An hour (or so) boat ride out of Stockholm brings you to the start of the Stockholm archipelago. Since time was limited we decided to sail out to the first of the major towns – Vaxholm – as it was the shortest of the boat trips to the major archipelago towns.
As we jumped abroad our sailing ship – Norrskär – it didn’t take long for the natural beauty of the Stockholm waterways to open up to us. The boat was a little bumpy due to Norrskär being a old paddle steamer, but that didn’t dampen the experience in the slightest.
The weather was in our favour this day as wen we jumped off the ship we were hit with the heat of the sun – the most sun I think we’ve got to date on this holiday. Time to explore.
We headed for a bite to eat and found a lovely café on top a little boutique store and sampled some of the food to fuel up our walk around the village.
I felt a bit out of place without a polo shirt and boat shoes, but the island itself was a serene change from Stockholm. The lovely wooden houses and the vistas over the water made this trip worthwhile. The vibe of the town made me think of towns like Sorrento and Queenscliff in Melbourne, but much more unique. During the walk we pointed out our dream holiday houses – all stunning and all with views over the water.
We could have just sat on the waters edge for the whole day but even a half an hour was great to soak it all in.
Our walk back to the ferry terminal was capped off with a softserve icecream and that was delicious.
Four hours to leisurely walk and stop around the island was a great way to sample a bit of the sun and the serenity of outside the Stockholm city limits.
As we rode back to Stockholm we thought, next time we get to Sweden – we’ll look into visiting Sandhamn, a three hour boat ride out to the edge of the archipelago.
– CTP
