Tourists on Åland

As mentioned in the previous blogpost, we took a lay day yesterday. Our good friend Ralph took us to Eckerö, a place on the Åland west coast. As this is the place on Åland which is closest to mainland Sweden, it is where the post has been arriving for centuries. From here it was then taken with horses and ferries (or sleds in winter) to the eastern islands and then from there to Finland. As part of the Åland history is a Russian era, the Russians were in charge of the post then. In 1828 they built an extremely impressive post office in Eckerö, facing Sweden in order to show how important they were. The post office is still there, art exhibitions are held there from time to time and there is a café.





Rather 'over the top' for probably a few bags of mail per week, isn't it?

An important tradition of Åland (as in most Nordic countries) is erecting the midsummer pole. The Åland 'stang' is quite different from the Swedish one. It is not decorated with leaves and branches but with colourful streamers and ship with sails. It is kept standing all year and only around this time of the year it is taken down to be 'refreshed' before being raised again on Midsummer (this year on 23 June). The Eckerö 'stang' is the tallest in all of Åland and it had not been taken down yet:












As far as our plans are concerned, today the wind was blowing 6 Beaufort (20+ knots), so we stayed nicely tied up in the excellent harbour of the Åland Sailing Club (ÅSS). Tomorrow it is predicted to be raining heavily so we'll stay again. The forecast after that is quite uncertain so we'll see what gives. Enough to do and it's comfortable on board!

Location:Sjöpromenaden,Mariehamn,Åland Islands