Marstrand

Following Joan’s advice to make formal plans to get out of the city every weekend, last Saturday, we went to Marstrand. Marstrand is an island on the west coast, about 45 km from Göteborg. It is the site of a fortress, Carlsten’s Fästning, and in the early 1900s, was a vacation spot for the wealthy. As it turned out, Saturday was History day, and there were many people dressed up in costume from the turn of the century.

Having read the weather forecast which suggested it would warm- and sunny- up in the afternoon, I suggested shorts and jackets rather than long pants and sleeves. Well, when we got out of the car at Koon to get the ferry to the island, it was decidedly un-warm. And windy! Oh, but the smell of the sea was wonderful!

The trip across on the ferry takes about 2 minutes. Honestly, you could swim it if you had to. It’s a real ferry - the kind that runs on a cable and always goes in a straight line. You have to pay to get to the island. The trip back is free.

Most of the ferry passengers turned right toward the buildings. Never one to follow the crowd unless necessary, I suggested we turn left. This direction led past a smaller fortress, and over to the swimming spot. The island is a giant piece of granite, and one swims in the sea, off the rocks. They have a smaller enclosed space, still fed by the sea, which is apparently for children (I’d swim there - no jellies). There’s also a diving board. I’m quite sure it would be lovely on a sunny day, but I had my red gloves on by that point, quietly shivering in my sweater and shorts. There are walking paths all over this small island, and we followed the one that ringed the edge for quite a while, discovering puddles left over from the previous night’s heavy rain, and small waterfalls leading that water back to the sea. Fortunately, when it did start to rain, we were at a cross path that lead into the interior of the island, so bedecked in our raincoats, we explored the woods. It all looked very Bruce Trail once you lost sight of the sea. We even found a cave - a real cave, complete with firepit and sitting log, big enough to camp in.

Lunch was at Berg’s Konditori, and we found a table beside the water. Nothing fancy - just sandwiches and drink, but very pleasant.

After lunch, we climbed the hill to the fortress. Construction on Carlsten fortress started in 1658 after a peace treaty transferred ownership of the area from Denmark to Sweden, and the Swedish King decided it would be necessary to build something for defence, and it was an active military post until 1882. Our Erik Dahlberg, he after whom our street is named, was the military engineer responsible for much of the early construction. All in all, construction took over 200 years, which made exploring really interesting wandering between the different phases of construction. All of the rooms were built into the walls so you can imagine how thick those walls are! One section is called the ‘peace roofs’ because it was only covered with wooden roofs during peace time. During wartime, the roofs were removed to protect the soldiers from splinters and possible fire. Carlesten was also the site of a prison and various experiments in ‘serving time’, most of which were doing hard labour. There is a secret tunnel which winds within the walls, up lots of stairs, all over the fortress.This was the site of the first revolving lighthouse. The best part was probably the view over the sea from the top of the fortress. The sun had come out and warmed things up significantly. The sun on the sea with the breeze, well, it was pretty fabulous.

Needless to say, we were really tired from walking all day. After a quick drink, we headed home to the flat. I wasn’t in the mood to cook, and Elizabeth voted for pizza, so I headed off on a walk to re-find a place I’d thought looked promising when I was here in April. Great pizza - we’ll go back. No English. Of all the places to have to use Swedish, we had to use it in a pizza parlour?

p.s. Fika is spelled f-i-k-a.