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| The walled city of Visby |
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| The Island of Gotland |
We just had a glorious beautiful 66 degree day in Visby - the sunniest place in Sweden. Our ship pulled in around 7 am - we had breakfast - and prepared for our 1.5 mile walk into downtown. It was a mild climb and soon we were winding through the narrow meandering streets. Visby is a hot summer destination for the mainland Swedes.
We had lunch in the modern downtown - which was above and and outside of the old medieval walled city. It took over 100 years to complete the roughly 50 foot high walls. It was to protect the people from their enemies. It doesn't make sense by today's standard. After spend 40 years building a wall - and no one attacks you - how do you keep the workers building for another 60 years? I don't know - but they did. Today - thanks to modern weapons and airplanes - the wall is virtually worthless except for tourists to gawk at. Since only a small portion of the modern town is inside this wall - that area has become and exclusive place for summer tourists to live. The city and island have all the modern conveniences - shopping center - airports - highways - cars - universities.
On this cruise - it is hard to pick places you liked the best. If you like isolation - this place is for you - if you don't mind about 100 cruise ships a year stopping and gawking. Most of the passengers do not go farther than 2 to 3 miles in any direction. The island it over 100 miles long.
From here - we got to Gdansk Poland - Hamburg Germany - Copenhagen Denmark - and then we fly to London - England.
We will pull out of here around 5 pm. We are safely back on the ship - one hour early.
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| Shopping in modern Visby |
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| Max Burgers |
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| Lovely high pitched homes |
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| Visby city gate |
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| Wood Hewn Homes |
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| Limestone Visby Cathedral |
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| Altar art |
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| Tulips at 57 degrees north |
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Hundreds of the bunkers defended
against the Nazis and Russians |
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This tiny Austin of England caught my eye.
Tiny cars were built after the war
due to rationed gasoline.
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