Scandinavia 2017 Part 1

The day after we arrive in Holland is my 70th birthday so we are going first to my daughter in Amsterdam. Apart from some currency purchases (only €, SEK and DKK), the ferries to and from Hoek van Holland, from Travemunde to Helsinki and on to Kökar and the map mentioned in the introduction these are the only things we have organised. 

Off we go, early evening on Friday 23rd June,  We had decided to drive to Harwich in the evening and stay overnight in the ferry port car park as we have seen others doing in the past. According to the internet the M3 and the A12 had overnight closures but with no details of the signed diversions. This made our journey time uncertain but in the event there were no closures. So at just after midnight we settled down to sleep at Harwich.

Day 2, Saturday 24th June.  Up bright and early to move to the boarding queue, typical boring trip over, a bit blowy outside but hardly any movement of the ship, had a day cabin. Easy drive to Gaasper Camping campsite, pitched with plenty of room. Had chilli and wonderful strawberries from M&S. Doreen's back hasn't been good these last few days so I was glad to say that she seemed ok so far. 

Sunday 25th June, Significant birthday, end of sixties. Woke several times in night to heavy rainfall. Into Amsterdam by metro I had asked for a surprise, but no party. Met Rhi and taken to Renate's new apartment. Then electric uber taxi  to Het Concertgebouw a very famous concert venue in Amsterdam for a very entertaining, if slightly camp tour of the back stage, basement and rehearsal areas. Our guide, Sebastian was excellent, he had an anecdote for every room. 

Then lunch and presents, it was to be followed by a vintage tram tour but by now Doreen's back was too bad and mindful of tomorrows journey we took an ordinary tram back to the campsite, stopping only for a peppermint tea at Spui. Early night.

Day 4 Monday 26th June. Straight forward, just drive across Holland and across Germany to Travemunde which is about 100 km past Hamburg. Five hundred and forty kilometers in all, no worries.  We knew that we need not arrive at the ferry terminal before 11pm. Although the map application said it was less than six hours drive we didn't know how long it would take us especially with Doreen unable to share the driving on this occasion. Starting a little after 8am we stopped  every two hours or so and made good progress averaging at about 90kph. Arriving at a rest stop 40km short of our destination at 4pm we had dinner and a rest, moving off around 10pm. We got a shock when we checked in, we were asked if we needed an electricity hookup. Not expecting this we had arrived with an empty fridge and freezer for the 30 hour trip. We were now in for a long wait the deal is that cars go on to a different deck and are loaded first while motor caravans board closer to the departure time of 3am. 

Day 5 Tuesday 27th June. We were called forward just after 1am and embarked in a convoy system. Having seen the mayhem with ships variously loading and unloading into the area in front of us, trucks criss-crossing all the while, we were glad of that system. The mandatory safety briefing which we were supposed to attend was over before we got on board, and the cabin was a bit small. After a brief look around we got to bed at 2am.  So what were the advantages for us of the ferry to justify its cost of €800. Well by the shortest road route we are talking 24 hours of driving say three to four days, and there were tolls, fuel and at least two ferries. Our ferry cost included two nights and all meals. So we still think a good deal. We were up at 9.30am Finnish time, 2hrs ahead of UK time, for a day at sea. We are allocated a table and sat with a young German couple from Stuttgart who always travel this way to visit her Finnish mother. The food was very good, there is not much to do as this is primarily a freight operation but there was plenty of sunshine and plenty going on in the Baltic and we had taken a few games with us. Of course as we headed north the day light extended. We sat out watching our progress past the Island of Gotland before heading for bed. 

Day 5 Day 6

Day 6 Up at 7.30 to get breakfast and we disembarked at 9 and drove to a Lidl on our route. Stocked fridge then we drove west to Galtby. Once past the motorway there are several small ferries that serve to join up the road linking the islands. The road just stops and there is a little free ferry to take you across to the next bit of road. Annoyingly they have a priority lane system which all the locals seem to belong to. This meant we weren't allowed on one ferry even though we arrived first and twice we were the last off. All this pushed us back and made us worry about making our booked ferry. In the end we made the ferry with time to spare and set off on our trip  to Kökar. Pronounced something like 'Shuerka'.

This is the southernmost inhabited island of the archipelago. Depending on the scale of the map or chart you look at, there is either a lot of empty sea between Finland and Åland or a lot of islands. The reality is that there was not a lot of open water on the two hour journey. Finland's west coast is very frayed and the ferry has to thread its way between islands and islets, some little more than a rock with a marker on top.  Áland is made up of 6700 islands of at least half a hectare (think half a rugby field) and many more smaller ones. 

