Åland Off The Beaten Path

From Mariehamn the Southern Archipelago ferries are reached by a lovely bus ride for about half an hour to Längnas, which is quite an active little place as there are other ferries there as well.
The route is delightful and includes Aland and Finland's smallest settlement of Sottunga. We knew we should only be eating what we were carrying that night so the lunch from the ferry's canteen was very welcome. There is a tiny catering crew but, as well as snacks, tasty and freshly cooked meals were served after half an hour.
The island is great, both for its natural scenery and its man made things. There is a very good Bronze Age settlement somewhere on the island but we did not have long and we had no transport.
There was no need for transport to see the cliffs, slightly inshore now with good looking easy and moderate climbs - no sign of use; nor to visit the lovely old church with separate bell tower and the nearby ruins of a Franciscan chapel.

Well, we actually had to hurry back to the harbour to catch our ferry connection to Turku, and I couldn't ride fast enough to be there on time... sooooooooooo the only solution was to kindly ask a truck driver if he could drive me and my friend Bridget, who nicely insisted on accompanying me, to drive us and the bikes to the harbour. We arrived on time, thank you for you kindness, mister driver ;-)
The boys arrived later on...exhausted ;-) But we caught the boat ;-)
A greeeeeeeat experience :-)))))

This island in the far northeast of the archipelago can be reached via ferry from Åva. The complete and total list of things to see in Jurmo: highland cattle, a museum which is only open by appointment, the sea. Occasionally there are open-air concerts as well. The point of a trip to Jurmo is strictly to mellow out. If cows are a little too sedate for you, go elsewhere. If cows are too hectic for you, Jurmo is where you need to be when passing through Åland.

Tsarist Russia built an impressive fortress on Aland. he English and The French in the Crimean War 1854 destroyed it but what remains can be visited at any time.

This place is in Sund, it may not be that interesting. I actually drove a car passed by without knowing but I noticed it the way back. The scenery around there is so beautiful though! I'm gonna put some more pix in my travelogue.

...or whats left of it