Mariehamn; Saturday, 15 June, 2024

I had planned on spending the day in the saddle discovering more of the islands, but when I woke up my body was telling me that it would not be a wise idea, backed up by squally winds whipping around the apartment, making it clear that whilst the weather was nice, this was not cycling weather, so I decided to revert to plan A and get the bus instead.

After a slightly rushed breakfast I headed out into town and over to the bus station to pick up the first of only three number 4 services of the day out to my first destination Kastelholm. Along the way the bus drove along much of the route that I’d planned to take and in real life what looked like long straight stretched on Google Street View were in reality long slow shallow climbs, followed by short very steep climbs. We passed a number of cyclists decked out in the full gear and on clearly expensive bikes and in the winds they were struggling. I was very glad I’d made the decision not to cycle.

Kastelholm is the home to the only medieval castle on the islands and consequently it’s a popular spot (read lots of hyperactive kids running around the place.) I spent a good hour or so wandering around the castle and then walked back a short distance to get some photos of the castle surrounded by the water that I’d seen as the bus was approaching the castle.

Just beyond the castle there are a number of other attractions, there is an open-air museum which is home to a number of traditional buildings from across the islands giving an idea on what life was like in the olden days, close by is also the prison museum. This was a local jail that included cells and the wardens home, that was in use from 1784 through until 1975 and has now been converted to a museum.

Between the two, and slightly more modern, is the Åland Distillery which has it’s kit on show, and more importantly, a restaurant serving lunch on site, which is where stopped for lunch – slightly longer than planned as the kitchen was a little backed up and it took nearly 30 minutes for my food to arrive.

Lunch completed I had a bit more of a wander around the open-air museum before it was time to head down to the bus stop to pick up the second number 4 bus and continue the journey east for another 10Km to Bormasund.

Today there is little in Bormasund, but at one point the area was being built up as a new capital for the island, with a gigantic fortress spread across multiple islands and headlands being constructed by the Russians. Unfortunately, they didn’t get very far with the construction work, only building a couple of towers and the barracks before they got distracted by having a war with the Ottomans in the Black Sea. Even more unfortunately for the Russians the French and British decided to come in on the side of the Ottomans, kicking off the Crimean War, and whilst they were about it decided to open a second front by sailing up the Baltic and capturing, and then destroying the fortress.

The remaining chunks of the fortress that weren’t destroyed in the British explosions show how impressive this site would have been if it had been completed, and you can wander around the remnants getting an idea of the scale. Close by the visitors centre houses a series of exhibits that guide you through the history of the site, from Sweden losing control of the Baltic during the 18th Century through to the construction and destruction of the site.

Having looked round the visitors centre and the site I was in time to catch the last Eastbound bus of the day onto it’s terminus about 15Km further on in Hummelvik, which was an interesting ride, including a chain ferry and a couple more impressive bridge-island combos, before immediately turning round and heading all the way back to Mariehamn on the very last bus of the day, arriving back just a little after 6pm.

From the bus station I walked up to the vista point on the western side of the city which looks over the main harbour, and had been one of the things that I’d spotted from the ship just two weeks earlier on my journey from Stockholm to Helsinki when we stopped in at Mariehamn around midnight. The views from up here were pretty impressive and I spent quite a bit of time taking them in before heading back down to my apartment, by way of the supermarket to pick up some food for dinner and then a well deserved early night.