Gotland, Sweden and Rønne, Denmark

 31 May

Visby (Gotland), Sweden

It is cold and wet today.  Not my kind of weather.  Today we had a tour to ride bikes around the area but as expected, it was cancelled.  I was given a couple of days notice, so I went online and looked for things to do in the city.  There were 3 other tours offered by the ship, but they were all viewing the city center, or going to a dairy farm.  I grew up on a farm, so seeing how that works and eating a bit of cheese and drinking fresh milk (if that were allowed, I would have gone but people are so funny these days-god knows how I survived childhood) didn’t appeal to me for obvious reasons.  The others were looking at churches, or taking a guided tour of the city.  We decided to do it on our own.

This is a cute little city surrounded by walls that date back to the 13th and 14th centuries.  It is the oldest, best preserved, standing wall in Scandinavia. Had it not been such a wet and miserable day, we would have loved to walk around it. In total, it is just over 2 miles. The city is on the UNESCO world heritage site for being one of he best preserved medieval walled trading towns still in use today.  This city like many of the others we toured in the Baltic was also part of the Hanseatic League.  This city though started as Viking trading port around the 900’s.  

It has the distinction of having the most churches during the medieval period of any Swedish city: 15 in the city walls and two outside them. And this is what we set out to see today.  I had read about the ruined churches and off we went.

Of course, the first church we came to was the one I wanted to see the most.  Santa Karin was closed until 3 June.  Just our luck.  I did poke my phone through the bars and snap a few photos though.  I wish we could have gone inside and taken a good look around.  What I was able to see was beautiful.  

Right next door to it was St. Mary’s Cathedral. This is the only one of the medieval churches that was maintained during the Renaissance.  This place has some of the best stained glass windows I have seen on this trip,

and the altarpiece which shows the Adoration of the Magi is astounding. 

There are over 400 burials within the church and I was surprised to see some of the tombstones cut into and others placed over the top of them. 

There were three which stood out to me, one of a knight, one with two people, and the final one with a knight and his bride.  They were so well preserved in comparison to the rest that I saw, most likely because of their proximity to the main altar. 

While looking up the name of this cathedral I came across an interesting thesis written by Walter Duphorn (2019).  It’s well worth the time to read it. 

The best thing about this church was the private organ recital we had.  I know it was just a practice, but it was beautiful. At one point I gave a very subdued clap after a particularly splendid piece and the organist stood up, bowed slightly, and gave a little wave.  I felt privileged to be there during her practice time. In total, the church houses four organs and a harpsichord.

From here we walked over towards the museum, but first I had to stop at Sankt Clemens ruins to take a look around.  When we arrived, the place was being set up for a reception! Why not I guess.  This one wasn’t as stunning as S:ta Karin’s but it was cool all the same.

We next headed to the Gotland Museum.  This place was huge. It covers 3 floors, but the top floor is really just a children’s play room. We came here only for me to be able to see the rune stones. And the museum did not disappoint. There were plenty of stones and stories that went with them.  I was in heaven.  

There was also a template if you will for church building. It turns out that all of the churches were basically built the same.  You could mix and match the sections and build to your desires.  Sounds good to me.  It sure makes hiring an architect redundant.  A sort of medieval prefab if you will. 

The rain was not subsiding when we left the museum so instead of staying in town any longer, we headed back to the shuttle stop.  Since we were 20 minutes early, I spotted a rather massive liquor store and we went in to buy a few beers and a bottle of mead.  

We must be at the end of the trip.  Even god says so.  Is this the end of life as we know it?

One final note on Visby, if you have ever watched Kiki’s Delivery Service, you have seen the town.  Hayao Miyazaki used Stockholm and Visby as the basis for his fictional city of Koriko. 

1 June

Rønne, Denmark

We docked early today.  I jumped up and opened the curtains to see…water and rocks.  We are on the Port side of the ship and so far, it hasn’t had that many interesting views.  Having said that though, in the last two ports, I believe we are on the winning side.  

Once again our bicycling tour of the city was cancelled.  I didn’t want to go on a cold war museum tour, and George vetoed the round church.  That left us with a walking tour of the city, or a DIY trip into town.  We opted for the DIY.  

The night before I found 6 stops for us to look for puzzles in.  That was a bust. We went to a bookstore (which had puzzles, but no new ones), a toy store (ditto), and the rest were thrift shops. No luck.  There were a few things of note that I took photos of.  One of which was a massive parking lot in the middle of this sleepy little town.

We decided to walk back to the pier instead of taking the bus.  Along the walk, I saw a shopping center with a kids toy store inside so off we went again.  Another bust.  But! We did manage to see a method of display that might work for a few things in the museum.  On our way out, I saw another 2nd hand shop and turned around and went in.  While inside we saw nothing of interest except the shelving system they used.  It is perfect!  Open, airy, easy to build, and I’m betting a heck of a lot cheaper than what we put into the Museum in Boca.  

It looks ugly here, but with a bit of paint to match the main beams of the upper floor and this will be just perfect for our "Display and Play" model. 

And then we headed back to the ship. George took a nap while I wrote on my blog.  I’d say this was a good day in the end.  As for the town, Nah.  Go on a tour.  Don’t stay here.  If I didn’t have the stops planned out, it might have taken 1/2 hour from one end to the other to see the shopping street.  The houses are wooden construction much like you see everywhere here. 

Heck, they even had a dive shop!  But who in their right mind would dive in this cold? Not me!  I'll take the warmth of the Caribbean any day.

Oceania has done a good job of begging for ports on this trip.  I think this stop was one of those.  We have been docked in the middle of nowhere away from city centers in small towns that can be toured from end to end in an hour. Many of which I'd never heard of before.  But we are still sailing.  It has been an amazing adventure since our u-turn in Bora Bora and we look forward to the last month of it.  It’s now only 34 days until we reach our final port of call.  I’d be telling fibs if I said I didn’t want to go home.  I have had my mind in other places.  I have a museum to pack and close up and another to open.  I’m ready to move on to other places. 

In the meantime, tonight is another Captain’s Cocktail Celebration; where, I am sure no Captain will appear.  Tomorrow is Kiel, Germany and more beer and curry wurst.  

I leave you with a bit of graffiti we found somewhere along the way and a sign from a eatery.

Until next time, Happy Puzzling and Smooth Sailing.