Dale & Nicky OE: Finland Part 1

We had to travel north from Stockholm for about an hour to catch our ferry to Aland. We made short stops at Vaxholm and Norrtalje. We arrived in plenty of time for our ferry and the ride was smooth. Due to our inability to read Swedish and lack of awareness of a time zone change it was 1 hour shorter than we thought. In fact just as I was thinking one hour to go, I noticed we appeared to be moving very slowly and turning. So I went to investigate and noticed we were docking and most people had returned to their cars (we had been unable to hear announcements due to the engine noise). So we hurriedly headed back to the van and all was well.

We have a ferry to Turku booked so are staying 2.5 days in the Aland Archipelago. It has 6,700 islands (60 inhabited), 28,000 people and is a self-governing Swedish speaking region of Finland. When Russia controlled Finland between 1809 and 1918, it was the westernmost point of Russia.
This has resulted in several sites related to Russian occupation. Such as our first stop after arriving was the Post and Customs building on Eckero. It is on the coast on the edge of a small village and seems entirely too substantial for the remote island setting. The local Art Association had an Anniversary exhibition which was nice and a couple of people were doing singing practice/lessons or such giving an ambience to the area. There was a museum regarding the post and customs you could pay for but this was already shut for the season (which for some things is as soon as the end of July) and held limited appeal.

Post and Customs Building

Aland has something like 16 churchs so we checked out St Lars on Eckero was could be described as small but perfectly formed, with wall paintings and we made it a lunch stop.

Driving nearly all the way across the main islands in about 20 minutes we next visited a church in Saltvik but it wasn't open and then found our actual intended destination Borgboda Ancient Site (Note to people who make tourist brochures CO-ORDINATES PEOPLE. Everyone has a satnav now). I mean seriously the guidebook lists things to see with no address only the nearest town and symbols on a small map of the entire archipelago, if it weren't for the reasonable street signs we might never find anything.
Anyway rant over Borgboda was interesting, there was a little bit of English on the signs which was handy and I made some new friends (see photos). The site is an Iron Age hill fort where the local farmers came to defend themselves from enemies.

Aland also has a free open air museum called Jan Karlsgarden with about 20 buildings designed to give a picture of Aland farming life in the mid to late 1800s. Last stop of the day was Bomarsund where the Russians tried to build a fort but it was destroyed by the British and French in 1854, while some buildings were only foundations. If you like ruins/foundations and/or the Crimean War this is for you but the setting is nice for a walk around too.
The next morning it was actually back to Kastelholm Castle which is adjacent to the open air museum, costs 6 euros and probably doesn't represent the best value we've encountered. It has been well conserved (completed 2001) for it's protection and is the only medieval castle on Aland. They have a few information boards and a small re-creation of the interior and were also displaying works by a local artist throughout (the art was of a rather grim/disturbing style - there were warnings at the entrance). However about an hour was plenty.
Not a lot achieved in the afternoon a bit of driving around (by Nicky :-)) and looking at stuff of little consequence. Our one small highlight was going right to the bottom of Lemland Island to a nature reserve and finding a bird watching tower which although there were no birds gave us a great view over the sea.
The following day we drove into Mariehamn, which is the main town on the island. 11,000 of Alands 28,000 residents live here. A 4 masted Scottish sailing ship called Pommern (now and museum and well conserved) is docked near the ferry terminal. We walked along Torggatan (pedestrian street) and bought Aland stamps at the post office (something of a collectors item). Dale chose stamps featuring birds an wildlife. We made our way back to the van via the water front on the eastern side and past the Aland church. We were due to check in for the ferry to Turku at 12.45pm. The check in for the ferry was slow, and once on board, the ferry set off straight away. It had come from Stockholm and picked up passengers and cars in Mariehamn and then we were headed to Turku in Finland. The ferry was 5 1/2 hours long, and we spent time on the boat decks (it was a sunny afternoon), using the wifi and having our picnic food we had prepared earlier. We arrived in Turku at 7.15pm, and the next blog will continue from there.

Midsummer Pole - every town in Aland has one