When you are in the harbour in Oslo, you can see not very far off a series of islands out in the water. All are small and they are supposed to be fabulous for picnicking and hiking and other outdoorsy pursuits. Last weekend we decided that it was time to visit one of them. Our plan was to see the closest one, Hovedøya. Though it didn’t quite work out how we planned (it almost never does with us).
Hovedøya is seven minutes by ferry from Oslo. It was a beautiful Saturday morning after a Friday full of rain. The harbour was looking its best. We got our tickets and got on board. As it happened, we didn’t get off the boat at Hovedøya, which was the first stop. We knew it was a quick trip but we didn’t know how fast the boat was able to pull into the dock, open the gangway, and let people off and on. We were taking pictures on the upper deck and went down when we thought it was the right minute, only to find that the gangway had been raised and we were moving off. Oh well.
Since it’s just a few minutes between islands, we decided we would get off at the next one. But when that one came into view, it didn’t look all that appealing. So we stayed on for one more island. (We didn’t feel bad about not having the right ticket: the fare is the same for any trip.) When the next one hove into view, it seemed pretty good, and so off we went.
It turned out to be Gressholmen, and it’s a nature preserve. There were no residences or businesses on the island. It was heavily wooded with lovely paths throughout. A few signs offered minimal information, so we followed our instincts. Well, Laurel’s instinct – John is terrible at directions. We followed a semi-wooded little path down to the water and saw a lovely house that looked like a ranger station. This was the only building we saw on the island, but there may be more. And then we went uphill. Our reward was a clearing with a panoramic view of the water. We laid out our blanket, enjoyed the view, and basked in the sun.
Still, there was the dreaded FOMO: what about Hovedøya? When the next ferry arrived, the first name on the marquee was ‘Hovedøya’, so in we went. Only it wasn’t going there (or was going there by a very circuitous route) and so we waited for a bit, and then, in our usual impatient way, we got off at a different island.
This one, Nakkholmen, was in fact the perfect contrast to Gressholmen. Where the other was all woods, this one had many houses and (we discovered) one grocery store/cafe. There were no roads proper, only dirt paths that ran along the houses. The houses were close to one another (though it didn’t feel crowded) and they were painted in a variety of attractive colours. And beautiful flowers and shrubs formed borders between neighbours. We came upon an open field full of adults and children and dogs enjoying themselves with food and games. Our luck is such that we were there for ‘Island Celebration Day’. We stayed a little while and then found our way again to another quiet spot with an equally spectacular but different view, put down our gear, and again relaxed in the sun.
Although we did not manage Hovedøya, we did sufficiently master the ferry system enough to make our way back to Oslo harbour. Exhausted from our labours, we sat in one of the cafés that line the harbour and enjoyed a late lunch and a local beer (known as ‘utepils’, outside beer). We thought about the people who live on these remote-yet-convenient islands. We liked the fact that there was a real sense of quiet isolation there, even though it wasn’t more than ten minutes by ferry to the city. On the other hand, there is winter (which we’ve begun to speculate obsessively about). We’ll go out to the islands again, of course, and who knows, this time we may actually get to Hovedøya!
