Talk about a civilized country. The U.S. could do worse than to emulate Sweden’s vacation practices. The Annual Leave Act guarantees workers 25 paid vacation days every year. It also permits them to take four consecutive weeks off between June and August. No wonder every third Swede seems to have a country home! Mind you, that home could be a mansion on a lake or it could be a cabin in the woods with primitive plumbing. In either case, it’s an excuse to get out of town.. But even Stockholm dwellers without their own (or their family’s) country home can make quick getaways by hopping one of the many commuter ferries to the islands in the Stockholm archipelago. When we followed suit, we learned that they don’t exactly go hungry….

Working up an appetite strolling in the park

Set aside as a Royal National City Park, the cluster of islands known as Fjäderholmarna are just a 25-minute cruise from downtown Stockholm on a private ferry line. The largest of the island group is Stora Fjäderholmen. That’s the ferry unloading passengers at the top of this post. There’s a map (so to speak) at the ferry dock, but it’s hard to get lost on a small island with exactly one road around its periphery.

We’re told that Stora Fjäderholmen is something of a madhouse on Midsommar (June 21), but it was fairly sedate when visited. As we walked around (literally) we noticed that all the buildings except the shops in a crafts village are painted red with white trim, slightly weathered to follow the aesthetics of Postcard Picturesque. A circular trail passes historic boats and patches of flowers, climbs to lookout points and a semi-rural restaurant, and finally returns to the little village at the ferry dock.

Making the circuit of an island smaller than its name

Visitors could breeze through Stora Fjäderholmen at a slow walking pace in less than a half hour — unless they stop, as we did, to talk with the often chatty artisans in the crafts village. Some of the artisans live on the island for the summer season, but not year-round. We spent time with a designer/knitter who produces lovely clothing on a knitting machine and at the group shop of potters. We never did get into the blacksmith’s shop, where a succession of tour groups were making their own jewelry.

The largest shop of the group was a glassblowing facility called The Garage. Frederick Nielsen, one of the two founders, was high-energy presence who has given workshops in Seattle, Minneapolis, and Boston. His whiskey glasses were heavy to lug home, but we’ll toast his memory every time we have a sip.

The island circuit may be short but it’s long enough to work up an appetite. We decided to grab a bite at the brewpub at the dock, Fjäderholmarnas Bryggeri AB (Stora Fjäderholmen, +46 70 333 90 98, fjaderholmarnasbryggeri.se). There are two other restaurants on the island, both of them a bit on the fancy side, but somehow a waterfront bar fit the casual day. The beer is actually brewed on the mainland, but it was a treat to sip a lager and eat a shrimp salad sandwich as we waited for our ride back to the big city.