Hamn Hotellet Visby

... and sunny, as my whole summer has been.<br><br>Visby has been around since the 900's at least, was a member of the Hanseatic League in the 1200's and still retains most of the city wall built in the 12 and 1300's. Lena lives inside the city wall and the houses are very beautiful and kept up nicely. There are also about 6 churches in the inner city which are left as ruins and are just part of the landscape.<br><br>A few things about Swedish people - they love coffee (any time of the day or ...

... in there, a surprising lack of people considering how many tourists there seemed to be wandering around the town. <br><br>After stopping for some quick ice-cream, we made our way over to S:ta Katarina, the most popular of the ruins in Visby. It also seemed to be the biggest of the ruins that we had been into so far. It was very cool, filled with tons of people and almost completely missing its room. There were a couple of little side rooms, one ...

... of the castle was destroyed in a fire, all except the north wall, which has been changed drastically on the outside. This was the first time I had been in this museum, and it was very interesting to see what the castle was like when the old one was standing. They had a lot of (burned) items that survived the fire, and just a lot of stuff about what life was like back then. It was very well done, I really enjoyed it.<br><br>After that we went into Gustav III's Museum of ...

... for the day, allowing us to use the amusement park (Sommarland) and water park (Vattenland) as much as we wanted. The amusement park had a small roller coaster, go-karts, paddle boats, and some other small thrill-rides. It's a very scaled-down version of Valley Fair, but the kids had an absolute blast. The weather was in our favor as well, as the cool breeze we felt the day before was nowhere to be found. The warm winds made it a perfect ...

... though, from roaming around in their bathing suits in order to catch some rays. It's rather funny actually...I've never seen so many men make such a concerted effort to get tan! Uew! <br><br>Ok. - back to the rock formations on the beach - beautiful. The sea is very dark blue and whole area reminds me of northern Lake Millacs, with just a touch of salt in the air. Nick &amp; Annie had to be practically pushed into the water for them to start to ...

... back to the airport. However, we managed to see some medieval ruins and a large Russian church before it was time to go.The flight back to Stockholm is only about 40 minutes long and is usually quite smooth. We did experience some strong turbulence right before we landed, which rattled some of us, but everything was fine. Since we had such a late full lunch in Visby (5:30-6:00pm), Charlie decided to ...

... got the 9pm ferry that arrived in Gotland at 12MN. We drove off the ferry, found a car park, set up our bed and slept, ready to discover tomorrow. Visby is the capital of Gotland, and was made a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995. It is an old medieval walled town which has seen many changes through its past. Most of the streets were cobble stone, and during the summer, no cars are allowed through the town gates. There were not many people about, but it is meant to be absolutely ...

... and suffered a huge blowout on one of the bikes tires. The tire was so worn that it actually blew through the tube and the tire itself. Thankfully we had a repair kit with us and after using up almost all the patches to fix the various holes in the tire we were back on our way to the lake. After that we nicknamed that bike 'old poppy'. So if you ever go to Gotland Island, don't rent old poppy. He tends to live up to his name. We arrived ...

... of glass art. The glass maker makes vases and bowls from glass and hand paints them... and he charges a fair amount too... the cheapest piece in his collection was 8000 SEK($1,100 CAD) and the most expensive over 20 000 SEK (approx. $3,000 CAD). If interested in seeing any or all of Gotlandic art visit: http://www.oppna-ateljeer.se (There is an english link) 2 of my favorites are: http://www.larssonochlarsson.se AND http://www.karlssonskrukor.se (No english)

... and apparently it helps to speak Swedish also. I keep lists of potential workplaces but as soon as I call and they hear me speak English, they quickly end it there. However, this week I am meeting with two people who own businesses around Ljugarn here, so I hope that something comes out of it!! Most jobs won't be available until tourist season in June, which you would think would give a person plenty of ...