462 – Fifi and Alli ride again

Card no 462 – Sini 

Inge Look Christmas card from Aland 

Country Card Sent From: Finland 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Lahti 

Date Received: 30th March 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,191 miles 

Time Taken: 7 days 

This is a very special card. Firstly, it originally came from Åland.

 The Åland Islands or Åland (Postcrossing abbreviation AX) is a special territory in Europe with a population of 26,711 habitants. The capital of Åland Islands is Mariehamn. It is an autonomous, demilitarised, monolingually Swedish-speaking region of Finland that consists of an archipelago lying at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea. Collectively, the islands in the archipelago form the smallest region of Finland, constituting 0.49% of its land area and 0.50% of its population. Åland's autonomous status means that those provincial powers normally exercised by representatives of the central Finnish government are largely exercised by its own government.

Åland comprises Fasta Åland ("Main Island", on which 90% of the population resides) and a further 6,500 skerries and islands to its east. Fasta Åland is separated from the coast of Sweden by 38 kilometres (24 mi) of open water to the west. In the east, the Åland archipelago is contiguous with the Finnish Archipelago Sea. Åland's only land border is located on the uninhabited skerry of Märket, which it shares with Sweden.

Secondly, it is a Maxicard – that is, a card with a stamp on the same theme, on the front of the card. It is also a First Day Cover, being posted on the first day of issue of that stamp.

This was the Åland stamp on the back.

The card was then posted on from Finland by Sini and this was the appropriate stamp.

And thirdly, of course, it is an Inge Löök card with Fif and Alli celebrating Christmas. The snowy scene is very appropriate at the moment as our gardens lie under inches of the white stuff.