Sailing away from Stockholm Sweden.

Sailing away from Stockholm Sweden.

Sweden consists of many islands and is surrounded by a lot of water –lakes and ocean. Sweden is said to have over 27,000 islands and that a 1/3 of it is forest, another 1/3 is land that is either cultivated or lived on and the remaining 1/3 is water.

I was not aware that departing from Stockholm would be so impressive until we were informed that it would take 5 hours for the Eurodam to navigate its way down the channel out into the open Baltic Sea and that it would be manoeuvring its way through and passing many small islands. We started taking some photos and I hope you are interested in seeing some of the islands, forests and houses that we passed so close to.

Departure time is crucial and in this port we had two people literally running to board the ship as the last securing lines were being released. (They were clapped as they boarded.) We very quickly realised why as we became part of a procession of 4 large cruise liners exiting the port only about one minute apart and they then following each other the full distance of the channel. When you look closely the channel is very well marked –red on the starboard side and green on the port side. The ship has to be manoeuvred between the two.

                                         One of the little sauna houses.

 

Most families in Sweden, if they have an apartment in the city will also have a summer home somewhere close to the water. The Swedish people love the water and one in 5 have their own yacht or small boat. Swedish people also love their saunas and every family has at least one sauna – most also have one (a separate building) outside as well as one inside. The outside sauna looks like a separate little house and is usually close to the water so they can plunge into the cold water after spending sometime in the heat of the sauna.  It sounds like a real ritual that they do often for their health.

 

One family owned this island and they had everything on it including a tennis court.

                                          One of the small communities.

                                        One of the islands we passed that was heavily forested.

 

Most of the houses and saunas we passed were painted the traditional brown/red colour with white surrounds around the windows. Some appear to be in very isolated areas and others are nestled together to form small communities. Most of the homes we saw were deserted– there were no light on and we saw very few people. The islands are all exposed rock –very well treed but with no beach areas and every island has a marker or its own little light beacon. Where the houses were there are small landing jetties and in many cases this is the only way their residents can be access the outside world. 

 

The procession of cruise ships leaving Stockholm.