The Åland Islands or Åland (pronounced "Oh-lahnd") are a group of small islands officially belonging to Finland in the Baltic Sea, consisting a surrounding archipelago. It is autonomous, demilitarised and is the only monolingually Swedish-speaking region in Finland. Åland's original name was in the Proto-Norse language - Ahvaland which means "Land of Water". In Swedish, this first developed into Áland and eventually into Åland, literally "river land"—even though rivers are not a prominent feature of Åland's geography. The Finnish and Estonian names of the island, Ahvenanmaa and Ahvenamaa ("perch land"), are seen to preserve another form of the old name.
Aland Islands
Overall this was and excellent trip. The people were friendly and helpful, our guide spoke excellent English and was very knowledgeable about the customs, religion and sites. It was quite difficult to communicate with the general population, ordering food from a restaurant was mainly in sign language and picture pointing.... read more
mr Alfred Schneider and Mrs Saturnina Mcdonald-Schneider
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