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July 14: from Åbo to Åland

Got up early to catch our ferry to Åland, an island group between Finland and Sweden. Physically and culturally, Åland is much closer to Sweden but it's still a part of Finland¹⁵Åland enjoys a certain amount of autonomy, with its own flag, coins and devolved government. Åland is almost exclusively Swedish-speaking, which was a relief for me and an annoyance for Gemma and Patrick, who had spent the previous few days diligently learning Finnish phrases.

Åland also has the distinction of being the only European state still allowed to sell duty-free goods to travellers from the EU. As a result, huge ferries ply their way continually between Stockholm, Åland, Åbo and Helsinki, making up for their cheap fares by selling huge quantities of alcohol.

After a long but pleasant journey in one of the aforementioned vast ferries¹⁶, we arrived at Mariehamn, the capital. We had decided to spend our two days cycling the eighty kilometres around Lumparn, a large expanse of water surrounded by islands which are connected by bridges and ferries. About halfway around from Mariehamn is the ancient castle and popular tourist attraction of Kastelholm, which we chose as our goal for the first day.

Having hired bicycles, provisioned ourselves, and dumped half our luggage in lockers, we set off in pleasant, sunny weather. Åland is great for cycling -- smooth, empty roads, well-signposted cycle routes and lovely scenery.¹⁷

We broke the day's travel at Café Uffe på Berget¹⁸, an impressive establishment at the top of a rocky crag, with a large viewing tower attached to it. The view was impressive, and our route seemed to stretch out forever on each side. Having had a coffee and refilled our water bottles, we continued.

We reached Kastelholm in the evening, and started looking for somewhere to pitch our tent. Patrick was very keen on camping in the forest rather than a campsite, partly because he still hadn't had a chance to use his funky camping stove, and partly because he liked the concept of allemansrätt¹⁹ and wanted to exercise his at least once while he was in Finland. Eventually we found a suitable spot in a forest near the road, pitched our tent, had supper, and went to bed.

Footnotes

... Finland¹⁵

After much dispute, Åland was officially made part of Finland in 1921 by a decision of the League of Nations. GCSE history texts usually list this as an example of something good achieved by the League of Nations (though for some reason, they always insist on spelling it ``Aaland''), but it's not much of a plus point when weighed against failure to prevent World War II.

... ferries¹⁶

On the ferry, I bumped into my cousin Anni's fiancé, the second strange coincidental meeting of the summer

... scenery.¹⁷

We did, however, take issue with the guidebook, which described the islands as ``flat''. We had grumbled about the book's inaccuracies before, but it was the experience of slogging up ``flat'' 30-degree inclines which caused us to start calling curses down on the head of the author, and casting unpleasant aspersions upon her intelligence, morals and ancestry.

... Berget¹⁸

It's a sort of Swedish pun. ``Uppe på Berget'' would mean, appropriately, ``Up on the Mountain''; ``Uffe'' sounds like someone's nickname. So it's more like ``Uffe on the Mountain''. Get it? You had to be there, really.

...allemansrätt¹⁹

allemansrätt (Swedish) or jokamiehenoikeus (Finnish) translates literally as ``every man's right'', and refers to the right to cross or camp on virtually any land (including private land) provided you don't do anything destructive. It's the kind of thing ramblers in Britain can only dream of.