Welcome to the third postcrossing adventure to the Åland Islands in June 6-8, 2018, to enjoy a cruise ship trip to the Baltic Sea, and to visit Åland Post among many other destinations! Past tours have been unforgettable successes!

TÄMÄ SIVU SUOMEKSI

Trip Programme

M/S Amorella – Conference Room Versailles

Wednesday, June 6

The trip starts from the Viking Terminal in Turku on early Wednesday morning. Right after boarding the ship, we take our goods to our shared cabin and go to the Versailles conference room at M/S Amorella’s restaurant deck (deck 8). We get to know each other a little bit better, and of course we write postcards. Tour leader plays the Postcrossing bingo, where everyone wins something. If you want something exotic for your cards, you can drop some of them to Amorella’s mailbox. Cards will be stamped not only by Amorella’s own ship postmark, but also by Navire postmark in the port city (you can use stamps from Finland, Sweden or Åland).

Ship restaurant Von Knorring. Copyright (c) Visit Åland / Tiina Tahvanainen

After the meetup there will be a delicious lunch at Viking Buffet (for those who have reserved it). While enjoying the food you can enjoy the spectacular archipelago scenery. We arrive in Mariehamn in the early afternoon. We will take rooms at Park Alandia Hotel. The hotel has been undergoing renovations for a long time, and the renovation will be completed by the beginning of June. The hotel is about a hundred yards from the harbor. The afternoon is free from official program for you to have time to tour Mariehamn in idyllic shops, buy postcards and visit cafes. In the evening we will have a joint dinner in the eastern harbor of Mariehamn at the F.P. von Knorring ship restaurant. Those who have still lot of energy to burn, can continue the evening for example in Bar Indigo or in our hotel’s own idyllic bar (live music every night).

Thursday, June 7

Our group visits Åland Posti hub at Svibyn every time

The second day we will spend outside Mariehamn, touring interesting places. Two ferry trips are also included. After breakfast, the bus starts towards Sviby where the Åland Post postal terminal is located. Our visit is hosted by Åland Post Stamps, and we are told about the Åland Post stamps, and we will have also a tour at the terminal premises. After the visit, we will visit  Taffel Chips Factory in Godby. We can see how chips are manufactured, and of course we will get some tastes as well. At noon, we will continue the trip by bus towards Vårdö and Stormskärs Värdshus, where we will have a delicious lunch. After the lunch, we will follow by the footsteps of famous author Anni Blomqvist in Simskäla and discover a place where the writer of the Stormskärs Maja spent her entire life.

In the afternoon our bus will continue back towards Mariehamn. We visit Lasse Eriksson’s Ship Museum, where you can find paintings, photos, literature and all kinds of mixed items from different ships. While half of our group is in a ship museum, another half can have a coffee break at Anna’s Shop.

Ruins of Bomarsund fortress – (c) Visit Åland / Tiina Tahvanainen

We continue our trip to Bomarsund, where there are Crimean War era fortress ruins. Bomarsund was the largest construction ever built in Åland Islands. At the end of the Crimean War, Åland Islands was demilitarized.

From Bomarsund, we will travel to the last destination on Thursday, Smakbyn ”food paradise”, which is run by one of the most famous chefs in the Nordic countries, Michael ”Micke” Björklund. Smakbyn also has its own distillery. We start by having a tasting, five different spirits with some savories. After the tasting, we will enjoy the dinner of local Åland cuisine. We will return to Mariehamn at nine o’clock in the evening.

Friday, June 8

The last travel day is for pure Postcrossing fun!

On Friday, there will be available an official postcrossing meetup postmark at the Mariehamn post office.

The Finnish Postcrossing Friends Association organizes the Postcard Mini Fair and Postcrossing Meetup at the premises of the Åland Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce is conveniently located upstairs at the Mariehamn Post Office. At the meetup we will write postcards and enjoy the coffee. At the Mini Fair local postcard sellers and artists present and sell their postcards. From the downstairs post office you can buy stamps and obtain a special postcrossing postmark issued by Åland Post, to celebrate our postcrossing meetup in Åland.

Our return journey begins in the afternoon from the western harbor of Mariehamn on M/S Viking Grace. We will take our goods to a shared cabin. There will be a super delicious Viking Buffet dinner for those who have reserved it. Viking Grace also has a mailbox. Again, if you drop your cards into it, you will get not only the Navire postmark, but also Grace’s own ship postmark. We arrive in Turku a little before eight o’clock in the evening.

Meetup Postcard, Stamp And Postmark

The Finnish Postcrossing Friends Association, together with a regional newspaper Ålandstidningen and Åland Post, is searching for the best Åland picture for the meetup postcard by open competition to newspaper readers. The winner will be selected in February-March. The card will be official meetup card with postcrossing logo, event name and time printed on the front. The card will be available for pre-order later.

A local artist Ammi Krogius has designed for us the special meetup stamp and the official postmark. Stamps can already be ordered from the Åland Post Stamps webshop. Two sheets of eight postage stamps cost 30€ (16 stamps of the Världen payment class). Stamps can also be ordered while registering to the trip. In this case stampon Friday June 8.

Timetable In Detail