4/2/2023 0 Comments Post haste travelI saw “Petra” and “Wadi Rum”, and I was in. My trip to Egypt offered the add-on of a few days in Jordan. With the passage of over fifty years and all the stars in alignment, decision realized. There was no doubt that one day, I would find a way to stand in those places and be where these people and things were. The sandscapes were sublime and the music transportive. I alternately forgot to breathe and inhaled the visions of the desert. It was almost as if I didn’t need the t.v. The rest of the family was pretty much disinterested, so I got my wish. I begged to have sole custody of the t.v. Somehow, while celebrating the success of watching something else for about 10 minutes, there was an ad for that night’s feature film, none other than that great British film, “ Lawrence of Arabia“. The merits of aluminum foil extensions had to be weighed. Someone might have to stand near the rabbit ears. If you got it to hold, you held your breath. First, you turned the dial looking for promising static that meant you might be able to get fully dialed in, then you fiddled with the rabbit ears, then you fiddled with the horizontal and vertical controls. There was art, science, and magic to making this t.v. It was a challenge to be able to watch a half-hour show, and less than an hour had been my greatest achievement. to work long enough to watch even a few minutes. ![]() I was the only one who could get that t.v. It has this feeling of always and forever that came through the flickering uncertain image of a broken black and white t.v. Those first few bars started playing when I thought, “What is my next post?” And the answer was “Always and Forever…Wadi Rum”. Call me schmaltzy if you like, I accept the title. The one from Heatwave, and sure, Luther Vandross. After Sweden ceded Finland and Åland to Russia in 1809, the Åland mail route became one of the main arteries for conveying post to St Petersburg - the safe passage of the mail was entrusted to Åland's farmers and fishermen.Always and Forever is part of my internal soundtrack. From 1638, this was part of the postal route from Stockholm to the Swedish city of Åbo (now Turku in southwest Finland). For the modern Eckerö Linjen ferry plies one of the most historic of Europe's old mail routes. A dozen variations of pickled herrings on the smörgåsbord! This is a far cry from the open rowing boats that used to leave Grisslehamn, carrying over to Åland the mail that was eventually bound for Russia. The crossing from Grisslehamn to Eckerö is an exercise in Scandinavian comfort. The Ålands are a complex archipelago of more than five thousand islands, rocky islets and skerries that lie between Finland and Sweden and, although part of the European Union, this scatter of islands lies outwith the EU's fiscal regime - a little accounting curiosity that the Åland Islands share with Mount Athos, the tiny theocratic polity on a peninsula that juts into the northern Aegean (and featured earlier this year in hidden europe 6). Cigarettes, aquavit and snuff - yes, snuff, for the Swedes have an appetite for ground tobacco unmatched by any other nation in Europe. And because it is headed for the Ålands, that means duty-free. The ferry is bound for Eckerö in the Åland Islands. ![]() Naturally, there is entertainment for the kids, so the under-aged are detained by a clown and conjuror while their parents ravage the duty free shops. The morning Eckerö Linjen ferry leaves Grisslehamn with its customary very Swedish punctuality. Its claims to fame are slight some interesting associations with Albert Engström, Sweden's hard hitting satirical cartoonist, and a handsome mid-eighteenth century postmaster's house that looks out over the Baltic. ![]() The little port of Grisslehamn is an amiable enough spot, but scarcely a travel destination in its own right.
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