Cruise day: 155/163
Ports days: 84
Sea days: 71
Countries: 28
Continents: 5
Ports: 61First, a rant...
When people came on in Ft. Lauderdale way back in December, we had toilet problems. When people came on in Los Angeles, we had toilet problems. When people came on in Bergen, we had toilet problems. Guess what? People came on in Stockholm, and...you guessed it - we have toilet problems! Flushing doesn't work and dirty water is backing up into the toilet. Why? People are flushing things they shouldn't flush on a cruise ship.
I just don't get why people fail to understand that on cruise ships, exactly two things go in the toilet. 1) Anything that comes out of your body, and; 2) the toilet paper supplied by the cruise ship. Feminine products? NO! Flushable wipes? NO! Tissues? NO! Your output and cruise ship TP. Period. I'm tired of backed-up and unflushable toilets because people cannot follow really simple instructions. Seriously, folks, this isn't rocket science. It's toilet science. I'm advocating for a "Can you flush this?" test that cruise passengers have to pass before being allowed to board. If they pick anything other than the allowable two choices, their cruise gets canceled. Harsh? Perhaps. But you can't figure out something this simple, you probably should not be allowed out without supervision, especially on a cruise. These are the same people that have to be reminded not to stand on the deck railings.
There, I feel better now.
When we sailed into Mariehamn, Åland Islands this morning, all I could see out the window was white. We were fogged in on the way in. By the time we docked, it was starting to burn off a bit, but as you can see, it was still pretty foggy.
We docked at 8:30AM. That gave us time to eat breakfast before catching the shuttle into town at 10:15AM.
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| Åland is celebrating its 100th anniversary of autonomy this year and these flags are all over the place |
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| This is the shuttle - a Toyota Land Cruiser pulling a couple of trolley cars - it was noisy, bouncy, and kind of fun to ride |
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| We took the shuttle into the maritime quarter - of course, Arlona had to do her thing - she said the water was much warmer than she expected |
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| As you can see, the skies cleared and it turned out to be a beautiful day - mid-50s and sun...for a while... |
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| We walked toward the city center and saw this thing - not sure the intent but it looked cool |
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| For those in the U.S. complaining about gas prices, how about this? That's 2.434 euros for one liter of 95-octane gas. For the math-challenged, after converting to gallons and dollars, that's $9.88 per gallon. |
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| We saw this 24-hour pizza stand - check it out |
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| You pick out what you want, validate your shopping cart, pay, and in three minutes, your hot pizza comes out of the slot under the screen - A slice a day keeps the sad away - can you imagine how well this would do in a college town near the bar district at 2AM? |
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| We spotted these hooded crows and thought they looked cool |
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| But then, we spotted this - a beautiful macaw that belonged to the gentleman in the blue coat |
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| He also had his African gray parrot along for coffee - needless to say, he was attracting attention |
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| We headed back to the ship by walking down the esplanade that is lined with linden trees |
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| This sculpture is right across from where we docked |
In the afternoon, we took the included bus tour of the area - the same tour I took four days ago but Arlona missed.
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| If you were on the World Cruise, you know the significance of this - I can report that the curse of bus 10 is broken as no disasters happened on this tour |
Our guide reminded us that Åland has a population of roughly 30,000 with around 11,000 of those folks living in Mariehamn.
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| While we were stopped near the water tower for scenic views, the rain started falling - at times in earnest - but it eventually passed and the skies were blue once again |
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| St. Olaf's Church in Jomala - it dates back to the late 1200s and is regarded as one of the oldest Christian churches in Finland |
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| I couldn't find anything that referenced the "1959" on top of the cross |
The tour bus stopped at the Maritime Quarter that we had visited this morning. The trolly was there, so we hopped the trolly and headed back to the ship.
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| For the second time in two days, we had our own private transport |
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| When we got back, we had more blue skies and the Åland 100 flags were billowing a little better |
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| The Mariehamn sign at the ferry dock - multiple roll-on / roll-off car and passenger ferries operate here daily to Sweden and Finland |
We sailed at 4:45PM, heading out to the Baltic Sea for our next port, Gdańsk, Poland on Sunday. As we sailed out, we could hear a motorcycle revving quite impressively. We spotted this guy, riding wheelies back and forth.
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| He was actually quite good at it - it was fun to watch |
We sailed along, passing many small, rocky islands.
We also went by the Kobba Klintar Pilot Station. In the past, sailing ships made use of pilots from Kobba Klintar upon their arrival in the maritime city of Mariehamn.
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| It appeared that somebody was working on the island |
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| Here, you can see him better - it looked like he was creating a painting of the buildings |
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| Nope - the man and his cat are sculptures |
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| The side of the building that faces out to the Baltic also has someone on the lookout |
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| It is another sculpture of a seaman with a spyglass, looking out for incoming vessels |
We enjoyed a nice dinner at the World Cafe. Since we've been on for so long, we know many of the crew and that makes every day feel special. They are all so gracious, from Captain Olav, Chief Engineer Per, General Manger Wendy, and all the others who make us feel so welcome.
In the you never know what you'll see category, as I was typing this, I looked outside and saw this.
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| We were sailing past this bizarre-looking buoy and there was also a lighthouse out on the horizon that looked like it was on a small island. |
We're looking forward to a sea day tomorrow - the only one on this Scenic Scandinavia cruise. We'll try Baggo (cornhole) and of course, trivia. We plan to do what will likely be our last load of laundry on the ship. Tomorrow marks the start of our final week on this journey. While I can't believe this is coming to an end, we're absolutely looking forward to going home and seeing all the people we've been missing these last five months.