There is a small harbour on Kökar and twelve ferries a day visit it in the high season, which runs from the middle of June to the middle of August. These ferries have a maximum of 25 cars and four taller vehicles, and on the 28th of June in the late afternoon we were one of those four! When, like us, you are island hopping you only pay for the first trip, the rest are free. Our campsite, for the next two nights, was on the shore nearby and like most in Scandinavia was a mix of cabins and touring pitches. Åland is part of the euro zone, our ferry cost was 95€ and the two nights came to 36€.

Day 7 Thursday 29th June. We drove around the island to get our bearings, parked up, got the bicycles off the rack and had a 5km ride. 

Later we went to the cafe (as far as we knew it was the only one), a small cup of coffee was 2€ and this seemed standard, although sometimes it included a free refill. They had an intriguing book for sale called 'How to read an island'. It is by a local author but it draws material from many islands not just Kökar. We talked to the cafe owner Sussie, who features on several pages of the book. She revealed that before her husband announced he was fed up with city life in Helsinki and wanted to move here she had never even heard of Kökar. Were you born in Finland? No, she said, Brazil! One thing she said to us was that we really must see their church which turned out to be very near to our campsite. Next door were the preserved parts of a much older church inside of a large barn. 

Friday 30th June. We drove around to the harbour, there was bad weather forecast yet apart from a bit of wind all stayed fine. We did discover another cafe at the harbour, this time disguised as a large shed. 

Our next stay was on the island of Föglö, another two hours away, although this included a short stop at Sottunga, an island with just 100 residents. Its difficult to see how they organise the vehicles on these ferries, with intermediate stops, height restrictions etc. There were a few vehicle who disembarked with us at the harbour but they all vanished in the first few hundred meters, yet we seemed to be on the only road that went anywhere from the harbour, spooky. Our campsite was 5 islands further on (four joined by bridges and causeways and two by a small ferry). When we got to Finholma our campsite entrance was difficult to find even though it was on the 'main' road and when we arrived it looked abandoned but there was a telephone number to ring. 

After a while an old man turned up. He showed us where everything was and took our fee. He said we were the first UK registered ‘camping car’ he had seen at his campsite. He told us a bit about the islands and when asked 'were you born here' said No, Manhattan. We subsequently found out he was 84 and was looking for a buyer for the camp. We drove to Degerby where we met the tourist office girl. Born here? No Mariehamn! Well at least that is on Åland. We then drove on a dusty road to Bratto.  Many of the roads here are not tarmacked. You can tell looking at some of the cars.

Day 9 Saturday 31st June Again we stayed two days and today there was a festival or fete, Föglö day, at the village of Degerby. So after a bike ride to Sonbodalandet and back (about 3km) we went there. There were stalls selling craftware and food mostly smoked fish, there were pony rides and a bouncy castle. They were selling buckets of strawberries for 60€. We also got a chance to eat Åland Pancakes.  Topped with plum jam/sauce and cream the texture was not unlike bread and butter pudding. We sat next to a family who had a lovely puppy that was going to be trained to hunt Elk. Mostly Elk are shot and the shooting towers are all over Åland. We can't claim any sort of moral high ground as we have both enjoyed eating Elk. 

Then to Hastersboda for afternoon tea in the van, afterwards we had a further exploration of our campsite which was huge.

Day 10 Sunday 1st July. To Degerby again, this time for the ferry, we picked up a hitch hiker, Phillip, who was a medical student at Lund university (Sweden) and had a long conversation about life on the islands. We came across on the free ferry to Lumparland, and headed down through Lemland to the nature reserve at its southernmost tip.

Although we were on the main part of Åland much of it is made up of islands connected by causeways and they retain their island names.

At the nature reserve there were notices forbidding most things, but not camping. There was a carpark and a picnic bench and we waited until we had deciphered the notices and the cars had all left before bringing our MH down to hide it away in a wild camp. 

Day 11 Monday 2nd July Leaving our wild camp we drove around Åland. When we were here last year we only had four days and didn't see much so we headed through Jomala to the northern parts Geta, Saltvik and Sund and then spent the day exploring. 

Did a little shopping as well.

Our campsite for this and the next night was on Vårdö.   

