Åland

Today I have the whole day to myself, so I thought it was time that I update a few things on the internet. I promised you pictures from Åland, so here they are!

Åland (Ahvenanmaa in Finnish) is a big group of islands between Sweden and Finland. We went there a few years ago for the first time in our own boat, and this summer we wanted to do the trip again. We had absolutely lovely weather: sunny, warm and very little wind. 'We' are my brother with wife and daughter, my husbands nephew and then my husband and myself. 

We started just north east of Hangö were it says 'start', and we drove all the way to Mariehamn were it says 'finish'. It took us about 6 hours, but that includes a 2 hour stop at Kökar for lunch. We stayed in Mariehamn for 2 nights. 

Navigation.

Our boat, a Targa 31 build in 2002. 

Bengtskär, the biggest lighthouse in the nordic countries. The tower is 46 meter high.

As you can see we could not have wished for better weather!

The small harbour in Kökar were we stopped for lunch.

The view from the restaurant. 

Later the same day when we have reached the guest harbour in Mariehamn. We went to the store to buy some food, and then we made dinner on the boat. New potatoes, smoked salmon and sallad.

This is about 10:00-10:30 at night just when the sun went down.

Mariehamn is a very cosy small town, full of life in summer!

They have a small distillery on Åland where they make there own apple wine and apple, pear and cherry liqueurs. The bottles are as you can see very beautiful!

And what is a visit to a distillery without some tasting?

The cellar.

Pommern. A big ship that is a museum today.

We looked up a small private beach and went swimming.

Just breathtaking!

I think I could move to Åland and live quite happy there. I would never run out of things and scenery to paint!!!