August 6, 2024–Gotland, Sweden

Greetings from Gotland, a large but lightly populated island off the Swedish coast. Only 61,000 people live here year round (there are 70,000 sheep), but the Swedes like to vacation on Gotland in the summer, so that number is a lot higher right now. The largest town is Visby, where more than a third of the islanders live, and that’s where we docked this morning. We wanted to see as much of the island as possible, so we booked an excursion that included walking tours of Visby and the fishing village of Lickershamn, with a side trip into the interior to see the ruins of a Viking church.

We started with a thirty minute bus ride to Lickershamn, which is barely large enough to merit the term village, but which is home to some of the world’s best known rauks, which we would call limestone stacks. We got to see some of them, including Sweden’s tallest, the Jungfrun, which actually has an asteroid named after it. We also visited Grausne Norra Raukområde, which is a cluster of rauks just outside the village. I enjoyed climbing around on the latter (don’t ask me to spell it again), and there’s even a hole in one of the rauks that you can walk through.

Afterwards it was a short drive to Elinghem, where we explored the ruins of a really old church, built in the mid 13th century and abandoned early in the 17th century. The walls and the limestone altar are about all that remains, but I thought it was pretty neat. We also stopped at an equally old church that is still in use today, the Stenkyrka Church, which started out Catholic but is now Lutheran.

From there it was back to Visby, which has a beautifully preserved stone wall around its old town. In medieval times the entire population lived inside the walls. I read somewhere that Sweden and Denmark hold the record for the most wars fought between two countries, at least eleven and as many as fifty, depending on how you count, so for centuries having a wall around their town was a matter of survival. Today only seven percent of Visby’s citizens live inside the walls, and a thriving town has grown up around them.

To my disappointment we didn’t get to see as much of Visby as I had hoped, though we did walk down a couple streets and visit a pretty botanical garden. I can’t say I’m too disappointed though, because we did see some interesting things today, and we’ve certainly seen our share of medieval towns and cities in the last month. I’m more excited about tomorrow’s stop in Klaipeda, Lithuania, where we hope to explore the Lithuanian portion of the Curonian peninsula (the other part belongs to Russia, and our tour takes us very close to the border).

So, unless I accidentally stumble across into Putinland and end up in the gulag I’ll be back with a full report, so stay tuned.

Along the shore in Lickershamn. These huts were originally used by the fishermen to store their nets, but now many of them have been converted into tiny vacation cottages.

Most of the fishing boats were out on the water, but I got a nice shot of this one.

The limestone stack, called a rauk here, is the Jungfrun, the tallest in Sweden. It even has an asteroid named after it.

This rauk was just behind the parking lot in Lickershamn. It just sticks up out of the trees, which I think is neat.

Our second stop was at Grausne Norra Raukområde, where there is a whole cluster of rauks.

Another section of the rauks. It was fun to climb around on them.

There were steps carved into the rock on the other side of this rauk to make it easier to walk through the hole.

Ruins of the 13th century church in Elinghem.

The church altar.

There was a narrow set of stone steps up to a tiny overlook where you could see down into the church.

I’ll bet the church was nice when it was new.

We passed an old windmill on our way to our next stop.

Our guide said this is a rare round grave. I haven’t been able to find anything about it on the Internet.

The 13th century Stenkyrka Church is still in use today. Originally Catholic, it is now Lutheran.

Interior of the Stenkyrka Church.

The pulpits in the old Lutheran churches are frequently elaborate.

A portion of the Visby city wall.

Another section of the wall.

The sea originally came up to this section of the wall.

Hard to believe, but our guide said this house predated the wall, so they just incorporated it. The wall continues on the other side of the house. If I was attacking the town I might suggest sneaking in through the windows.

We entered the town through this arch.

We were almost immediately in a botanical garden.

Pretty gazebo in the botanical garden.

A pretty lane inside Visby’s walled town.

Another pretty lane.

Not sure what this building was or now is, but I liked it.

Another neat old building.

On our way out we passed the ruins of St. Olaf’s Church. Not much left.

This happened to be the week of Visby’s popular annual renaissance festival, and there were people in period costumes all over town. Here a large group of them were learning a dance.