On beyond the horizon

I’m taking a long-overdue vacation next week, genuinely disconnecting from online- and business- responsibilities.   It’s become painful watching the Europeans disappear on holiday for weeks at a time while I keep working through the summer. ‘Time for a break.

Water or wilderness fit my mood, so this is going to be a sailing holiday in the Archipelago off Stockholm.  It sounds exotic, but the area reminds me of favorite places: the San Juans, northern Minnesota, or the coast off Maine. ‘ Towering evergreens, a network of coastal islands, long lazy twilights, and quiet rippling coves.

The Swedes end their sailing season around August 15th, leaving a good two weeks of summer weather with empty moorings and off-peak charter rates.  I’m hopeful that the time away will make a new man of me. So, the journey begins.

I pulled out of Maastricht late in the week, ferry to Dover, then Ryanair to Stockholm.  Stansted was full at 5 am, holiday-makers taking cheap flights to dozens of destinations, all departing at 6 am in one happy exodus.  Skavsta airport is far out in the country, an hour’s bus ride from Stockholm, but it was nice to just look out the window, watch the forests and fields roll by, listen to some road stories on the MP3 player, and let go of the week’s tasks one by one.

And so, my holiday mood grows with each passing mile, each letter, meeting, call, and report filed away at the back of my mind for the (distant) future.