On Board the Ferry

From Stockholm, we took the daytime ferry to Turku, Finland. While it was a bit of a long, slow day for us, it seems to have been quite a memorable experience for the kids. The two youngest still talk quite a bit about our trip on the big boat. Leaving Stockholm, we travelled through the archipelago of islands for almost two hours or more. There was actually very little time out on the "open sea" of the Baltic before entering the archipelago of islands off the coast of Finland, so it made for a lovely journey. Of course, we also enjoyed the shopping on board, the kids' play room, and also taking a nap in the bunks in our family stateroom. We boarded the ferry at 6 am, which meant we had been up and driving before 5 am, so it was a long day.

On our return trip, we took the evening ferry and were able to sleep most of the way, again on bunks in two adjoining staterooms. We stayed up for the kids "floor show" in the evening, and a little shopping, and then were pretty quickly in bed and asleep despite the partying going on elsewhere on board.

Leaving Stockholm and enjoying the viewing lounge.

We were surprised at how many ferries, both for people and goods, that we passed on our route.

It was amazing to see how they loaded the trucks and cars underneath. We all got to ride in with the car. On the trip out, we were parked right at the front of the ferry, so we got to watch them open the doors and were the first car to disembark.

Our ferry, taken when we were waiting in line to board for the return trip.