Week 35 of my painting project „One Year – One Island“
BYXELKROK – what a strange name. Öland has many unusual place names, and not all of them have a traditional explanation. When I first heard the name (and already knew Swedish), I thought of a hook (en krok) and something with pants (en byxa). But it has nothing to do with a pants hook. According to Wikipedia, the name comes from „Byskogskroken“ – translated as village (by) – forest (skog) – the hook (kroken), here in the sense of something angularly curved. South of the roundabout in Byxelkrok, a pine forest grows down to the narrow sandy beach. It’s hard to see that this was once the village forest, with the road towards Tokenäs, with a few villas on the left and a parking lot on the right, now creates a different impression. And the bay, where the small lighthouse stands, surely makes a kind of hook.
Byxelkrok is a popular destination for sailors and yacht owners. In the summer, the large, white „million-dollar-holiday homes“ are moored here, close together. Along with Borgholm, it is the largest guest harbor on Öland. A few years ago, the harbor was expanded and now offers 100 berths, plus room for 25 small boats. From here, there is a daily ferry service to Oskarshamn – only in the summer, of course. Boats also depart from here for the „Blue Maiden,“ a mythical island (and nature reserve) located between northern Öland and the mainland. Originally, the harbor was home to commercial fishermen, but that was a long time ago.
See this watercolor – this is what the harbor looked like in 1958, when fishing was still in full swing. All that remains are the row of fishermen’s cottages, which have been converted into a small tourist shopping area. One of those simple, rustic wooden huts is currently for sale, and this 24-square-meter space with a corrugated iron roof is said to cost just under 1,000,000 SEK (approximately €100,000). Don´t believe me? Look at this: LINK. There are also several restaurants here – serving fish dishes, home-style cooking, pizza, hamburgers, langos, and Greek dishes – one or two ice cream stands, two souvenir shops, and several stalls selling home decor, a cottage with flowering Ibiza-style dresses and silver jewelry… the usual fare for visitors to a tourist promenade.
Byxelkrok is also known for something else: the so-called „Solligan.“ The Sun League is a competition launched in 1990 by Swedish Television (SVT). The hours of sunshine from Midsummer (21st June) to early August are counted at various locations in Sweden. Afterward, Sweden’s sunniest place of the year is crowned. In 2009, a local association made a significant investment in purchasing the necessary measuring equipment so that Byxelkrok could join the competition immediately. After all, whoever can boast the most sunshine is definitely a sought-after vacation spot in Sweden. 2018 was the sunniest year since then, with 608 hours of sunshine recorded, but 2012 saw the fewest hours to date, just 425. In 2024, Byxelkrok was in fourth place with 504 hours, once again behind its larger rival island, Gotland. And of course, Öland is so popular as a summer destination precisely because its long sandy beaches and sunny weather go hand in hand.
But is this really relevant for the future? Since the 1950s, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have been the most popular summer destinations for sun-hungry Europeans. These countries were literally flooded with beach tourists, but this golden era seems to be over. Or at least, there are more and more vacationers heading north. Since we’ve been running our café (17 years now), we’ve had a particularly large number of German tourists as guests, and we’ve noticed that the number is increasing. Not only here, and not only Germans; many Swiss, French, and even Spanish people are now coming to Öland. And in conversations, we increasingly hear that this is their first time in Sweden. When asked what prompted their decision to come to Sweden, many simply say they wanted to escape the intense heat. The forest fires are also mentioned. Germans, for example, have experienced summer temperatures of 35-40 degrees Celsius in recent years, with torrential rains as a „cooling-off“ in between. No longer do they long for Rimini or the Algarve, but rather for the northern touristspots as Bornholm or Öland with 23 degrees Celsius and a light breeze during july and august.
But what´s about rain? There has been droughts which caused the fires in southern Europe. We also got some very dry years here on Öland. I suspect that a limitation of groundwater capacity on islands is quite natural. While groundwater on the mainland can be replenished by rain from anywhere in the country, an island – surrounded by salt water – is dependent on the rainfall directly on the island itself. The groundwater on Öland becomes increasingly scarce in the summer when it suddenly has to be sufficient for 500,000 tourists and numerous pools instead of 30,000 residents. But in 2018, the heat records began, and at the same time, it rained less frequently or not heavily enough to even reach the groundwater level. Usually in summer everyone here talks about the weather: the inhabitants of Öland (farmers or at least owners of gardens) hope for „real rain“, the tourists hope for plenty of sunshine and some stunning sunsets. But both groups agree that 25 degrees is just “lagom”.
I wonder if the reasons for vacationing on Öland will slowly change: less longing for hours of sunshine, but rather for the pleasant temperatures – at least for our neighbors in the southern countries. And when in the future will the first tourists come to Sweden because it still got some beautiful rains? Is it all nonsense? I don’t know, but I sometimes wonder how tourism will develop during the ongoing climate change. And I’m not the only one. I recently read a book, „Milk Teeth“ by Helene Bukowski, a dystopian novel, very bizarre and oppressive. Besides the plot, what shocked me most was the advanced climate change and its effects. In the story burnt seagulls fell from the sky, nettle manure was an accepted form of payment for fertilizing the meager vegetable beds an a woman get killed for collecting plums from the ground under a plumtree…. read it, it´s good.
Now you’ve maybe been wondering what all this has to do with my watercolor painting in Byxelkrok. But what if I told you that I painted the tourist shopping area in Byxelkrok after a heavy summer rain?
It didn´t took long untill the clouds disapeared and the blue sky was seen again. But I liked the idea to paint Byxelkrok – which is known for the sunshine competition – on a rainy day. The little dog in the foreground, by the way, is a tribute to very dear friends who, after decades of summering on Öland, sold their holiday home in Byxelkrok at the beginning of this year. I hope you like it.
Next week, I’ll take you to one of my favorite places up here in the north of the island.
Hope you will join me…
