After two intensive days visiting some of the principal sites of the city of St. Petersburg, a day devoted to the exploration of the coastal islands of Finland offered a welcome contrast to the hustle and bustle of Russia’s second city with a chance to catch our breath once again. The early morning stretch class was nevertheless well attended as was the morning’s full program of presentations, including the first from our Global Perspectives Guest Speaker, oceanographer Don Walsh.
By mid afternoon our attention had turned to the delightful rose granite archipelago through which we were sailing, some 6,500 small islands collectively known as the Åland Islands. Although politically part of Finland, the islands are overwhelmingly Swedish speaking, a curiosity arising from the territory having been claimed by Sweden, Finland and Russia over the past few centuries. Since 1921 Åland has been an autonomous Swedish region within the Finnish Sate and today both Sweden and Finland are united in the European Union.
With a perfect combination of clear skies and calm seas, one of these tiny islands was chosen for an expedition stop. Less than one square mile in area, Källskär serves as a summer retreat for a few families normally resident in more urban surroundings and is dotted with saunas and gazebos, including the summer cabin of writer and illustrator Tove Jansson. There is also a more substantial house built by the Swedish Baron Göran Åkerhelm, who created an exotic garden by planting a wind break to create a small area of micro-climate. This resultant little glimpse of paradise we were privileged to share as we strolled the grassy paths of a car-free island, with wild strawberries, raspberries and red currants setting their fruits, rowan, ash and alder trees in full leaf and great expanses of pink granite showing signs of striation from the last retreat of the ice caps. It was as pleasant an expedition stop as we could have hoped for, offering the perfect chance to take a shot of Thoreau’s “tonic of wildness.”
