Långnäs ferry terminal, Lumparland - Monday, 12 September

Geoff
Our first task this morning was to call at the Ålandstrafiken office in Mariehamn to book our ferries through the islands of the southern archipelago. Our route will be from Långnäs to Kökar tomorrow morning, spending one night on Kökar and then, on Wednesday, taking an onward ferry to Galtby in the Turku archipelago. It works out much cheaper spending a night en route. This is because the ferries between the islands are mainly intended for locals and making the route in one leap is deliberately made more expensive to penalise visitors. There is an open campsite on Kökar. By booking ahead, we saved 10% of the cost which worked out at €93.

That done, our next port of call was at the Alko alcohol store with the idea of buying a bottle of Åland's take on Calvados. However, it proved to be prohibitively expensive, (€111!) so we gave it a miss. After a shop at the nearby Kantarellen supermarket, we went on to our next destination. When we used the kitchen at the hostel adjoining Godby sports centre, I inadvertently brought away a glass saucepan lid, thinking it was ours. It wasn't and I was anxious to return it, particularly as we had no use for it. I gave it to a lady in the sports centre reception who was quite amused.

We now set out for Långnäs, taking a  backwoods route, as usual meeting virtually no other traffic. On the way, we crossed a bridge between the islands of Lemland and Lumparland. The water we'd crossed, Lumparsund, not very wide, was apparently the main shipping route between Sweden and Russia until it silted up in the 1600s. We went on only a few miles for our lunch stop, in the car park adjacent to Sankt Andreas Kyrka, the oldest surviving wooden church in Åland, built in 1720 and still in regular use. It would have been open had we called by earlier in the year.

There was a path from the car park opening on to a grassy recreational area. Here, there were swings, picnic table, volleyball court and a jetty for swimming from. There were also a couple of earth closet loos and changing rooms. So civilised.

Långnäs consists of just a ferry terminal, although it is used by more than one line plying different routes around the archipelago. We ascertained exactly where we need to be in the morning. We then drove back to Lumparland village and took the road out to the island of Norrboda, at the end of which was a chain ferry to Ändösund, another small island, beyond which were two yet smaller islands, whose names I don't know. However, the ferry was on the other side with no vehicles to bring across. We could have summoned it by pressing a button but as we would want to come back after only maybe a quarter of an hour, it didn't seem a good use of Åland's resources to do this. We then went back to the church car park for a relaxing end of afternoon and evening, it being preferred to the terminal car park and we had time to spare. We had our evening meal there and then drove the short distance back to the ferry as light was beginning to fade. We are in a car park close to the ferry but not the one in front of the Viking Ferry building as Amanda ascertained that other ferries would be stopping briefly just before midnight and about 2am to drop people off so there might be some disturbance.

Amanda

Back to glorious sunshine and heat today! Having made the decision to go for the island hopping ferry route, we set off for Långnäs, about 30 miles away. But we had several stops to make on the way.

First was the Ålandstrafikbyro in Mariehamn to get the ferries booked. It was nowhere near as complicated as we had feared and the young man got us all sorted in no time. We are booked on the 9.15 ferry tomorrow morning. No racing across islands is involved - I think maybe that is on the alternative northern route.

Second stop was to Alko, the alcohol shop (only beer available in the supermarket) in search of the Åland equivalent of Calvados, which we had read about. We found it. At 111 Euros a bottle we thought maybe we'd settle for duty free Calvados on the Harwich ferry next month! We then topped up with essentials at the supermarket next door.

Third stop - was retracing our tracks to the Idrottcenter in Godby, to return the saucepan lid we had accidentally taken with us thinking it was ours. Oops!

Then on through Lemland to Lumparland. We stopped to look at St Andreas Church, the church for Lumparland, which is the oldest surviving wooden church in Åland, dating from the mid eighteenth century. Just by the church a track led down to a beach and jetty, with a little wooden changing hut and a beach volleyball court! We lunched here, and then went to reccy the ferry port and see where we might spend the night. There didn't seem to be any reason not to stop on the car park overnight, but because there was no shade we didn't want to spend the afternoon there. So we drove northwards through the pleasant countryside of Lumparland until we reached the end of the road. A ferry could have taken us over to the next island, but was on the other side. We didn't have the heart to press the button and call it over to fetch us when we would only need to come back again, so returned to our little church car park. Here we spent the rest of the afternoon reading, and cooked and ate supper. In a short while we will head for the Ferry Terminal Car Park for the night.