We spent the next day exploring the southern end of Gotland and the recommendations our ferry friends made were spot on. Along the route down the island we happened upon a very unusual grave site (called Gannarve) – a boat shaped set of stones that apparently housed the remains of ancient folks from the area. These date back to the late Bronze Age and about 350 of these sites have been found on Gotland. When the deceased was cremated, the remains were crushed and cleaned and placed in a house-shaped urn along with some bronze items. The urn was placed either near or in the boat-shaped grave. It wasn’t clear if this was a site for just one person’s burial or many, but the spot had a lovely view of the surrounding fields and water in the distance.
Our next stop was a wonderful museum and garden grounds that showcases the work of Lars Jonnson – apparently a globally well-known artist who draws and paints wonderfully accurate pictures of the multitude of birds in Gotland and Sweden. Kathy and Louis are avid “birders” so this was a very special experience for them. We were greeted by the artist’s daughter who helps run the gallery, and it turned out that Lars himself was there for a birding competition! Even more fun was that one of the people we chatted with on the ferry over to Gotland was participating in the competition and we met up with him and his wife again.
Our next stop was at a bathing beach that apparently only locals knew about – we got to it through a small walking path through high brush. It was fun to see some families picnicking and even witnessed a very athletic young woman doing a yoga inversion on a surfboard!
Our next stop was a scenic stop atop a very smooth rock area that happened to be adjacent to a military installation. We’d heard that Gotland was being reinstated as a strategic outpost for protecting Sweden overall due to its position smack in the middle of the Baltic Sea – looking at a map you can see that Gotland stands between Sweden and Eastern Europe and Russia…think about that.
Our last touring stop of the day at the south end of Gotland was at a lighthouse that we were able to climb – all the way to the top for a panorama of the island. We got quite the historical education from the guide stationed there, learning about the life of the lighthouse keepers in the old days, and some of the local politics around why some shady residents didn’t want light cast on their night time pillaging of shipwrecks!
Hunger set in and we headed to Visby as the only place where we could get a real meal before crashing for the night. We chose a very American BBQ place called Bad Wolf, run by a Swede who had lived in the US long enough to bring back really yummy recipes for baby backs and other finger-lickin’ delicacies. This was a very fun end to a very busy day.
Esther
Living La Vida Loca 