It Never Rains but it Pours …

Every day of our holiday so far, rain has been promised. And it hasn’t rained. Until today. Suddenly, from mid-morning, it deluged. And how. We abandoned our plans, in favour of a tour of Gothenburg’s Northern Archipelago. Which has a ridiculous number of islands. One or two are biggish, and can support a population of 5000 or so. Others are so small they probably aren’t on the map, and there wouldn’t even be room enough for my 2 year old granddaughter to sit down.

We caught a bus to a tiny landing port half an hour outside Gothenburg so we could catch the ferry to the Big Island, Hönö. It’s a car ferry  – they all are – and passenger comfort is not really a consideration. But (a) our first voyage was only 6 minutes long and (b) it was completely free. We never saw a member of staff all day, in any of these free ferries.

Here’s our ferry coming to collect us, and maybe a dozen cars.

So a couple of ferries go back and forth, back and forth between the mainland and Hönö, while others service the other islands. Once landed, we had time for a ferry-terminal kind of lunch (it wasn’t bad) before catching a bus across the island. We were a bit surprised to find we’d travelled across not one, but three islands, courtesy of causeways we hadn’t realised were causeways.  Blame the rain. Two more ferries. Two more islands.

View of another ship, and ours, doing their daily thing.

We loved it. We enjoyed the views of all these gaunt and rocky islands, mainly unpopulated apart from cormorants and gulls. Many people choose to live on the bigger islands. It’s hard to know why. They’re crowded with houses but few facilities, and may well be inaccessible during winter storms. We spotted one church, one supermarket and a propellor factory in our meanderings.

I even got a bit of a walk along the coastal path on Hälsö. It had stopped raining for 10 minutes.

Hälsö

As rainy days go, this went rather well. We didn’t get all THAT wet.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

30 thoughts on “It Never Rains but it Pours …”

  1. We just had a similar situation here in Wales during a short break on Anglesey. Rain forecast every day, sometimes 90%. But it didn’t happen. Cool and windy, but dry. On our last evening it started raining when we got back to the caravan – heavy rain. Still raining in the morning. Continued raining all the way from Anglesey to the Pembrokeshire border. Then it stopped and we were glad to be able to stretch our legs for a while.

    Enjoy the rest of your trip.

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  5. I enjoyed traveling along with you on this rainy-day adventure. Sometimes the unexpected changes make the best memories, and the archipelago looks wonderfully rugged and atmospheric. The free ferries, rocky islands, and brief break in the weather for a coastal walk all sound like part of the charm. Your photos capture the mood beautifully, and I had to smile at the thought of islands too small for your granddaughter to sit on!

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  6. Sounds like a decent way to spend a wet day 🙂 It reminds me a little of a boat trip we took out of Oslo harbour, past islands that were only big enough for a handful of houses – but I think they were mostly summer weekend second homes, not permanent ones. These look far too isolated for me, but lovely to visit in any weather!

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  12. Well! You abandoned your plans, in favour of a tour of Gothenburg’s Northern Archipelago…..In the rain! You are made of stronger stuff than me, must be the Yorkshire! I would probably have gone for an exhibition in indoors. that said it sounds like you had a good day, fun you said.

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