Posts In The “Europe” Category
Stendorren Nature Reserve is part of EU’s Natura 2000, the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world comprising over 18% of the EU’s land area. Stendorren includes 185 hectares of land with marked hiking trails throughout and suspension bridges connecting several of the offlying islands to the mainland. It’s a popular place, with…
A beacon has stood on Gubbo Kupa since medieval times, historians surmise, as part of a warning system of incoming enemy vessels. The cairn there today has been in place as a navigation mark since 1826. Like most hilltop navigation marks, the site offers sweeping views of the area. From the island of Hasselo, we…
The island of Hasselo is home to the exclusive pub “The Thirsty Winterswan“. It’s only open in the fall, winter and spring, and only for 3 hours a week: on Saturdays from 4pm to 7pm. The concept appealed to us greatly and we tried not to get our hopes up too much in case it…
Sweden monitors its coast closely and has even reinstated EU-internal border controls in places. So we weren’t surprised when a Swedish Coast Guard vessel made a beeline for Dirona when we came into view while anchored in the Misterhult Archipelago just north of Kalmar. Their visit was brief and friendly, and we otherwise spent two…
Kalmar was one of Sweden’s most important cities between the 13th and 17th centuries and its city seal, dating from the mid-1200s, is the oldest known in Scandinavia. Prominent when approaching by water is Kalmar Castle, one of Sweden’s best preserved renaissance castles. The castle was involved in a number of conflicts, and played a…
Oland is the second largest island in Sweden and has a history of settlement dating back to at least 8000 BC. The island is famous for it’s beaches—one guide lists 55 around the island—and Swedes flock there in the summer. But Oland also has a wide array of other attractions including Iron Age ring forts,…
After Karlskrona, we spent a couple of nights anchored at the Hastholmen-Ytteron Nature Reserve at the eastern edge of the Karlskrona Archipelago. Much of the area we’d travelled through was a restricted military zone until 1997. Just west of where we anchored is the island of Torumskar, where an international incident occurred in 1981 when…
Two Swedish submarines “escorted” us in from sea as we approached Karlskrona from Utklippan. The Swedish Navy is renowned for its submarine technology, particularly in building extremely quiet vessels that are difficult to detect. Over two years of war games with the US in 2005-2006, the Swedish submarine HSMS Gotland made repeated undetected attack runs…
We were the first visitors of the season when we made Swedish landfall at Utklippan on March 27th. We were excited to finally reach Sweden and were looking forward to some fabulous cruising. Utklippan itself is an incredibly beautiful island full of migrating shorebirds, lots of history to see, and a lighthouse. It’s a wild…
The Danish island of Bornholm has been fought over for centuries by Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. The 227sq mi (588 sq km) island is the 8th largest in the Baltic Sea, lying 80nm east from the nearest Danish land, 45 miles from Germany and only 25 miles from Sweden. Prominent on the northwest coast of…
We reached Denmark the day after transiting the Kiel Canal, and anchored for the night at the west end of Smalandsfarvandet. The next day we passed through eastbound to Klintholm, where we rode our bikes out to view the famous Mont Klint chalk cliffs and enjoyed touring the area. Being early in the season, we…
Following an overnight run from Amsterdam, we made a brief pit stop in Heligoland to top up our diesel tanks with duty-free fuel and were underway again in time to catch the last half of the Elbe River flood tide and reach the Kiel Canal that afternoon. We arrived at the canal in a fog…
Just over four months after arriving, we departed Amsterdam on a calm but chilly morning and exited the canal system into the North Sea at IJmuiden. From there we made a 200nm overnight run to the German holding of Heligoland to pickup a load of duty-free diesel. Conditions were wonderfully settled most of the way…
In addition to being a wonderful place to live and complete some boat projects, City Marina IJDok also was convenient for visitors. This gave us an opportunity to catch up with some old friends, meet in person some that we’d only corresponded with, and make new acquaintances with locals or those travelling to the area….
Besides being a great place to call home, City Marina IJDok in Amsterdam also was convenient to complete a number of boat projects including replacing the Jabsco 34600-0010 bilge pump with Whale Gulper 320 High Capacity bilge pump, installing a new steering pump, and adding shorepower soft start. Some of the gear and supplies we…
City Marina IJDok was an exceptional winter home for us. We were lucky to get a spot in the small marina in downtown Amsterdam that is an easy walk to the train station and countless restaurants and attractions. In addition to exploring the city and enjoying the Amsterdam Light Festival and the city’s extensive New…
In our last couple of weeks in Amsterdam, we visited The Hague, completed a few boat projects, finalized our preparations for our summer cruise to the Baltic and hosted a few visitors. We’d initially planned to depart Amsterdam for the Baltic Sea on March 1st, but extended our stay until the 15th to give us…
James has long had an interest in the famous Dutch graphics artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, whose work features mathematical objects and optical illusions. As a teenager he had a poster of Escher’s Dragon on his wall and as an adult very much enjoyed reading Douglas Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach that explores the common themes between…