Day 12 We cycled on Sandö which is connected by a 50m causeway to Värdö. We visited a craft shop selling the most exquisite fabric items and we blew 30€ on two small presents. 

Later we walked to a nearby museum which was free and where a woman took some pride in showing us around. Some women had been left the house in a will and had formed a group to look after it. Just next door was this sign by the road and even with my poor Swedish I can tell this is for new potatoes but at 5€ per kilo? This seemed to be the going rate but in Ireland you would surely get a sack of them for 5€. We were told that it had been a much cooler Spring and the potatoes were very late. 

I haven't mentioned wild flowers, the islands are carpeted with them, including lupins and roses on the road verges. These yellow and blue flowes are on the same stalk.

Day 13 Wednesday 4th July. There were some parts of Finstrom that we hadn't explored on Monday so we had a meandering drive then a bike ride ending with coffee outside an hotel. We then explored the road up to Bergö. That night we wild camped again but after dinner and after the same car had slowed as it passed us for the third time we moved to an alternative location at an information halt which we had seen earlier and then passed a restful night along with a German and a Finn. 

Day 14 and 15 (morning). We went to Mariehamn, the capital, next and ended up at the campsite there for 30€ (electricity not included). There is a free stop over at a marina but we couldn't find it. The lat/long was wrong on my Camper Contact app, suggesting that you went down a cycle path to get there. In the afternoon we cycled to their famous maritime museum but it was missing its main attraction, the four masted ship Pommern, built in Glasgow in 1903, but it is still an interesting museum. Then had a coffee in a nearly cafe attached to a church. 

Mariehamn campsite

In the morning before booking out we cycled into town again (found the free stop-over) and spent some time watching the world go by with everlasting cups of coffee on the Main Street. We also bought a sandwich each. I popped back into the cafe to get a knife and whilst away a small crow helped itself to some of the cheese from my sandwich. Doreen noticed the crow but not the theft. 

Day 15,16 and early morning Day 17. We spent the last few days on Eckerö but we did have some trouble finding a campsite. The minor roads on Åland are often unsurfaced especially on the smaller islands and at the ends of the main roads. This is not a problem when well compacted but when still 8km from a potential  stop we found the road was unsurfaced and had new gravel,. We gave that one a miss. The next nearest campsite was abandoned and we had a good look at the third before committing to it for two nights. Apart from a persistent horsefly it was ideal. Even had free boats for you to use, 25€ including electric with an honesty box for the washing machine which we were in sore need of, it being night 16 of our trip. 

As we waited for the washing to dry a cry of 'Quick look!' got me out of the van in time to see a white tailed eagle just overhead with two terns mobbing it. The terns had young down at the waters edge. Even when the eagle moved away, one of the terns kept at it. Terns are very tiny compared to eagles.   

The next event was that our bed broke. Our fixed bed hinges upward to gain access to the storage below and one of the hinges, the shiny cylinder similar to a stub axle, had sheared off. After much head scratching I came up with a way of repairing it but it would involve a hacksaw an electric drill and a rivet gun or spot welder. Not only did I not have those tools it very much looked as if the bed was assembled first then they built the van around it! The owner of the campsite said he would pop around later to see if he could help but in the meantime I effected a temporary repair with a piece of birch wood the broken stub and some duct tape. It's not perfect as I have had to dispense with one of the hold-open stays but as I write this the temporary repair is still good.

Our final full day on Åland, Sunday 9th July, was a disappointment. One of the most advertised attractions on Åland is the post museum. Sweden is only about 40 miles away and for a long time the mail route between Sweden and Finland was in open boats rowed or sailed across the archipelago. In the winter some of this journey would be over ice and the boat would be dragged along. Being the postman was a dangerous profession and many died getting the mail through.  All this we knew from last year's visit. The museum was mainly a single room, just big enough for a post boat and some rather bedraggled dummies pushing the boat, along with some fuzzy photos and un-explained artefacts. In the next room there was a well worn DVD in Swedish with Finnish subtitles showing the same sort of thing. In thirty minutes we had finished with the post museum.

Later after a cycle ride we went on a 'safari' to see some red deer, llamas, wild boar and two rather threadbare ostriches, but no Elk. That night was spent in the ferry car park for our early morning sailing to the Swedish mainland and as we sailed away we had no clear idea of where we were going to go next.

Åland is beautiful in an understated way, there are no mountains, or waterfalls but it is very peaceful and pretty and you have to admire those who scratch out a living here.