Day One: Stockholm-Mariahamn-Västmyra

We needed to wake quite early on the chilly Thursday morning to catch the Silja Europa ship from the Stockholm harbor. At 7:05, we found ourselves boarding the ship with our bikes loaded with gear. The 6 hour ride across the archipelago seemed to be eternal as we were eager to see what awaited us in Åland over the next several days. At 13:15, we were riding our bikes away from the Mariahamn terminal and towards our first destination...a park bench on Norra Esplanadgatan where we ate lunch. There is where we experienced a greeting from the cold blistery wind. Not long after, we headed to the tourist center where we learned interesting tidbits about Åland and how to get to our next destination....Cafe Svarta Katten, a mere block away. The building was a converted house with several small cozy rooms. It was quite crowded with most speaking swedish, but there was also a group of french speakers. 

It was interesting to learn that much of Mariahamn's swiss influenced architecture was designed by the first female architect, Hilda Hongell. Given that in her time, most woman were confined to working in the homes, this was quite unique. Many of the villas were built in the 19th and 20th centuries. After much delay with our coffee drinks, we had to face the reality of returning to our bikes and the cold wind outside at around 1500. 

Leaving Mariahamn was very easy as we traveled  at a casual pace west towards the Hammarland parish. I read that this area was known for its beautiful flowers, but this time of year we were optimistic that we'd see many. Surprisingly, there was quite a bit of traffic to deal with so we had to travel in line until we reached our next turn. Once headed west in the direction of Torp, traffic became nonexistent and we could talk while riding beside each other. In Torp, we saw the first of many old, but well kept wooden windmills. In this particular one lived Santa Clause accompanied by a Glade ice cream symbol. Perhaps Santa sells ice cream in the off-season. As we biked further we saw few people and those we did meet weren't so eager to greet us even with a smile or a simple "hello" as I was accustomed to from previous bike tours. It could only be the widespread Nordic hospitality. 

We turned our wheels more to the north so the wind was felt on the left side. We encountered scattered country farms and houses along this route. There was a section where it was only nature in all directions and this put a smile on my face. It gets dark around 16:30 on Åland since it is at a higher latitude than Stockholm. So we started to search the forest and farmland for a place to camp. As we headed east along a dirt road, we found ourselves camping on farmland in Västmyra. Our tents backed up to the forest while our view was of several fields and impressive farmhouses. A few scattered cars came by so often, but there was a wonderful sense of silence for the most part.  As we ate our cheese and pasta dinner, we watched as the clouds took over the beautifully wide sky of stars. Then the cold wind kicked in. A couple of folks saw our lights and, out of concern for our safety, asked if we were okay. That was nice. I believe we were in our tents around 21:00. What else to do when it is dark and cold outside? Go inside.