One main issue that I had during the day-three was my huge craving for light cola, it started on board of a ferry that only had a vending machine for hot drinks on board. Once arrived to the Överö harbour I started my light cola search on the island of Föglö; with one grocery store. To my disappoint there were no light cola or hardly any other light sodas available, so i had to survive with flavoured sparkling water only.
Also it was quite windy while biking, but i didn't mind it as much as the lack of light sodas.
We stayed in a quite picturesque little village of Degerby at the Föglö island. This time we stayed in a B&B, of which name i've forgotten. . There seemed to be two other bit nicer places to stay in this village, so if you are planning to do a similar trip, choose one of the other accommodation places, not the one in front of the bank. Although I liked the salmon soup they served for lunch and loved their "Åland pancake" that was served as dessert. . Delicious. . Need to learn to make it myself!
We were able to check out the whole village of Degerby quickly so we had plenty of time for shopping and going out, although the shop closed at six and restaurants at 20hrs. Only the library seemed to be open as late as 20hrs; they must love reading there. So we spent the evening chatting, reading and drinking WATER.
Day four started again with an early breakfast, 8:00. Once done eating, yet another badic nordic breakfast, we head towards the ferry harbour and returned back to the main island. The ferry took only 30 min, and then we biked an hour or so... until we found a place where i finally got myself a sugarfree coladrink!!! Also bought a "nordic style doghnut" with it .. which is loaded with sugar, one need to keep a balance in life..
By midday we were in the capital of Åland and our first stop was Mariebad, which is a sort of mix of a small spa and a swimming hall. We were happy to clean the bike dust and suntan lotion off of our skin; and swim few laps in the pool, get nervous in the slide, let the water massage with a high pressure, relax in the bubble bath and sweat in the sauna. Only found strange that you had to buy a lock with 3,50 euros, but you could sell the lock back to them with 2 euros.
After swimming we took a look at the beautiful Maritime Quarter, and visited a silversmith who was happy to show his work and open up with his philosophy of life.. He thought that my friend is his soul mate, and was ready to throw me out of his shop. Once my friend was ready to say good bye to him, we visited a shop with a lot of handcrafts from Åland (www.salt.ax). Found a great gift there for my boyfriend.
Rest of the time in Mariehamn we sat in couple of terraces and enjoyed quite tasty hamburger dinner at Dino's, a restaurant that was bit tricky to find. We checked TripAdvisor for restaurants, and found this restaurant interesting.. checked their address, and biked there based on google maps, which took us bit off centre to a residential area, and no sight of any restaurants. After biking a bit around there my friend noticed on the old fashioned map that numbers on that particular street don't go chronologically. . So we started biking back and found the restaurant .. And also realised that we were sitting on a terrace next to Dino's restaurant before we left to look for it.
....Boarded Viking Line m/s Mariella around 23:30 and the holiday was heading towards the end. In Helsinki harbour next morning my friend and I head towards our own ways. . She about 3km, me about 30 km of biking..
Really enjoyed my first biking holiday and will definitely do more holidays with my bike, but in the future will do more planning and will avoid buying package deals as we did this time.
