But all our biking plans fell through. The next morning, I’d come down with a nasty cold and could tell straight away that I wouldn’t be able to bike even a hundred metres. We had to change our plansquickly, and decided to take the car and the car ferry to Kökar instead. The ferry from main (is)land Åland only runs twice a day, so we had already booked accommodation in a holiday village on Svinö near the ferry terminal. We drove there at a leisurely pace, stopping on the way for lunch and a tour of Amalia’s Lemonade Factory, where the café serves an absolutely superb pizza.
You can stay overnight at Amalias B&B, but as our original plan was to bike, we wanted to be as close to the ferry terminal as possible. And the nearest option was Svinö holiday village, a fairly large complex with lots of cottages and a restaurant. It was perhaps the wrong choice in terms of comfort, but the holiday village would turn out to have a secret trump card up its sleeve!
Svinö holiday village is beautifully situated by the water (though, to be honest, most places in Åland are near the water) and offers camping-style facilities, meaning just running water and toilets/showers in a central building. It’s clean and fresh, but the real surprise is the restaurant. The place is run by a Filipino family and the menu features delicious Filipino dishes. Baeng serves a fantastic dinner that we won’t forget in a long time!
The car ferry to Kökar is of a typical archipelago size and has a simple refreshment bar where you can buy sandwiches, pastries and coffee, which is handy, as we didn’t have time for breakfast in the cottage village.
After about 2,5 hours, we arrive at the ferry terminal on Kökar, and from there it’s just a half-hour drive to the other side of the island where our booked hotel is located.
It’s called Brudhäll, probably the most charming hotel in Åland outside Mariehamn. A red building right down by a strait where pleasure boats whizz past all the time. On an inviting jetty, tables and chairs are set out for the hotel’s cosy restaurant and adjoining bar. Many of the guests have probably come here to celebrate Midsummer, but it never gets crowded or rowdy.
Midsummer in Åland is in a league of its own. It’s really only in Sweden and Finland that this holiday is celebrated, and in Finland they take it very seriously – most shops and restaurants are closed on this day.
The important ceremony of raising the midsummer pole is to take place on a low hill a few hundred metres from the hotel, so, full of anticipation, we set off.
For the final stretch, we climb up a narrow path to where the impressively long midsummer pole is laid out and decorated with foliage. It has an unusual shape, one we’ve never seen before, and we think it might be an Åland variant. But later we see others that are more like those found in central Sweden. So this one is definitely special.
Soon the plateau fills with smartly dressed midsummer celebrators, and a wreath-making workshop is set up by a large stone; so far, everything looks just as we know it from Sweden. But when the maypole is raised, there’s a surprise. It is so tall and heavy (steel?) that its base is attached to a sort of winch, and a man winds it up into an upright position.
All the spectators applaud, and then Åland’s ‘national anthem’ is sung – three verses in a typically grand, national-romantic style. And that’s really all there is to it. No dancing or games. No coffee and cake. A bit of socialising on the hill, and then everyone goes home. It’s a bit of a let-down.
We reckon the evening will probably be livelier on the jetties and in the boats, but even that doesn’t happen. The night is calm and quiet on Kökar. They say there’s dancing until 3.00 am over at the volunteer fire brigade’s hall, but that’s too far to walk for us oldies.
