Wednesday, October 5th:
Today was our coldest, windiest, and rainiest day yet! We left the MS Rotterdam, boarded our coach, headed out of Gothenburg, and jumped on a ferry so we could go explore the northern Gothenburg archipelago.
Note: ö in Swedish means "island"
Did you know that Sweden has the most islands of ANY country?! Yep! 221,800 islands!
In this part of the country the islands are pretty bare. If you look out into the sea you will see a lot of low lying granite rocks.
We took the ferry from the mainland out to Hönö. From here we drove north and over a bridge to another island: Öckerö. We continued further north, crossed another bridge, and ended up at Hälsö. Once we hit the northern point of Hälsö we had to turn around. If you want to visit more islands to the north you have to take a ferry and some of them don't allow cars!
We turned around and headed back to Öckerö where we visited the local church.
The first wooden church was built here in 1240 and then was replaced in 1450 by this stone church. The locals call it the "old church."
[Graveyard with bell tower]
The interior of the church was a little intense. The wall was covered in large painted murals depicting the trinity, the Last Judgement, and hell.
[I liked this ship chandelier]
[New church built in 1906]
We left the church and walked across the street to the Old Homestead Museum. This museum includes five dwelling houses, a barn, a potato cellar, and a small house for fishing equipment.
Before we walked around the museum we had afternoon tea in one of the houses. They served tea, coffee, pound cake, and these delicious cookies.
[Potato cellar]
I wasn't too interested in the village to be honest. So I hiked up these stairs and took pictures at the top of the granite rocks.
[New Church]
[Old Church with its graveyard]
After exploring Öckerö we headed south to Hönö. We drove out to a southwestern point and took a quick walk around. The weather was so miserable that my parents volunteered to stay on the bus with Theo. I love how the people here build their houses on top of the rocks. These rocks aren't flat and they take a lot of money and explosives to move, so they people just make them part of their houses!
[In the far distance you can see the bridge that connects Hönö and Fotö]
[So windy and rainy!]
We then headed south to our final island: Fotö. We drove around for a few minutes before heading back to Hönö to catch the ferry back to the mainland.
[My sweet boys!]
Our tour guide has a sweet high voice and Theo thought it was hilarious. So whenever she was speaking on the coach, he would be laughing.
Before heading back to the ship, we went on a driving tour of Gothenburg.
[Gustav Adolfs Torg]
[Poseidon outside Museum of Art]
After driving around our guide allowed us to have some free time. We walked to a huge indoor mall where my dad bought a raincoat and we grabbed a quick lunch. It wasn't raining anymore so we went outside and walked around a bit.
We then headed back to the MS Rotterdam where we found fresh fruit and ice water in our room. My mom and I also went down the hall to the Neptune Lounge to get some cookies and chocolates 🙂 We needed those after a long and chilly day!
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