I visited the Stockholm Archipelago on July 15th 2018, (pictured above). The 24,000 islands, islets, holms, and skerries of the Stockholm archipelago—are paradise in summer, described by Swedish author and dramatist August Strindberg as a “basket of blossoms on ocean’s wave.” The archipelago was created by the movement of ice, carving through what was originally an inland mountain range, to leave outcrops of rock. As the ice retreated, it polished the rock, giving the islands smooth, rounded slopes to the north, but leaving steep, sharp, angular slopes to the south. The archipelago begins in the heart of Stockholm, with the island of Skeppsholmen. The islands closest to the mainland are bigger than those farther out, and are separated by stretches of water that the Swedes call fjardar. I stopped off onto Grinda Island (the serene island), and spent the day there.

Grinda Island was a world by itself, even though the boat trip from the centre of Stockholm took an hour. I took a journey through the world’s most beautiful archipelago, and stepped ashore on an island that never ceased to seduce me. It was great!