We left Norway today flying out from Tromsø to Stockholm in Sweden. A beautiful sunny day following two days of overcast weather which got in the way of northern lights sightings.

Although it's nice to be back in a big city with more food options and places to explore we absolutely loved Norway and will definitely be heading back there at some stage if only to complete the areas we missed around Lofoten due to the ferry not running.

In Norway regular stores can only sell up to 4.7% beer and so you see a lot of beers brewed to that limit. We really don't mind this as we both think that's a very reasonable percentage. Sweden has a limit of 3.5% and so you end up with a lot of stock beers that have obviously been watered down to hit this mark and while we have no problem with a 3.5% beer we draw a line at watered down versions.

Norway and Sweden both have government-run stores (vinmonopolet and systembolaget respectively) which sell wines, spirits and higher alcohol beers. They're very well organised and the staff know their stuff but they close on Sundays and often are few and far between out in the country.

Something else I've appreciated in Scandinavia is the use of 24 hour time. Shops will have simple opening hours signs like "08-20 (10-16)" which means between 8am and 8pm during the week and 10am and 4pm during the weekends. We should adopt this system in NZ.

Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes in mushroom sauce with lingonberries and pickles. Nyummy!

Milestone: We've stayed in 40 different campgrounds/AirBNBs/hotels since leaving NZ two months ago. And only accidentally left behind one item; that was a bit of fancy cheese in a fridge in a campground in Varberg in Sweden.

Yesterday we visited the Vasa Museum which contains the remains of a ship the sunk nearby in 1628 and was recovered in the 1960s. 

Yesterday we celebrated with ABBA.  We could have sung and danced and thanked the music but we're too shy.  Was quite interesting but there was no gos, scandal or anything personal it seemed (apart from the pda behind me in this photo).

Today was mission Drottningholm. We have purchased a three day Stockholm pass so there is no sitting still now.  We caught the ferry out through Lake Malaren to one of the Royal residences. I think there might be quite a few but in Stockholm too but those viewings are scheduled for Day 2. The boat was very full - but Damian and I clinched what i thought was prime position perched on the side rail. The palace and grounds are amazing. We spent an hour or so just walking through the parks. We learnt that Drottning = Queen. It seems that the Swedish Royal Family is quite interesting - so looking forward to finding out more tomorrow. The Queen, Lovisa Ulrika who was the second Queen to use this palace was from Prussia and was giving the throne for political reasons (or her husband was). We went on a tour of the theatre that she had built and it was really interesting. When she died her son took a much more active role in running the theatre and would even put on shows in the grounds, where he was always the star and was always a great hero. He made all of his court watch them and they could last for up to 16 hours.  He also let the public come - sounds like a marketing plan to me. The palace was nice - lots of paintings and tapestries (quick visit for us!)

Here is one of the Chinese Buildings. There was a Pavilion and a room called the Confidence where 'service' prepared meals and laid the table underground and then the whole table would rise up so that the Noble people could continue in private.

It's been a while since we did an update. Since the last post we bought a three-day city pass and we visited every single tourist attraction and did every single boat and bus tour possible. 

Unfortunately it exhausted us and so the last couple of days were spent watching Netflix with the blinds closed. Perfect!

Today we leave Stockholm on an overnight cruise ship headed for Mariehamn in Åland.

We're currently in the original IKEA having super cheap meatballs in the restaurant there. We came by bike while waiting for our ship this evening and have yet to walk the store.

[Edit: Sal and I are now on the cruise ship and we've been excitedly exploring like the country hicks we are. Turns out the cruise is used as a tax free dodge by the Swedes; it's just long enough in international waters to justify the buying of booze and whatnot. But it goes to where we're heading so suits us perfectly. Best thing is we got a below-the-car-deck berth for an absolute pittance. Also, I'm pretty sure we're the youngest people here.]

Early morning on Tuesday we arrived in Mariehamn on our cruise ship / tall ferry. We went to the local culture museum there after coffee in town and learned about the complex history here.

From there we cycled to our accommodation which is a part-renovated mental hospital and visited the local brewery (Stallhagen) which meant a compulsory tasting of all 12 beers on offer there.

We also met with Maud (an old friend of Paul and Lynda's) for dinner at her place and cycled home in the dark.

44km cycling all up.

