Cruise day: 151/163
Ports days: 80
Sea days: 71
Countries: 27
Continents: 5
Ports: 60COVID Update
Arlona is on her last day of isolation. She got the call today - NEGATIVE! We are looking forward to reuniting tomorrow morning when she gets out at 8AM. I am looking forward to breakfast with my honey!
Let's talk about Mariehamn. It is named for Russian empress Maria Alexandrovna and the name literally means, "Marie's Port". It is the capital of Åland in the Åland Islands. The Åland Islands are autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty yet they speak mostly Swedish and are much closer to Sweden than Finland. It doesn't have to make sense. 2022 marks their 100th year of autonomy. It turns out that this little set of islands, around 6,700 of them, has a population of around 30,000 yet hosts around 1.5 million tourists annually, mainly in Mariehamn.
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| The Åland Islands flag |
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| They have their own stamps, government, and license plates |
When we dock, there is always so much to do. Set up the gangway, tie up the ship, get maintenance started, prepare for passengers to get off/on, and so on. A lot of this happens under the watchful eyes of Captain Lars and Staff Captain Frederik.
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| Thanks to Arlona for this capture |
The port is interesting as it is essentially in a residential area. Houses are literally right across the street from the ship.
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| This beautiful 1959 or 1960 Saab 93F was parked out on the pier |
Speaking of beautiful - we were docked on the port side so that meant I was able to get semi-close to Arlona.
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| Only one more day until freedom! |
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| Waving goodbye as I headed for my bus |
The day was perfect with temperatures in the mid-50s and brilliant sunshine. Not exactly beach weather, but not Bergen or Gdańsk weather either. This morning's tour was the included Panoramic Mariehamn bus tour.
This is a small island. The tour went full east to west and all the way south, all in about an hour, including a stop for photos.
We passed through residential areas - some interesting designs, but generally not much to see.
We headed south to Järsö, a southern island, taking in the sights.
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| An old windmill peeking out from the trees |
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| Like a lot of these Baltic countries, there are swans all over |
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| Check out how crystal clear that water is |
Our first stop was after we came back north. We stopped at Mariehamn's water tower.
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| The area with the windows at the top used to house a restaurant, but it is closed now |
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| We were able to catch a glimpse of our Viking Star |
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| This area has a lot of granite - you can see the red and gray mixed granite with the mint green lichens growing on top |
We continued our drive to the maritime quarter.
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| St. Olaf's Church |
This was our last stop before returning to the ship. I opted to leave the tour at this point and wander back on my own. It was a little over a mile and it was a beautiful day.
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| I think this was the Sail the Åland Archipelago tour on its way back |
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| Our guide said that this yacht, Northern Cross, was featured in the James Bond movie, Goldeneye |
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| Nikolai Sittkoff - a local shipowner from the late 1800s |
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| Julius Sundblom - unsuccessfully advocated that Åland remain part of Sweden - his extended hand faces Sweden |
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| Mariehamn's namesake, Russian empress Maria Alexandrovna |
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| The Esplanade, lined with linden trees |
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| St. George's Church |
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| The Maritime Museum |
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| Pommern - a preserved windjammer sailing ship from 1903 - we were docked directly in front of it |
When I returned to the ship, Arlona shared her latest project as she continued to pass her time in isolation creatively.
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| Her progress over the last five months has been incredible |
Tonight, I attended a birthday dinner for a friend of ours. We had a nice dinner in The Restaurant featuring Lobster Thermador.
A strange thing happened after dinner. We had sailed away from Mariehamn and seemingly came to a dead stop. We turned around, then started moving again, and turned back around. I checked our speed with an app and found that we were zipping along at 3MPH. At least for now, we're in no hurry as it is only 90 miles from Mariehamn to Stockholm, we aren't scheduled to dock until 7AM and, we change time once again tonight, gaining an hour back to UTC+2.
Before I close for today, I want to mention a company - GetYourGuide. To be clear, this is a description of my experience and I am receiving nothing in return for this.
GetYourGuide is a Berlin-based online travel agency and online marketplace for tour guides and excursions. We had booked a dinner cruise excursion through them for Oslo. Of course, the morning we arrived in Oslo is also when Arlona went into COVID isolation. We were outside their 24-hour cancelation window when Arlona received her positive diagnosis, so I assumed the money we spent was a complete loss. I contacted the company and explained the situation. They asked for documentation - reasonable since that certainly is an easy excuse to use these days. The ship gave me a letter and I forwarded it on. Today, I received an email explaining that they have processed a refund for the full amount in the form of a GetYourGuide gift code that can be used for any GetYourGuide experience in the next 18 months. How awesome is that? I understand their refund policy, but kudos to a company that recognized extenuating circumstances and thoughtfully offered a solution that they absolutely did not have to do. We travel enough, and as I've looked through their offerings, they are seemingly everywhere, so we will have no problem using the gift code. If you are looking for a responsible company that offers excursion experiences in a huge number of cities across the globe, it is worth checking out GetYourGuide at
getyourguide.com. Thanks to GetYourGuide.
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