1. St. Peter Line to Russia

The news last week that over 60 ships were trapped in thick ice in the Baltic for some days is probably no great incentive to go and book some ferry trips. But Baltic spring ice does melt–eventually–and this year sees some interesting new options for Baltic travel by ship.

Cypriot-owned St. Peter Line last year launched a thrice-weekly service from Helsinki to St. Petersburg and back. And next month the company expands its offering with twice-weekly sailings from Stockholm to St. Petersburg (on Wednesdays and Saturdays) and a weekly departure from Tallinn to St. Petersburg (on Sundays).

2. Brittany Ferries to Bilbao

French operator Brittany Ferries has long been one of the most adventurous operators in the Western Channel with a raft of routes linking England and Ireland with northwest France. Later this month, the company opens a new service from Portsmouth to Bilbao in Spain, so reviving a long established ferry connection that abruptly disappeared when P&O pulled off the route last September.

Last Saturday, Brittany Ferries also reinstated its Poole to Cherbourg service. This is a very useful short link from England’s south coast to Normandy’s Cotentin peninsula. At the moment, Brittany advertise sailings just to October, so the long-term future of the route is still in doubt.

3. Maltese Connections

Virtu Ferries are one of several operators serving the Maltese market. The company had a welcome dose of free publicity in late February as Virtu’s smart white catamarans were featured on many news reports as the vessels evacuating foreign workers from Libyan ports. Virtu operates a year-round fast-ferry link between Pozzallo in Sicily and Malta. This year the company will also offer a Saturday catamaran service from Catania to Malta, starting on May 7, 2011.

Virtu’s latest Australian-built catamaran hit the headlines in September 2010 when it encountered Somali pirates on its delivery voyage to Malta. Virtu prides itself on speed, and reports say that the pirates were easily outpaced.

4. Scotland-Northern Ireland: Kintyre Express

Not for many years has there been any direct ferry link across the North Channel between the Mull of Kintyre (in western Scotland) and Northern Ireland. The last operator to offer a service was the splendidly named Argyll & Antrim Steam Packet Company which turned out to have rather flaky finances, and the service stopped in 2000.

Now Kintyre Express will fill the gap with a new fast passenger ferry from Campbeltown to Ballycastle. Services start on May 27, 2011. The route will be operated by fast RIBs with a heated cabin, so the 90-minute crossing is surely going to be a whole lot more fun than the average ferry journey. We reserve judgment on whether this is an inspired idea by Colin Craig, the man behind Kintyre Express, or whether perhaps it might be the balmiest idea in the history of European ferry transport.

We hope it is a great success, but Kintyre Express really needs to get its act together in terms of publicity and having a functioning online booking system on its website. This new ferry link creates a raft of new travel opportunities allowing visitors to Kintyre and Islay to make an easy hop over to the most beautiful part of the coast of Northern Ireland. The Antrim Glens and the Giant’s Causeway are both within easy reach of the Ballycastle ferry terminal.

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Europe’s Niagara?

And last month, we were standing by the side of the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen in Switzerland and heard a guide tell her flock of attentive followers that they were gazing at Europe’s highest waterfall. Now the falls at Schaffhausen are very pretty indeed, but this is no mighty Niagara – even at times of high water. If you want high waterfalls, northern Europe has them aplenty including several that are higher than any on the North American mainland.

Cloisters in Schaffhausen.

We also heard the travel guide advise her group that this is where the author Conan Doyle staged a fictional tussle between Sherlock Holmes and the evil Professor Moriarty. Actually that episode was not at the Rhine Falls at all, but at Reichenbach Falls though the idea that the Rhine Falls figured in Holmes’ life still pops up frequently.

Size doesn’t matter

At a height of just 23 metres (about 75 feet) the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen break no records, yet they developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries into a milestone on the itinerary of early tourists. Goethe, Rousseau and Byron all made the statutory stop at Schaffhausen to see the River Rhine tumble over the gently arcuate cascade that effectively separates the River Rhine into two quite distinct navigable waterways: the upper part of the Rhine above the falls (including Lake Constance) and the lower Rhine below the falls that eventually flows north through western Germany and the Netherlands to drain indefinably through a medley of Dutch deltas into the North Sea.

A tourism icon

Schaffhausen’s merchants were canny folk, resisting every overture by engineers who suggested methods of circumventing this modest natural barrier to navigation. “No way,” they protested at each ingenious new plan, anxious to protect the good living they made from having to shift cargo between ships on the two sections of the Rhine river.

So yes, you can see waterfalls in Europe that are more than 30 times higher than those at Schaffhausen, but that’s to miss the point. Centuries of commerce and centuries of travel history have conspired to construct the Rhine Falls as a hydrological icon, as the veritable epitome of a European waterfall. It’s a wonderful spot, so let’s just go with the flow, marvel at the myths, and agree that Schaffhausen certainly deserves a visit.

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Free ferries for all!

Scandinavia may be famously pricey, but Cheapos who stray off the well-trodden tourist trails will still find some bargain deals. Take the Åland Islands where passengers using the local inter-island ferry services travel entirely for free. You can put together multiple-stop itineraries that cruise from southwest Finland out through the islands and back again. That eleven-hour cruise from Galtby is free. Not a cent!

Of course, canny travellers stop off in the Ålands. If you ask us, the two best islands are Brändö and Kökar, both worth a day or two for their quiet beauty.

Photos courtesy hidden europe magazine

Cheap snuff too!

The Åland Islands are Swedish-speaking, politically linked to Finland, but have a high level of local autonomy. Once nominally part of Russia, the islanders resisted being fully assimilated into the Tsarist Empire.

Today it is that same spirit of independence that guides their relationship with Finland and the European Union. Åland plays the great game of integration but on its own terms. So the canny islanders have negotiated a smart series of tax breaks, which means that Swedes flock to the islands for cheap spirits, ciggies, and snuff. Yes, snuff (locally called snus), for which Swedes have a particular affection.

The Ålands are a place to linger. The archipelago is beguilingly beautiful, and a quirky geo-political oddity. The Ålands have their own postage stamps and many other marks of autonomy. Plus those free ferries. A rare combination! You can read more about the Åland Islands on the hidden europe website.

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