Ice, ice, spring, ice and snow
It is mid-February in Obbola in Sweden. Dear friends are visiting us. The Baltic Sea is frozen. On the ice there is a layer of snow. On 16 February we walk from our house to and across the sea ice to a nearby beach. Three days later we do the same with skis.
Three days later I see the sea from above, because Annika and I are visiting part of my family in Augsburg in Germany. 100% sea ice coverage in the northern Baltic Sea, open water near Stockholm.
Augsburg is a striking contrast. First, it chilly and rainy, but then it gets warm. On our last day we are sitting outside for lunch, enjoying the warm sun while bees and bumblebees are visiting the thousands of spring flowers. It’s like another world!
Two days later we fly back the same way. The sea ice is segmented by many shipping lanes. I can even spot one of the Swedish icebreakers – probably the vessel Ymer – which keeps these channels free of ice during the winter.
In the afternoon we are home again in our house by the sea in Obbola.
However we are not here for long. For the next two weeks we will be on our backcountry skis, first in Finnish Lapland, then in Swedish Lapland.