After searching the flights for a late summer/autumn beach holiday, we decided on Mykonos and it proved to be a great choice. Although the wind blew quite strongly some days, the air and sea temperatures were perfect.
As you will see from the selection of suitably watermarked images below, Jude takes much better pictures than I do.
The remainder of our holiday was spent on the Finnish mainland. After catching the ferry back from Brändö, we drove up the west coast via the beautiful, UNESCO World Heritage town of Rauma and then on to Yyteri beach, which is one of the longest sandy beaches in Scandinavia at around 6km. From there we turned east to our base for the next 4 nights, which was a self-catering wooden lodge, or chalet, next to Lake Vesijako.
We returned to spend 2 more nights in the delightful city of Turku, which is the oldest town in Finland, with stops en route at the towns of Lammi and Hämeenlinna
Some other things I learnt during this trip (which you might also like to know):
Let me take you on a little journey from Stockholm to the Åland Islands, which are an autonomous region of Finland…
Travelling to new countries (and blogging about them) certainly teaches you a few things, like there is hardly any tidal movement in the Baltic sea (which is why the thousands of islands are always visible); the water is not as salty as the ‘normal’ sea and, despite belonging to Finland, the islanders all speak Swedish (and most also speak English thankfully).
We caught a Viking Line ferry, called Grace, which was more like a cruise ship, from Stockholm to Turku, on the Finnish mainland. It’s a sailing which is highly recommended, if you ever get the opportunity, as the boat weaves its way through the almost impossibly narrow channels between the many islands. After an overnight stop and hiring a car, we then hopped on and off 2 more ferries to get to the group of interconnected islands called Brändö. (See map pic B11).
A particular highlight of our time there was a day on the island of Jurmo. We arrived too early for the ferry, but an extremely friendly local, called Ari, offered to give us a lift in his small boat. There was a harvest festival type celebration on that weekend and we were treated to a tour of the island on a tractor trailer.
Like yesterday, I’ve divided my photos into 3 distinct galleries. (Click on any image to get a larger view).
The ferry journey:
Brändö:
Jurmo island:
Jude and I have just returned from 2 weeks away, visiting Stockholm and 3 different parts of Finland. We flew to and from Stockholm partly because Easyjet didn’t fly from Geneva to Helsinki, but mainly because Jude was looking forward to sailing between the 6,700 islands which constitute the Åland islands that lie between Sweden and Finland. (No, I didn’t know about them either until we organised this trip).
Anyhow, below is a summary of our time in Stockholm where we meandered the streets, visited the Skansen Park area in Djurgarden (which has a replica village from the late 1800’s and a small zoo) and visited the National Museum.
Before going we’d read that it was very difficult to spend actual cash in Stockholm. So we didn’t take any and easily got by with just a pre-loaded Debit card. (I still don’t know what a Swedish Krona note or coin looks like). Be aware though that Stockholm is quite an expensive place to visit, though the above two attractions are both free.
Below, in a slight departure from my usual posts, I’ve included three separate photo galleries – the first is of the City then Skansen and thirdly the National Museum.
Skansen:
National Museum, Stockholm:
One of the more modern songs in my collection, is this one by Ann Lee, called 2 Times, which was released in March 1999. It’s rather quirky but, for some reason, I like it. And, I have to confess, I hadn’t seen this video until I created this post. I think it detracts a little from the song, so you might like to just close your eyes and listen… 🙂
It’s quite timely that I should have posted this picture of my two good friends Ian and Martin, as Joe Jackson was a particular favourite of Ian’s and the song always reminds me of a camping holiday that the three of us had in Guernsey in the summer of 1979. We travelled over on the ferry when the infamous Fastnet storms were beginning. The boat was pitching and rolling all the way. Almost everyone on the ship was ill except the 3 of us, who could be found propping up the bar.
Martin played on the wing for York Rugby Union Football Club and was quick as well as strong and he decided to enter the Guernsey Open Athletics Championship. He chose to compete in the 100 metres and the Shot Putt event. (Not many people attempt that ‘double’!) Ian and I didn’t want to be left out so we recruited another 100m sprinter to form a 4x100m relay team. We finished 4th out of 5, beating the team put together by the 1500m runners, who had finished their own race only about 20 minutes before!
It’s those sort of holidays that bond friendships for the rest of your life. Even today, 40 years on, you may hear one of us say “Is she really going out with him?” 🤣
OK, pop-pickers, as I think Alan Freeman used to say on UK Radio 1, here’s an oldie but a goodie (and I don’t mean Tim Brooke-Taylor or Bill Oddie or Graham Garden). This song takes me back to when I was young and hadn’t a care in the world (other than trying to learn ancient Greek at school!) I hope you enjoy! 😊
In an attempt to catch up and get up to date, I’ve decided to group all my other holiday photos together. (I say my, but I’ve included 2 of Jude’s as well – suitably credited to her). As you will see we had some nice weather (unlike the rest of the UK at the time I understand) and we had yet another fabulous boat ride to the Farne Islands, where thousands of seabirds were nesting.
My apologies for all the bird pictures, but I know there are some keen birders out there following my posts. If any of them/you can identify the little brown birds in pics 2 and 28 then I’d be very grateful. I have my suspicions about the first but no idea about the second.
Judith and I spent the last week of our UK holiday in Northumberland. On our way down from Scotland, we dropped off Jo & Aaron at Edinburgh airport to continue their European holiday (in Berlin and Nice and then who knows where…)
We were quite fortunate with the weather and our first day out was to take a shortish walk along the coast from our base in Alnmouth to the next village north, called Boulmer (pronounced Boomer for some reason. How people ever learn English I’ll never know. It’s hard enough coping with the various accents without pronouncing things differently to how they look. Or maybe people just couldn’t spell properly in the old days!)
Anyway, it was a beautiful walk, with plenty of things to photograph along the way. 😊
For our last full day in the NW of Scotland, we drove around Loch Carron to Plockton and treated Jo, Aaron and Jude’s friend, Kate, to a boat ride on one of Calum’s famous* Seal Trips (where you are guaranteed to see seals, or your money back!) I have covered this village before, but I see that it was almost 3 years ago now, so I think it’s worth another post. Especially as, this time, Aaron and I went for a short walk to the viewpoint at An Fhrith Aird, where there is an exceptional view of where Loch Carron meets the Inner Sound between the Isle of Skye and the Scottish mainland. (See map at the end of the picture gallery).
*As featured on the BBC TV series “Paul Murton’s Grand Tours of Scotland’s Lochs”.
