The wind was still howling but at least the rain seemed to have passed, we had blue skies albeit the air temperature wasn't much above single figures. We decided that we would combine a little sightseeing with shopping, both for food and anchors. A small aside – I have decided that we might as well be like every other boat in the Baltic, prepared for going bows onto the shore and with the stern held in place by an anchor. I’d already bought the fittings for said anchor in Kalmar but the anchors on display were awful, they looked like the work of a young apprentice in a far-eastern sweatshop, one who got fired as he wasn’t much good. So, everywhere we go, I look for an anchor and our chandlery here had the same awful examples so we were going to walk round the bay to the competition to see what they had (they hadn’t). On with the quest.



Our first point of call was the beautifully proportioned St Petri Church (1903-1905) . It is really elegant and the interior was light and airy and very restful. It also featured two organs, one of which had some of the pipes angled horizontally, presumably to accentuate the volume. When we came out, the weather looked like it was about to change so we did a spot of shopping and got back to the boat for lunch, leaving sightseeing for another day. By now it was cloudy and very windy and of course, cold.

After a longish lunch, when I started updating the blog, we decided we must get some air and went off to search for one of the local 'must sees’ – a candle factory or at least a shop which sells candles and which features a small workshop where they are produced. They are hugely expensive, the one in the photo costs £250 or thereabouts!! We also happened across a small museum but as almost all the signs were in Swedish we decided to forego the entrance fee and the exhibits but we did see a few buildings dating from the 1800’s which had been preserved . We also came across a rare Swedish breed of hen, the Kindahen, which the museum is breeding. The cockerel was particularly fine and worthy of a photo in this blog.

Finally having got back to the boat, we decided to utilise the sauna. It is mixed sex and towels were mandatory but as we were the only ones there, at least initially, we were able to be ‘au naturel’, keeping costumes to hand and in fact they were required, at least by Julie, as we were joined by 3 men which sort of spoiled it for us so we decided to call it quits. Mind you, we were glowing on the way back to the boat, despite the cool shower, so perhaps they do work!

A relaxed, pleasant evening was passed, we watched an episode of Holby, I posted the blog and we did a bit of reading. The wind subsided somewhat so we anticipated a better day tomorrow, maybe even taking the bikes for a run….