Into the Archipelago

Yesterday we took "Cinderella" boat on a two and a half hour voyage into the archipelago. We spent the day on a nature preserve island called Finnhamn. It was very beautiful and rustic. A coworker of Andrew's invited us to spend the day on this island with his family- they have a semi permanent tent on the island set up on some very large rocks. The entire island (in fact most of the archipelago) is very rocky, when people say "go to the beach" they mean, sunbathe on the very very large rocks. Great fun to jump into the COLD water from these rocks. Even Laska joined in the fun- though not Kitty, the water was a bit too cold for her. The boat ride too and from the island was stunning, many of the rocky islands decorated with darling (and surely quite expensive) red and yellow summer houses. We left the house at 9 am and returned at 11 pm quite exhausted and ready for bed!

Interesting stuff we learned:

• There are supposedly 30,000+ islands that make up this archipelago that stretches all the way to Finland
• They were created by glaciers 15,000 years ago that were 3 kilometers thick. 
• The rocks are indeed smooth but have interestingly straight grooves in them. You can tell which direction is generally north by these grooves and the position of the sun as the glaciers slowly melted from south to north because the southern parts became warmer quicker.
• Though there are many state-owned islands in the archipelago, there are only 3 islands that are nature reserves similar to the island of Finnhamn.
• You shouldn't rent a boat unless you are extremely good at navigation due to all the shallow rocks in the area.
• Slippery green algae make getting out of the water quite difficult! Even for dogs ;)

Happy Sunday to all  back home!