Alléviken: The ancient striped rock (gneiss) on the beach at Utö.
When I moved to Stockholm, a surprising number of people asked if I would be living anywhere near Zurich. They honestly confused Sweden for Switzerland. At the time, I smugly felt superior in my geography knowledge and told them to look on a map. But I also thought it was rather funny that I was moving to a place that so many Americans did not seem to know about. Then after living here for a while, I thought it was rather sad that people did not know how beautiful Stockholm and its archipelago was. But now in a perverse way, I’m also happy as I would prefer that the archipelago stay in the same pristine, non-developed state that it is now.
The forests, beaches and rocks are so lovely that it’s easy to imagine what this island looked like 100 or even 1,000 years ago. As we rode along the quiet forest paths on our bikes, we were pretty much on our own, although we did see a deer and her fawn at one point. And we also had the beach to ourselves even though it was a sunny day in July. But perhaps best of all, we only had to cycle a a few kilometers back into town to be able to hang out by the harbor and have a beer while we listened to live music. I feel so fortunate that I get to experience this magical place.
Along one of the many forest paths in Utö.
Hanging out at the Seglarbaren on Utö.
{ 2 comments }
Hi Sandra,
Just read you article while googling for Uto island. I’ll be in Stockhom next week and wanted to ask you – what is the easiest way for reaching the island? (for someone who doesn’t own a boat in this city:) )
Thanks,
Cosmin
Hi Cosmin, Thanks for reading. Utö should be a lot of fun this time of year. The easiest way to get to the island is by a combination of trains and boats. You can google sl.se and find information in English on using the public transportation. You will need to travel from central station to Gruvbryggan (Utö) (Haninge). The train, bus and ferry times are all connected. Have fun!
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