Posts In The “Europe” Category
From late June to early August, we spent a fabulous five weeks at Wasahamnen marina in downtown Stockholm. Wasahamnen is centrally located with great views to the Stockholm islands, convenient access to ferry and transit services, and is close to many restaurants and local attractions. It was definitely one of the more busy marinas we’d…
In mid-July, we made our annual summer trip to Seattle for James to participate in a multi-week AWS business review. It’s a busy time, with lots of meetings, plus we picked up about 300 pounds (136kg) of spares and supplies to bring back with us. We also found time to have some fun, including attending…
In our 28th Technology Series episode, we tour the historic steamships SS Savonlinna and SS Punkaharju and take a 90-minute cruise of the area on the SS Punkaharju. The ships are located in Savonlinna, Finland within the Great Saimaa Lakes system. Steamships have long been a popular form of transit in the area and the…
Drottningholm Palace on the island of Lovon was completed in the late 1600s during Sweden’s time as a great power. The Swedish royal court resided here regularly during the 18th century and it remains a summer residence for the Royal Family, but is also open to the public. In 1991, the palace and its grounds…
In 1628, the warship Vasa set off from Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s old town, on its maiden voyage. The flagship of the Swedish fleet, designed to be the most powerful warship in the Baltic, the Vasa was 226ft (69 m) long, over 164ft (50 m) tall from keel to mast-top, and weighed over 1,200 tonnes including…
The 608-room Royal Palace Kungliga Slottet was completed in the mid-1700s and still is the official residence of the Swedish Royal family, making it the largest in the world still used for its original purpose. The palace and much of the grounds are open to the public, however, and a popular changing of the guard…
In the 27th edition of our Technology Series, we visit the Scania manufacturing plant at Sodertalje, Sweden near Stockholm. Scania is famous for producing modular engines with excellent fuel economy and power-to-weigh ratios. We’ve seen their beautiful trucks and buses throughout Europe, and they have a particularly loyal and happy customers base. We’ve stopped to…
The Round Gotland Race, formally know as the AF Offshore Race, has traditionally started and ended at the Royal Swedish Yacht Club outstation at Sandhamn, but recently has been starting in Stockholm. 218 vessels across at least 9 classes would pass south of our marina, head out to sea, and turn south to Gotland, then…
The island of Gamla Stan is Stockholm’s old town, dating from the 13th century. The district is packed with narrow, cobbled alleyways, historic buildings, museums, and cafes, and is home to the Royal Palace Kungliga Slottet and Stockholm’s oldest building, Stockholm Cathedral, consecrated in 1306. As is typically our custom when arriving in a new…
We arrived into our berth at Wasahamnen in Stockholm, our home for the next few weeks, after a 10-mile run from Vaxholm. Except for a US Navy vessel, we’d not seen single other US-flagged vessel the entire time we’d been in the Baltic. But when we arrived at Wasahamnen, we were only one of many…
Vaxholm Fortress was built in 1544 to protect Stockholm from naval attack, and repelled a Danish attack in 1612. The fortress became particularly important in the 1700s when the Finland became a part of Russia and Stockholm, once in the center of the Swedish kingdom, suddenly was near the eastern border. In 1719, the Russians…
We returned to Sweden from Uto, Finland six weeks after we’d departed for Aland and Finland, and had an easy crossing of the north Baltic Sea. As with our last stop in Sweden, we anchored for the night on the edge of the archipelago, this time near the island of Fejan. But this time we…
Uto is right at the southwest tip of Finland, and a natural place for a military base. The Russians first built one here on their western border with Sweden and enhanced it in the early 1900s to protect from an increased threat from Germany. The area is full of guns and military fortifications that appear…
From the Aland Islands, we’d run fairly directly to Helsinki and then on to the Saimma Lakes. On the return, we took a more scenic route that brought us closer to shore-side infrastructure and settlements. The boating season hadn’t really started when we were heading east, but was well underway on on the westbound trip—it…
Some of the best places we have visited in our cruise around the world were destinations we hadn’t heard of before arriving in the area. The Great Saimaa Lake system is a beautiful example. We knew we wanted to visit Finland and were looking forward to exploring the thousands of islands that make it a…
On our exit from the Saimaa Canal, we passed through all eight locks, cleared out of Finland, through Russia, and back into Finland all in one busy 15-hour run. As with our entry, the boat was searched extensively at the Russian border, but otherwise the process went smoothly. And also as on the inbound journey,…
From Lake Pihlajavesi we ran 71 miles back to Lappeenranta, overnighting partway along. We’d gone through almost all the gasoline we bought in Nynashamn back in April, so stopped off at Puumala to fill our gas tanks for the tender and top up our diesel. At Lappeenranta we found a surprisingly secluded anchorage just north…
The Saimaa Ringed Seal are among the most endangered in the world, with a current population below 400 animals. They have been isolated from other Ring Seal species for nearly 10,000 years when the the land rose in the last ice age, and are one of the few living freshwater seals. Sightings are rare, but…