Åland has been occupied, liberated and reoccupied a number of times. Every time Sweden decided it deserved more land or Russia played with its borders Åland was in the way.

Here are the remains of a Russian fortress from the Crimean war. We also visited the Kastleholm castle which first appears in the history books in the 1300s but was likely inhabited long, long before that. Maud's house is nearby and you can see it from her living room.

Last night we stayed in Maud's family's holiday home in Vårdö. No electricity but it's a lovely log cabin with a wood fire and, most importantly, a sauna on the water's edge. 

32km cycling toady.

Mushrooms. I have never seen so many mushrooms as on Vårdö. If you knew what was safe to eat you'd not have to go to the shops often.

Found a teeny tiny snake on the road. Expired. An ex-snake. 🐍

We also came across a little Bambi. Bicycles are great for sneaking up on animals.

Today we travelled from Brändö to the island of Korpo/Korppoo. Two ferries and 36km cycling. Here is a photo of the interior of our van-sized cruise ship.

We have made it to mainland Finland - Turku. We have had a really nice couple of days travelling by ferries and cycles. We really have had a wonderful time in Åland. A big thank you to Maud for making our stay special. 

We left Vårdö and caught a ferry to the island of Brändö. Here we stayed in a lovely hotel - we are really in the off season thought so many things not open. It lucky we always have our trusty crackers, toms, avocado, cheese (or a combination thereof) to feed ourselves. The weather has been pretty good so I wonder if no tourists visit because nothing is open or if nothing is open because no tourists visit. Could be either. The island of Brändö was lovely but once again it was hard to capture in a photo. So many smooth rocks poking out of the sea - some big enough to be islands and some just showing their tops. Was lovely cycling too - mainly flat is what I look for. 

Our next cruise ship is shown in Damian's photo below - tiny tiny tiny but served the purpose of getting us to Roslax (Houtskari) where we speedily raced to to the other side of the island to get the next ferry to Korppoo (everything is written in Swedish and Finnish and I have no idea what language I am using - probably a mixture). It all fell nicely into place for us and we arrived in time for a pub meal. Turns out that once a month they have all you can eat pizza - place was packed and we shared our table with some lovely locals. A very friendly little town. 

Today we found out that there was a harvest festival in Nagu which is where our next ferry was leaving from. So we got on our bikes straight after brekkie and arrived in time for a lunch of fried new potatoes, onion, bacon, sausage - divine. 

 Next, a 2.5 hour ferry to Turku - we arrived at our apartment about 7pm and in true Peterson fashion will pretend it is NOT Saturday night and have an early night.

Sally with the PigDuck (posankka) in Turku. 

We just happened to hit Turku on a day of cultural/civic celebrations so there was a nice vibe going on along the river and in town. 

We spent two nights here and this morning we're catching a train to Tampere.

Spent the day yesterday mooching around Tampere. It's getting colder. 8° ❄️

Had a lovely dinner and beer tasting at the Plevna brewery which is based in the old cotton mill complex in the middle of town. 

Tampere is built on a bit of land between two lakes that have a altitude difference of about 18m and used to have a large set of rapids flowing down the 2km stretch between. Over the centuries various industries made use of the flow to power mills and turbines and now the river is embanked and flows through a series of dams. So the heart of the city is industrial but compact and ends up being nicer than what your first impressions lead you to believe.

Today we catch a series of four trains to Savonlinna. All tickets pre-booked and all with around 10-15 minute connection gaps. The train we caught up to Tampere was 30 minutes late leaving. I suspect we're not going to be staying in Savonlinna tonight.

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Savonlinna castle. Not the biggest one we've been to but we both like it a lot. We took a guided tour -- a smart move from time to time -- and learned a lot about the history of the place. We're way off to the east of Finland near Russia and this used to be Sweden. The Castle was built in the 1400s to let Russia know where the border was. Russia took it over, made some improvements and gave it back a few years later, took it again, more improvements and gave it back again.

They have operatic performances here in the summer.

Finland was well known for its tar export in the past. I never really thought about how tar was made but here's a model of how they did it. It's a shallow bowl with a mound of pine logs and a tunnel beneath it to extract the tar with a bit of heat. It leaves behind charcoal. Tempted to give this a go on a small scale.

According to Wikipedia the Fins loved tar and claimed it could heal "even those cut in twain through their midriff".