Destination: Gotland

on - 26/07/2017

Since leaving jolly old England we’ve been cycling for 24 days and roughly done 1300 miles. So it isn’t that surprising that we decided a holiday was in order. Originally I was keen on going to the island of Öland but we noticed on the map that we could take a ferry to Gotland and then another one back further up the coast. After much deliberation over the cost (£90 there, £60 back) we decided to get on with it and go.

The ferry left at 18.30 so we arrived around 21.00 and were treated to our first beautiful sunset on the island.

We camped at 22.00 in the garden area of a church, as no way were we going to pay for a campsite we couldn’t relax in all afternoon.

The next day we cycled back to Visby, the only city on the island. I was amazed by the medieval wall around Visby, if you had said to me a year ago that you were going on holiday to an island off the coast of Sweden to see medieval buildings I would have called you mad. But now I’ve seen it, and realise that Sweden does indeed have medieval walled cities!

Inside the city was just as impressive, with a mix of ruins and buildings. I worked my way up to the highest point I could spot to get a view of the tiled rooftops and the sea.

After the great sunset when we arrived, we spent the following day getting into position for the next one. We cycled up the west coast and found a small fishing harbour to swim in. We pitched the tent in the woodland above the beach and then sat down to enjoy the sunset.

*After hiding the tent in a woodland, we cycled to the sunset*

The sunset eclipsed the previous one in terms of beauty, maybe because we had time to find the best spot to see it.

For our second day in Gotland we decided to do a loop of the Northern part of the island. Our route happened to take us past the limestone quarry at Slite, an absolutely huge hole in the ground.

Gotland is also famous for its Rauk Stacks, the best ones are on the northernmost island but there are also many scattered around on the main island.

We saw our final special sunset from the east coast, I have a feeling that if we had seen it over the sea it may have been the best one yet.

We stocked up with water at another local church and carried it to the cliffs just south of Visby in order to be ready for the ferry to Stockholm in the morning. Finding somewhere to pitch the tent was a bit harder as many people went for evening walks along the cliff. In the end we found a slightly grassy spot in a clump of trees slightly off the path.