Weekend Travelling Part II - Aland

After a very short amount of sleep, we got up early on Saturday and walked to the port for the 0845 ferry to Aland. The trip took about 5.5 hours, so we had plenty of time to catch up on sleep on the way, as well as take advantage of the breakfast buffet.

From Turku to Aland

The ferry trip, while long, was actually quite interesting. At no point does it feel like you are actually 'at sea'. Aland is actually made up of several thousand islands, some fairly large, some tiny, scattered over a wide area. The massive ship snakes in and out of these landmasses, it's quite an impressive feat of navigation, at many points just narrowly passing jagged rocks - one small mistake would easily end in disaster. Aside from the scenery, there was professional live music and not-so-professional karaoke singing to keep us entertained.

Spectacular skies on the ferry

A quick bit of background before I get on with the story...Aland initally belonged to Sweden (as did the whole of Finland), but upon gaining independance Finland insisted on holding onto the islands, despite their undeniably Swedish heritage and closer proximity to Sweden. The islanders also voted overwhelmingly in favour of union with Sweden. In the end Finland got its way, although the islands were demilitarised and promises were made over the protection of the peoples' culture - as a result Swedish is the only official language of Aland and is still spoken by the entire population. We heard very little Finnish after arriving. The Alanders are very proud of their homeland and seem to fly their flag at every opportunity. In fact I don't think I saw a single Finnish flag anywhere!

Mariehamn, the capital of Aland

We arrived at about 1415 at the ferry terminal in Mariehamn (the capital), which is actually quite a distance from the centre of the city. Actually...city is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, even though that is its official title. It's more of a large town and is by far the biggest settlement on the islands. Anyway, on the way to the centre we visited the tourist information office, where a not very helpful employee informed us that most of the main attractions were closed for the winter and that worst of all, the bicycle rental shops which we were going to rely on for transportation were also closed. This was not good. We headed for the bus stop to get to Godby, where the only youth hostel on the island is located only to find that on weekends there is only 1 bus a day, but luckily it was at 1605 so we had some time to explore Mariehamn while waiting.

Setting off on the long walk to Kastelholm

There wasn't much to see in the capital, as I said earlier it's very small and we were able to walk end-to-end a couple of times before the bus came. Aside from a couple of museums, there is very little to see, although its small-town atmosphere is quite charming. We got the bus to Godby and headed for the hostel to find that we were the only guests and had two huge dormitories to ourselves. However, time was of the essence so we left some of our stuff there and headed straight off on foot toward Kastelholm.

The view from the observation tower at Godby

On the way we climbed an observation tower which gave an impressive view over the area. The islands are relatively flat and mostly forested. Aland is much bigger than I expected - it took us 2.5 hours to walk at a fast pace to Kastelholm, even though on the map it looks quite close.

The castle at Kastelholm

We arrived at Kastelholm and were rewarded with a picturesque castle set by a beautiful lake. It was quite a sight, especially as there didn't seem to be any other people for miles around.

Traditional village at Kastelholm

Next to the castle was a historic village, with windmills, wooden houses with straw roofs and traditionally-ploughed fields full of crops. Normally you have to pay to visit this but as it was late in the evening and there was nobody around we were able to have a look for free.

The long walk back

The walk back took about 2 hours at a tiring pace without stopping - we wanted to be back before it got too dark. We headed to bed exhausted, with Gernot's foot injured from so much walking. We decided that he would stay in bed all morning as he was in no position to walk and I would leave at 0730 to see some more of the island. I had to be back by 1330 so we could make it to the ferry.

The largest church on the islands at Palsbole

It was refreshing to walk so early in the day, with the morning mist still settling on the fields. I headed toward Palsbole, where the largest church on the island is located, on my way toward Vando, in the North-West of Finstrom. It took almost exactly 3 hours without stopping to get there and I had to head back almost straight away to make it to the ferry, but the scenery was worth it!

A field of sunflowers near Palsbole

I met with Gernot and we got a taxi a taxi to the ferry (there were no buses). The weather suddenly turned worse as we arrived at the port, so the timing was perfect. Nine hours later and we were back home in Helsinki!

You can see more photos from my trip to Aland in my Finland Gallery.