Sweden Finland. There are several connections from the Stockholm area across the Sea of Åland to Mariehamn in the Åland Islands as well as Turku and Helsinki on the Finnish mainland and beyond to Estonia and St Petersburg in Russia. Ferry routes from the Stockholm area also connect with Ventspils and Riga in Latvia as well as Gdańsk in Poland across the Baltic Sea. The ferry ports of Karlskrona and Karlshamn in southeastern Sweden serve Gdynia, Poland, and Klaipeda, Lithuania. Ystad and Trelleborg near the southern tip of Sweden have ferry links with the Danish island of Bornholm and the German
Postage stamps and postal history of Latvia Postal Service routes in Finland. In 1685 the Duke of Courland Friedrich Casimir initiated his own postal service and asked the Swedish authorities to cease their postal operations within his territory, but King Charles XI of Sweden ignored his request and stood for his rights in Courland. On 5 July 1710, Russian troops under the command of Tsar Peter I of Russia took over Riga and made it a part of the Russian Empire. During World War I, Latvia was occupied by Germany, and used German stamps overprinted by the Ober Ost. In 1919, German stamps were handstamped "LIBAU", but