20 na Mariehamn

Tour dates: 37.36 km by bike and the kilometers on the ferry, max 46.4 km/h, Ø 21.6 km/h, travel time 1:43 hours

Weather: Blue sky, temperatures around 5°, little wind in the morning, stronger in the afternoon

The morning greeted me with radiant sunshine. In front of my window stood the forest with its illuminated trees. It's going to be a beautiful day today.

For my bike tour, I had only roughly planned a route from the beginning. I didn't plan the details or book hotels. Every day, I start fresh and it always works out. However, yesterday I experienced an unexpected situation. I wanted to go from Turku to Sweden via Åland, hopping from one island to another using ferries. And today was supposed to be the first day of island hopping. Planning also involves studying the timetables. And lo and behold - I stumbled upon a problem with the second ferry. It only operates with the summer schedule, which starts on May 12th. So I'm 9 days early. Another problem could be finding accommodations. They are scarce on all these small islands, and I don't have a tent with me.

Together with André, I spent a long time on the phone looking for an alternative, but we didn't find anything satisfactory. The only option we found was to go back to Turku and take a ferry from there to Åland. This morning, I continued my search and found a ferry from Naantali, where I was.

Since this ferry didn't depart until noon, I had plenty of time to book and ride my bike to the departure point. So instead of traveling through all these small islands, I sailed past them on the giant ferry.

This boat trip reminds me of a kayaking tour I took with Caroline in the archipelago near Stockholm 18 years ago. Back then, Caroline suddenly shouted, "There's a skyscraper coming towards us." Today, I'm sitting in such a skyscraper, looking down on this world of islands.
By the way, as soon as we arrived on the ship, the diverse buffet was already open. The price was included in the ticket, as were the drinks (non-alcoholic). I find 5 hours of comfortable, varied boat trip including food for €30.15 to be very worthwhile.
Åland is a much larger island than I expected. So even on the ship, it was difficult to estimate how far I would have to ride to reach a hotel. The only thing that was clear was that there were no hotels nearby. So I had to ride my bike again. After nearly 5 hours of sitting around, I welcomed the opportunity. But first, I had to find a hotel that I liked and that wasn't too luxurious.
In the end, it turned into a proper bike tour of over 30 kilometers.
https://www.komoot.de/tour/1104377631?ref=itd