Kalmar and Oland

On Sunday, May 6, we drove to the southeast coast of Sweden. Another beautiful day, and a relatively easy drive.

We drove through miles and miles (or to be in the proper spirit, perhaps I should say kilometers and kilometers) of beautiful agricultural land. Green fields. Prosperous-looking farms, tidy and in good repair.

Sweden, it turns out, is horse country. Horse Country. The animals we spotted most frequently during our drive were horses. We saw some huge stables and paddocks. We saw not one, but two horse shows in full swing. We saw cars pulling horse trailers everywhere. Though the roadway warning signs we saw most often were regarding moose, we also saw one that warned us to watch for riders and horses.

We arrived in Kalmar in late afternoon. We checked into our historic hotel. One thing we’re learning quickly about our choice to be in historic buildings is that they don’t have lifts. That means moving bags up and down lots of stairs. Our Kalmar hotel put us on the third floor. So cruel.

Kalmar is most known for its grand medieval castle. Being the off season (i.e., the season of fewer open days and fewer open hours), it was of course closed when we arrived. We walked through Kalmar’s Gamla Stan (or old town) and then walked the grounds of the castle. People were picnicking in what once was a moat and up on the ramparts.

On Monday, we focused on exploring the island of Oland. In the early planning stages of this trip, I had hoped we might take a ferry to and spend some time on Gotland, a much larger island. That plan eventually faded away. In its place, I thought Oland might fulfill that yearning. Oland is less than half Gotland’s size. It is very long and narrow (8 miles wide by 90 miles long) and sits between Gotland and the mainland. And because of its relatively new (1972) 3.7-mile bridge from Kalmar, it is much easier to access.

One of the things of note about Oland is that it has windmills. 400 windmills. Now, you know how you hear something like that, and then you can never find them? Well, that’s not an issue on Oland. We must have seen our first windmill within minutes of arriving on the island. And by the end of the day, I’d be surprised if we hadn’t seen 80-100 of them. They’re small and can be seen along the roadways and dotted all over the little communities of the island.

The bridge puts you somewhere south of the halfway point in the island’s length, on its west coast. We drove to Borgholm, about two-thirds of the way north, where we poked around the town and a medieval castle ruin, and got a peek of the King and Queen’s summer residence. Then we crossed over to the eastern side and drove all the way to the end of the island before looping back north on the west side to the bridge.

This is not only a popular vacation destination, but also a place of many working farms. We saw cows and goats and sheep and some very fine farm buildings. We lost count of the tractors and other farm equipment with which we shared the road.

The southern half of the island has an unusual limestone plain called the Stora Alvaret, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Only a few species of birds and plants have adapted to living here. It is lined with rock walls, like you might see in Ireland, and  is largely used for cattle grazing.

One of my goals in visiting the island (besides finding some of those windmills) was to see the lighthouse on the southern end of the island. It is Sweden’s tallest lighthouse and is known as Lange Jan.

The Southern Cape turned out to be more special than we expected. It is a highly regarded birdwatching and ornithological research post. There were some formidable camera lenses at work out there and lots of people sporting binoculars. We felt woefully underprepared for this venture. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the views of the Baltic Sea, got to see the lighthouse, and did a little unaided birdwatching.

We loved Oland. It is a really special place. We saw some of the most charming wooden cottages and some marvelous old red barns and stables. Even with the advent of the bridge, which I’m sure massively changed the lives of the island residents, many parts of the island are quite remote from the city. There are half a dozen towns and lots of little hamlets, but one would need to be pretty comfortable being reasonably isolated to make a go of it in this environment. Looked like a perfect place to hole up when one is in the mood for solitude.

I’m pretty sure our visit to Oland will be on the short list of our trip’s favorite places.