We flew over Stockholm itself and then across the sea to the start of Finland the Aland archipelago. We landed on Kumlinge, an airstrip ending on the sea & beautifully quiet. A lovely undisturbed ecosystem with a whole variety of different plants & wildlife (inc ticks, mozzies & horseflies). The runway is lined with bluebells, cornflowers & reeds. I picked up a bluebell to have a closer look at the flower & discovered there was a fat bumblebee head down in the flower and let it fall again in a hurry!
We lunched on a quiet rock by the water: smoked reindeer bought in NK department store, which tasted almost resiny from the pine smoke – very thin slices with loads of flavour. Also the divine French washed rind goats cheese found at the covered market in Stockholm and a very ripe Swedish blue, described as being 'like Rocquefort'. Not to forget the smoked eel (very rich) and beautiful smoked salmon, with a lovely crispy skin.
We bumbled around all day on the bikes, coming to the conclusion that 399 inhabitants (or 370 depending on which part of the local authorities' website you find most up to date) means that you really see no one around. We went to the ferry port and there were several tourists' cars (mainly Finland & Estonia), and tourists on hire bikes but really not much else. It's funny the island is Finnish, but 95% of the population speak Swedish, and all the guest house ads stapled to the barn at the ferry port were written in Swedish.
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| waiting for the ferry |
We continued on our way trying to explore all the main (& many of the minor roads) & finally came upon the Remmarhamn (guest marina): the significance of this place is that in looking on Kumlinge's website I discovered that they hold a market every Tuesday evening (18.30) at the Remmarhamn, which is not marked on any map, so was causing me a large amount of (understandable) worry. We took the bridge over to a neighbouring island but decided to turn back and have a closer look at the marina, getting there at about 6pm. At which point there were 3 trestle tables and not much else. Hmmmm. So we chatted to some Finns who were sailing the archipelago and drinking in the marina's pub and by the time we turned around again the entire island's population were queueing up at the trestles. So we hurried back, as one of the few items already laid out was one of the traditional carved wood Swedish bread knives, which I'd been looking for, and I had a gut feeling that someone else would buy them. But I was lucky. Julian scored an amazing gooseberry tart, really a very simple thing, just some fresh gooseberries baked on what was essentially a shortbread base (shortcrust pastry with extra sugar), but lovely. I got a local fish of some variety, that was selling remarkably quickly at 12€ a fish, as well as a huge block of lovely cured salmon (5.50€) - dill on top, a bit of sugar in the cure at a guess, along with some great citrus notes – I guess grated lemon & orange rind. So we changed our dinner plans and had the smoked fish with steamed veggies for dinner.
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| the market going off |
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| Julian with gooseberry pie |
After which I discovered I had a tick on my back, and did the usual 'just get it off me!' So despite my better knowledge I had Julian burn it with a cigarette lighter, then once dead I got him to do what would have been the right thing in the first place & twist it out with my tweezers. The sight of the little legs scrabbling as it munched into me was too much to bear. So for all you Europeans reading this blog: I have never been bitten by anything nastier than a mosquito in Australia, but in Sweden I have been bitten by a tick potentiallly carrying a nasty bacteria or TBE virus and in London I have been bitten on the face overnight by what I think was a spider as my cheek was numb for over a month. Which just goes to show that if you want to sleep safe and sound in your bed at night, avoid Europe and come to Oz.
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