An entry in the TFS Travel Journal.
We had to rush to make our early 11:30am boat to Grinda. En route, we hopped out of the cab to find the T-shirt stand to stock up even more, but of course, it was the wrong street and we had to scramble to make the ferry.
The ride was crowded, but the sky was overcast so we sat on the front deck to best soak-in the famed Swedish Archipeligo. It is truly a summer paradise: over 20,000 islands, some large and dotted with summer homes, some tiny like a marooned-on-a-desert-island cartoon, all set amidst the water which snaked out and around forever, like a network of capillaries. The homes were in all colors - pinks, blues, salmon (of course), wood - and all shapes and sizes, though overall not too ostentatious (though some were pretty spectacular).
The ride took about 90 minutes, with a few stops, and we travelled amongst innumerable other boats ranging in size from one-man kayaks to gigantic cruise ships, and everything in between. Grinda was relatively small - Gilligan-sized - and rather dry, rocky and pine-forested. We walked for about 20 minutes, and came upon the Grinda Wardhus (an inn w/a bar and restaurant) and spotted some idle kayaks. We inquired, and Milton got to to live out his lifelong fantasy (alright, 3-week old fantasy) and kayak around the archipeligo. As Wendy revelled in her privacy and her novel, Milton circumnavigated the island, with a few stops for stretching, swimming and talking with some couples out for the day. Again, a blast!!! (there were also several intersting sights to be observed on the island’s isolated beaches, if you know what I mean) This rental kayak was not nearly as comfortable or seaworthy as Olof’s (no rudder), but a wonderful experience nonetheless — tranquil, beautiful, invigorating. The return to the lagoon got a bit choppy and splashy, but that’s part of the fun, I guess.
We returned the gear and went to the Wardhus, but didn’t really have time for dinner so we just wolfed down a basket of assorted flatbreads, some Ramlosa and beer. By an unfortunate coincidence, something not good had happened to the island’s water supply, and though the hotel and restaurant had fresh water, there were no working toilets throughout the day. Not a problem, we just used the great outdoors.
We walked back to the dock and waited with the 50 or so others. The boat finally arrived and we reclaimed our favorite front deck spots. The ride back was great: a generally ebulliant mood seemed to prevail amongst the various languages we were treated to. For some reason, this boat was much slower and though we went the exact same route, the ride took 2 1/2 hours. No complaints, though, we just read and greatly enjoyed the magical hours-long Scandanavian twilight, especially the return to Stockholm with the setting sun behind it.
We rejoined the frenzy of the Water Festival, bought our T-shirts, and sampled a hot dog and corn on the cob - neither up to superlative U.S. standards. Taxied home and quickly moved all our belongings back down the hall and into our suite. All the rooms here are charming (the only appropriate word) — painted brocades line the tops of the walls, the beds are four-posters with curtains, and the furniture is antique whitewashed wood.
We went down to the Hotel restaurant, sitting outside in perfect weather, and ordered off the menu. Milton devoured a Caesar salad w/baked salmon, while Wendy loved her chicken curry. We finished it off by sharing a chocolate mousse atop a rich chocolate cake slice topped w/white chocolate sorbet. We sped up our departure due to the older couple near us who were noisily sucking their platter of crayfish (called “American Lobsters” here)
As we were getting up, the man gleaned that we were Americans, and asked if we were guests of the hotel. Turns out, she was Norweigan, and was a model in the ’60s living in N.Y., he is Swedish, was a former industrialist, and is now a scientist who had just returned from Tucson (!) and next month will be presenting a study he did jointly with NASA concerning life-containing microbes coming on ejecta from Mars to Earth billions of years ago. (He’s also finishing up a study of liquifying the gasses emitted from fossil fuel plants and burying it way underground which he likened to the state of a bottle of seltzer) He was quite voluble, and almost as interesting, but after about 25 minutes of his lecture, we excused ourselves and went upstairs to enjoy our suite.