Day 48 - Tuesday, July 30, 2024 - Mariehamn, The Alland Islands in Finland

By Ellen Outten

 



We docked here and took a tour at 8 am around the island of Mariehamm.  It's interesting that here on this Finish island, the only language spoken besides English is Swedish.  So we have a Finish country with an island speaking the language of another country.









It's a small island and our tour was appropriately 2 hours.  The island is really pretty and green and of course, water everywhere.

We made our first stop at an overlook into the river that which we approached the island.  






From there we went to one of their oldest medieval churches and while we couldn't go inside, the church was pretty and the grounds beautiful.







Our next stop was at the Maritime Quarter for a look at the other side of the island and a brief shopping trip.  







We were driven out to the end of the archipelago to see more of the island and then dropped off at the town center.  There was a nice pedestrian walking and shopping area.  Wayne found a florist and bought small bouquets of flowers for some of the waitresses in the dining room.   He just about brought some to tears at dinner when he gave them to the staff.




Viking and their staff are truly amazing. They all work so hard.  You always see someone cleaning. You always get a smile and a hello.  No staff.or crew pass you without saying hello and have a good day.  

Wayne drives them all nuts at every meal so his flowers were needed!  He needed to redeem himself!

I walked around the town and then we had lunch in town. Just a sandwich at a local shop but good to try something local, and different from ship food.  There was some meat and some cheese and some tangy pizza/ ketchup on it and they called it " Philly style".   What a hoot!  It was very good.  It was not Philly anything 😁

We returned to the ship via a shuttle train which was a Willys Jeep pulling two open cars.  Similar to a children's train ride.

Tomorrow, our last port, Stockholms Sweden and my last new country.  We have a tour in the morning, packing in the afternoon and we disembark at 4:45 am for the airport.   The start of a long day of travel, through London Heathrow and then non-stop to Phoenix.





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