The traverse through Sweden continues from west to east, beautifully along Lake Mälaren. It is hilly again and close to the water. At kilometer 2641, a moose runs in front of our lens. So they do exist, these animals that we usually only see on signs.
The weather holds and after almost 120 kilometers we roll into a small campsite.
In the morning we travel on to Stockholm. In Stockholm we stay at Camping Klubbenborg in Hägersten, just like five years ago. We have our own tent pitch with two Interailers who have been touring through Europe for almost three months.
We have an appointment with our friend Marcus who moved to Stockholm from Frankfurt thirty years ago. We get a guided tour of Stockholm’s hippest neighborhood SoFo, Södermalm, and spend many hours together.
We leave the crowns, royal Scandinavia, the FIKA – Sweden’s traditional coffee break -, the broken Tolino – big disaster – and the always friendly Swedes behind us.
We take the great freedom, everyone’s right and the respect people have for each other with us on the ferry to Åland.
Åland is an autonomous country with its own license plate, stamps and head of state, consisting of 6700 islands of which only 60 are inhabited by around 30,000 people. The capital is the smallest metropolis in the world, Mariehamn. Neutral, demilitarized, not conquered by force of arms, but founded 102 years ago when the Tsarist Empire came to an end. The Ålanders have Swedish culture and language, are called Karlsson, Blomquist and Lindgren, have Finnish citizenship and the euro.
We are very excited as we disembark after two hours. Equipped with a map of the country, we leave the ship. We change the time by an hour plus. We cycle from island to island at a good 23 degrees. Our campsites in Hummelvik and Camping Bomarsund are sooo simple, good and charming and at the same time sooo comfortable, practical and clean, in the middle of nature without disturbing it, so much space, unimaginable in Western Europe. The stable Azores high does the rest.
