Öland is the second largest Swedish island and the smallest
of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland is in the Baltic Sea just
off the coast of Småland. It is separated from the mainland by the Kalmar
Strait and connected to it by the 6 km Öland Bridge.
Öland was settled about 8000 BC. In the early Stone Age, settlers from the mainland migrated across the ice bridge that connected the island across the Kalmar Strait.
A local specialty is kroppkaka, which directly translates as body cake. Thankfully it isn't literal :-) This potato dumpling with porkmince in the middle is lovely. I ate it traditional style with butter, cream and lingon. It was really nice!
Since we only had after lunch to explore we stuck to just the bottom half of the island. We will have to go back and do the top bit another day. Öland is flat, very flat. It reminded me a lot of Ireland as there were numerous rock walls. Interestingly the rock walls had a white lichen that grew on them making them look painted. They also have lots of windmills and viking burial grounds.
We went all the way to the bottom of the island where there is a light house, called
Långe Jan. Here they also have a large bird watching sanctuary as well. If you squint you can see a seal on the rock (bottom left corner).