This morning I left by bike to go to the sandy beach of Sandbad, on the island of Alö, which is connected to Utö by a short bridge at its northern tip.For information purposes, it took me a leisurely one hour to get from Mariehäll to the beach, and about 45 minutes to return. I account for this difference in that the trip back to Mariehäll has longer downhill runs. Up until the bridge, the trip is the same one as I wrote about last year.
I am a bit tired tonite, and so rather than go on and on about the beach, I'll just share a couple of photos:
Cash problem
In fact, it is not possible to get cash on Utö unless you have a Swedish bank card (if you do have one of these, you can ask for cash back at ICA). This is because there is no bank on the island, or an ATM (distributor). In my opinion this is something that is missing on the island for tourists. As a matter of fact, this lack of cash has prevented me from purchasing things (souvenirs from shops etc.) or even making a little donation to the mine museum.
Fortunately, the minimum purchase for credit cards seems to universally be 50 SEK. This has not proven prohibitive, though, for example, at Spränga Brygga's little store, it forced me to purchase things I did not need, just to be able to have a bottle of water.
So my warning to new international visitors to Utö: bring cash!
Lounging
The rest of the day was spend reading and relaxing. Today was cooler then the preceding days, which was a much appreciated relief.
In fact, it is not possible to get cash on Utö unless you have a Swedish bank card (if you do have one of these, you can ask for cash back at ICA). This is because there is no bank on the island, or an ATM (distributor). In my opinion this is something that is missing on the island for tourists. As a matter of fact, this lack of cash has prevented me from purchasing things (souvenirs from shops etc.) or even making a little donation to the mine museum.
Fortunately, the minimum purchase for credit cards seems to universally be 50 SEK. This has not proven prohibitive, though, for example, at Spränga Brygga's little store, it forced me to purchase things I did not need, just to be able to have a bottle of water.
So my warning to new international visitors to Utö: bring cash!
Lounging
The rest of the day was spend reading and relaxing. Today was cooler then the preceding days, which was a much appreciated relief.
