This years event was special! We had talked about going by boat, crossing the Baltic sea to Åland, for decades… And this year the dream came thru!
Just to give you some perspectives:
– Åland emerged from the sea some 10.000 years ago when the last ice age ended. 3000 years later some fishermen and hunters settled on the island.
During the last 500 years Åland have, from time to time, belonged to Sweden, Russia and Finland. Even the Danes tried to conquer the islands!
After the Russian revolution in 1917, when Finland became independent, the people living on Åland wanted to become a part of the old motherland Sweden, but the Finnish government proclaimed Åland as a Finnish province. The Åland people refused to accept that, and in 1921 an agreement stated that Åland would be an autonomy region within Finland with it’s own parliament. The spoken language on Åland is still Swedish.
Since a couple of years we have got more and more Finnish members in the club, with Jan-Martin Börman and Ulf Haga in the leading position as our club ambassadors. Thanks to these two guys and there wifes Christine and Kaija the Åland Riva Run & Fun finally came thru.
Many thanks for your hard work and perfect planning!