Stockholm - Venice of the North

From Klintholm / Danmark we sailed to Ystad, our first port in Sweden. On our further route we passed Simrishamn, then to Karlskrona (a very interesting place with a famous Marine Museum, which we visited). Kalmar was our next stop, where we stayed another day and paid a visit to Kalmar Castle, which was worth doing it. Quite astonishing that this castle had never been destroyed although it had been attacked 24 times!
Byxelkrok, our next port, situated at the northern end of island "Öland", is a pitturesque small place with typical Swedish summer houses. Unfortunately we have not been able to rent bikes so that we could not explore the area and did not see any of the 400 wind mills of originally more than  two thousand!
Our plan to go to Visby / Gotland was not a good idea at that time. The annual political symposium in remembrance of former prime minister Olof Palme took place in Visby. The harbour was full and the city burst from security. So we decided to continue our way via Västervik to Arkösund, where we made intensive experience with navigation through the skerries of the Swedish arpichelago. Nävekvarn - a place in the middle of nowhere - gave us shelter from strong winds with gusts up to 40 knots. Finally we continued our way to Stockholm via Trosa, Södertälje, Lake Mälaren and Slagsta, which we reached yesterday, three weeks after our start in Arnis/Schlei and some 600 nm.
We explored this wonderful city by bike, including the Djurgarden (a hunting area of the various monarchies), Gamla Stan (old town of Stockholm), island hopping via Skeppsholmen, Kastellholmen, Riddarholmen, Helgeandsholmen, and ending in the Saluhallen.
Here they offer gourmet food including all sorts of fish and sea food,  but also specialties like reindeer and elk meat and sausages, unique Swedish cheese (Vaesterbotten). We enjoyed a wonderful meal with zander on a bed of various mushrooms and lemon sole with beetroot and capers.
After the crowded city we now look forward to continue our journey in the Stockholm archipelago, anchoring and enjoying the wonderful nature.

For pictures please look at the German version, they are mostly self explanatory