Åland Islands, Day 2

 Monday, May 30, 2022

Åland Islands, Finland

 We are far north—north of 60 degrees latitude and farther north than Juneau, Alaska.  We are about at the latitude of the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska.  Sunrise is at 4:30 AM and sunset is at 10:30 PM; the sky is light until close to midnight.  Spring is here, tulips are up, and things are way behind Rochester.

 Our second day in the Åland Islands was fun and different.  There were multiple options offered for the morning, and we chose the nature hike, deemed “relatively easy.”  It was not.  We took a bus to the north of the largest of the islands, where we exited at the start of a hike down a steep, rocky hillside.  Joyce took a look and decided to hang back. 

 

The terrain was intermittently level and then steep:

 


 There were some fantastic tree shapes, formed, I assume, by the wind:

 


 This small bird called a chaff finch had a lovely song:

 


 There were pretty tiny flowers yet to be identified, as well as extensive lichens and mosses:

 



 On the way back to the ship, we stopped at some of the extensive apple orchards.  They prune the apples very differently here, much like we prune grape vines!  The trees form a wall of foliage and flowers, and thus the apples will be on the wall, easily picked without ladders:

 


 We went back to the ship for lunch, and then had a wonderful lecture from one of the NG photographers (Todd Gipstein) with great examples of his photos and very helpful tips.  Following the talk, we took a bus to the Stallhagen microbrewery, where we had a lecture and a tasting:

 


 At the daily recap, our resident musicologist gave an absolutely fascinating talk on Finnish tango!  Who knew?  Tango has been immensely popular in Finland, with competitions and tango events all over, including outdoors during the winter.  He showed a number of videos and played many samples of the unique kind of tango which has developed in Finland.  Lots more here:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_tango  Eye-opening!

 And now we’ve had an announcement that the revised itinerary for this trip, which was to have taken us to Kotka, Finland tomorrow, has been re-revised.  We will not go to Kotka as it is only 25 miles from the Russian border, and it might not be safe for an American tourist vessel.  Instead, we will be going to Turku.  Well, the adventure continues.  Tomorrow we will learn about Turku.

Comments

  1. Ralph P. LockeJune 3, 2022 at 2:54 AM

    Fascinating to see such different types of rocks, tree formations, and farming techniques. Truly, climate shapes a lot of the world around us and requires adaptations from humans wanting to make the best use of their opportunities (in order to, well, survive and make a living!). The musical talk, the beer tasting, and the photo hints all sound fun and, in their own ways, educational. I see that Turku has lots of interest ("the Paris of Finland")--onward!

    ReplyDelete

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