn't so good (quite chilly this morning and now rainy) and we have probably seen as much as we want to see in this part of Sweden. Therefore, we made the decision to go for the 10am crossing tomorrow morning. We paid for our overnight stay here and the collector of the money gave us a couple of vouchers. He spoke no English so we had no idea what they were. On booking the ferry, we found that they saved us the SEK35 each as passengers so we just pay the one way cost for the camper of SEK350.
So, rather unexpectedly, we leave Sweden tomorrow. We shall probably spend a couple of days around the Åland archipelago before getting another ferry to the mainland of Finland. This evening, we have watched the rather large ferry arrive, disgorge its contents and then, with people and vehicles loaded, go back to Eckerö.
Amanda
Woke to a decidedly autumnal chill in the air. And
it has alternated drizzle and full on rain all day. We crossed back
from the island to Öregrund on the ferry. It really is a very pretty
little place, with the wooden buildings in a handful of different
colours - pale green, cream, yellow ochre and rusty red. The last two
we are quite used to by now. Once again we set off with no clear idea
of where we were heading, but first stop was Östhammar, where again
Swedbank provided our internet fix. We rather hope there isn't some
person in Swedbank's head office whose job it is to monitor the
entrances to the banks. We had already decided that we would make the
crossing to Finland via Åland, an area of 6,700 (!) islands between
Sweden and Finland. Although closer to Sweden it is actually part of
Finland; currency is the Euro, but they speak Swedish! You can take a
ferry from one of three places in Sweden - Grisslehamn, Kapellskar or
Stockholm. We thought we would investigate Grisslehamn as it was
quite close, and the upshot is that we are here for the night in the
little harbour, and booked on the ferry to Eckerö tomorrow morning!
Grisslehamn is a tiny place, and its main attraction is clearly the
ferry, and the opportunity for duty free day trips. The crossing
takes two hours. As we ate supper (it was already dark) we watched the
third and last ferry of the day come in, disgorge its passengers and
cars, take on a new lot, and leave again. It is about the size of the
bigger Isle of Wight ferries, at a guess. So tonight is our last
night in Sweden. It is a very, very beautiful country, and we have
loved it here, and plan to return.
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