As you can see, there is absolutely no snow left in my backyard! The weather continued very cold approximately one week into April and then turned warm and rainy.
The hare in the picture below is almost completely brown now.
Soon three weeks ago we went to Sweden, to our neighbour city Umeå for a little shopping. Before Finland and Sweden became members of the EU one could buy tax-free stuff aboard the ferry and there were at least two ferries shuttling across the Gulf of Bothnia year round.
But when Finland and Sweden joined the EU the tax-free sales aboard the ferries were prohibited and the profit of the company went literally overboard and they pulled out.
Since then there has been a small ro-ro ship carrying freight trucks and a handfull of passengers to very high ticket prices so we haven't been going there for more than a decade.
But now there is a new actor in place, the cities of Umeå and Vasa have founded a company and got money from the EU to improve the interregional traffic up here in the north, they bought an old but usable ferry from Gran Canaria, in fact a boat that used to sail here more than 20 years ago! The ticket costs are fair enough so there we went!
Below you see some pictures from our arctic cruise.
Boarding the "Wasa Express"
Santa Cruz de Tenerife...? I dont think so..
Vasa Pilot
Swedish icebreaker "Ymer"
Arctic sunset
