The cottage
About 10km north of Kopingsvik you will se a road sign that says Aleklinta gard, and when you reach a gas station and you probably are going to see camels, turn left from road 136.
This is how part of the driving directions to Äleklinta Gård, our accommodation place on Öland, sounded like.
“You probably are going to see camels” … come again? It must be a sign on the road, we concluded. But no, they were real camels, right there, in a farm next to the road. And just across the street from the llamas farm. The first time in my life that I see a camel for real is in Sweden, on Öland, an island in the south-east part of the country.
We checked-in our stuga (cottage), which you can see in the image below, just in time for a beautiful sunset over the sea.
The room’s window was toward the water and later that night, when I went to bed, I noticed that the light from the moon was reflecting from the water surface directly onto the ceiling. What’s better in this romantic environment than to watch Jackass: The Movie, on the small TV set sitting in the corner.
When reading about best conditions for outdoor photography, one is being told that early morning and the dusk give best light conditions. I’m not the kind of person willing to jump out of bed at 4-5-6am, to get the first rays of sunlight, but Saturday morning my throat had a different opinion. I woke up at 6 with a sore feel in the throat. It seemed like a good opportunity to take a walk on the beach, which was waiting just outside the door.
The sun was shining, with that morning soft light, the water was so calm, but the birds were very much awake and active. There weren’t many of them around, or as much as I noticed with my untrained eye, but the ones present were making as much noise as possible. Once in a while a passing duck was announcing its presence, breaking through the high pitch sounds made by other small and quick birds.
The south
Right after breakfast we started to explore the island. Öland has a long shape and its interest points are spread around the whole island, making driving around between them a little tiring. I think one needs at least 3 days to examine the whole island without missing anything. We had 1.5 days.
First on the list was the Borgholm Castle. I have nothing special to say about our visit there, aside from what you can read on the link.
After a quick lunch, our journey continued with a stop at the ceramic centre in Färjestaden, a place with plates, vases and all sort of decorative candle holders at sky-rocket prices. The place has a cozy cafe and a few steps further toward the water will bring you to a vantage point from where you can admire the 6km of Ölandsbron, the longest bridge in Sweden, which is the connection to the mainland.
Next stop, Långe Jan, the tallest lighthouse in Sweden, situated right on the south tip. Next to the lighthouse, there is one of the biggest bird observation points on the island. At the time we were there, I would estimate at least 500.000 euro worth of electronic and optical equipment being handled by all the bird watching enthusiasts around.
We wanted to get to the northern part of the island in the very same day, but the driver (me) was exhausted from the intense sunlight throughout the day and the strong and constant blowing wind. And highly unmotivated from the unending scrolling of the map of Öland, which made the destination in the north seem so far away from our location.
These being said, we concluded it’s better to postpone the trip to the north for the next day and have dinner in the town of Borgholm, then go and see the next spectacular sunset at the stuga. Which wasn’t that spectacular in any case. At least not as spectacular as the one in the first evening.
Traversing the island from east to west, to get to Borgholm, we passed by what could be described as a mini-airport. It was basically a big backyard of a house, with 3 small aircrafts pausing near the grass lane. I’m the last person you would want as a plane pilot, but even to me, the prospect of having my own small airport in the backyard seems pretty awesome.
Borgholm is one of those nice little typical Swedish towns, with pedestrian streets in the center, sided by small shops. Another typical thing about this kind of Swedish town is that everything is closed in the evening, including most of the restaurants. Eventually, we managed to find one open, crowded with all the tourists absent from the suddenly chilly streets and the exhausted driver mentioned above was able to recover some of his senses.
The north
Next day, the north of the island unveiled to us with its Långe Erik, which is another lighthouse, and Trollskogen, a forest with old pine trees twisted by the wind, which looked pretty much the same as the woods in Lord of the rings.
Between Långe Erik and Trollskogen we made a short stop for coffee, in a house next to the road. An old lady took our order for 2 coffees and we paid for each 20 kronor (about 2 euro), which is a decent price for a coffee in Stockholm. She started to brew it and 10 minutes later, she came out in the garden, where we were seated, with a 2 liter pot full of coffee. I was aware that the Swedes drink probably more coffee than water and this confirmed it once more.
Öland is abundant with wild life, formed mainly by birds, but also hares, deers, moose and probably others. On the way to the northern part, we drove on a side road and stopped next to a small pond. The place was a micro universe, where we saw around 5 types of birds. One of the them was acting annoyed by our presence, making noises and moving in random circles above us. The reason: it had some eggs laid on a small grassy bulge right on the ground.
It is said that Öland hosts about 400 windmills. Given that it has a surface of 1344 sq km, then there are about 3.3 mills per sq km. This basically means they’re everywhere and some of them are very photogenic.
After leaving the island that day, we barely had time to drop by the castle in Kalmar. It was getting late and Stockholm was far away, at about 5 hours driving.
Here you may find more images from the trip and at this link some other nice photos from Öland.
