Archipelago life in Öregrund and Östhammar

When you talk about the Baltic Sea archipelago, you probably think of the Stockholm archipelago, but if you go just a little bit up towards Roslagen, there is the little gem Öregrund. After a few days along the High Coast, we took a detour to Öregrund and Östhammar before it was time to turn home.

We had actually planned to camp on the coast but the Swedish summer weather proved to be very unreliable so we booked a room at the last minute at the Pensionat Ankargården. Ankargården is located in the middle of Öregrund and is a lush oasis just a few minutes walk from the harbour area. With nice rooms and good breakfast, this suited us perfectly.

Öregrund is really a charming little wooden town with narrow streets and lots of carpentry. The town is tiny so there isn't a huge range of activities, so you go to Öregrund to take it easy. There are a few interior design shops and clothing stores to browse, then there are a bunch of restaurants, most of which overlook the water. If you fancy an excursion, you can go down to the harbour and jump on the boat out to Gräsö, where there is a nature reserve where you can hike, cycle or swim. We were here for such a short time that we unfortunately did not have time for a boat trip, it will have to be saved for another day. Instead, we spent the evening strolling around the picturesque town, stopping for a drink at one of the many outdoor cafes.

When it was time for dinner, we made our way down to the Söderström's veranda which has a nice view of the water. We chose a tasting menu that we thought would be a simple barbecue tray. We couldn't have been more wrong because first a whole bunch of tapas came to our table. There were various salads and mixtures that were actually a whole meal in themselves so we said that there must have been something wrong, we had ordered a barbecue menu. Then came the big plank full of different kinds of meat, sauces and salads. Jeez! We ate so we stormed and everything was really good. The waiter probably thought we were crazy when we rounded it all off with each Tiramisu. He had probably never met anyone like Rendahls before and looked very impressed with our ability to put away food. 🙂

The tour continues towards Östhammar

In Öregrund we learnt that there would be a fantastic ice cream café in Östhammar. We could not miss this so we headed for the other small coastal town in Roslagen. Östhammar can unfortunately be seen as the slightly more forgotten summer town in the shadow of the more popular Öregrund. We took a walk over the small square and went down to the water where we found the old society house Källör. During the 19th century Östhammar was a popular bathing and holiday resort and during the 1870s the beautiful house was built, which today is one of the largest preserved society houses along the Baltic Sea coast. Unfortunately, the building was in a rather poor condition but volunteers are working to take care of the house and you can support its preservation by, for example, buying a window in the house or a prism in the chandelier.

The clock struck eleven, finally opening. Schrams Gelato and we got to enter the nice shop. In addition to ice cream, there were candy and sweets as well as some furnishings. However, we were here for the ice cream. Schrams Gelato is run by a couple, Linda and Mattias, who, after a few years in Stockholm, moved home to Östhammar to completely change tack and start selling ice cream. Mattias even studied ice cream production in Bologna. The studies obviously went well, because what good ice cream we ate! If you have the roads past Östhammar, this is really worth a stop, it's so fun when you accidentally fall into places like Schrams when you are out on a trip.

Satisfied with archipelago life for this time, we now moved on to Gimo mansion where we had booked a lovely weekend as the end of our road trip. You can read more about that trip here.