Today some of us got up ever so late, after 9am. First walked, then paddled the canoes round a neighbouring island. We would have landed and taken possession for the Queen but the coast was very rocky and we could not see where to tie up the canoes or pull them out of the water.
By carto Mariehamn which has a population of ten thousand and is the biggest place on the island.
The Main Street in Mariehamn. The weather is marvellous and half the passerbys were eating icecream. Apparently that is the norm here which is why it is so popular as a holiday place. We visited craft shops (well what else) and I found local yarn.
They have their own breed of sheep here, Aland sheep, and the pale brown (natural colour, undyed) is from them. There were a lot of different colours, greys, shades of brown and white. But no black in the pile. Elsewhere I found some local spun yarn which had been dyed. The dyed yarn was all two colour and unusual mixes. I surreptiously found a loose end and can say, yes this will work as a warp. There are several craft shops in Mariehamn. Tomorrow, we are going north to the castle where they are holding a crafts day with demos and stuff for sale. That should be fun. I was in a shop called SALT today and could see an eight shaft floor loom. They would not let me near it!! Never mind, better luck tomorrow.
We visited this ship, Pommern. Commissioned in 1923 and taken out of service in 1939, it was the last big sailing cargo ship in the world and did the Australian run. It is enormous. Four masted, lots of space for cargo.
Alex trying out the wheel.
Back to our house which is so beautiful, I cannot see why we are bothering with towns.
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