After having found a prefect anchorage for the night, we had a BBQ and decided to go for stroll afterwards. We passed the usual well-kept houses with their lovely gardens and did not expect anything out of the unusal. But, after about 20 minutes walking, we found probably the most bizarre spot in the archipelago. An old age ship home. It is not a ship cemetray, as the various vessels are all afloat and you can see the odd ongoing repair work. But there does not seem much hope for any of them.
Here an excerpt from the Roslagen website https://roslagen.se/en/eagle/hogmarso-a-historic-shipbuilding-centre/
Several shipowners, including the “Blidökungen” Johan Österman, started a shipyard in 1876. Jonas Petter Elfving was appointed manager. Ships were built here using sustainable crawling technology instead of the traditional riveting technique. In 1918, steel ships began to be built and the name was changed to Furusunds Slip- och Varfs AB. In the 1930s and 1940s, there was also a shipyard for pleasure boats next to the shipyard, and there is still a small shipyard that carries on the traditions.
But the most bizarre ship is a Chinese-style, dragon-headed restaurant that was even part of the 2022 Venice Biennale. Here an excerpt from https://kunstkritikk.com/rise-of-the-dragon/
The ship was built in the early 1990s by entrepreneur Johan Wang, who dreamt of a floating Chinese restaurant in Gothenburg. The boat was constructed in Shanghai harbour (the dragon was designed by Chinese artist Lou Wang Cheng) then towed all the way to Sweden. Unfortunately, the business flopped, and after numerous attempts to get the restaurant up and running in various European cities – including Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen – the boat was eventually brought back to Gothenburg and left to rot. In recent years, it was used as a haunted house “taken over by a thousand-year-old curse from the Orient” by the Gröna Lund amusement park in Stockholm during Halloween.
The current owner provides the space and various ship owners park their vessels there. The daughter runs a restaurant on the site. A truly bzzarre place!
