Visby, Gotland, Sweden

The other Scandinavian mermaid. This one is in Kalmar, Sweden

After Kalmar, we had some excellent down wind sailing to Visby on the island of Gotland. We arrived in the afternoon with a twenty knot crosswind which made berthing difficult in the very crowded harbor. We found a spot next to the fishing boats and moved into the marina the following morning when space became available. Visby is a very beautiful, ancient walled town with interesting architecture. It was full of tourists, mainly Swedish from the mainland. We have actually seen some summer but the weather can change here three times a day. Perfect sunshine one minute and then pouring rain the next.
We spent the day wandering around the town, seeing the sights. There are a hundred churches in Gotland and ten in Visby dating back to the 12th century. We didn't see any of the actual Visby rams and ewes but there are many statues of them dotted around town.
Midsomer day was celebrated on Friday, June 22 and it is a national holiday in Sweden. There was a parade and  an exhibition of folk dancing around a flower bedecked pole, a band and community singing.
The weather did not comply and it rained during the first half of the proceedings. The locals did not seem to mind much and the sun come out later in the afternoon.
We need to get some work done at the Amel yard and it would appear that nothing can be done during the month of August in France. They have kindly agreed to help us during the last week of July so we have to be there by the 24th of July.
It's a thousand miles from here and the winds at this time of year are mostly westerlies and guess what, for te most part we are going mostly west, so we will have to wait for weather windows.
For this reason we have decided to not go as far north as Stockholm and its archipelago and we will go back toward France tomorrow.
We leave at 0400H for Bornholm in Denmark.

Callisto backing down into a berth in tight quarters in Visby

Part of the ancient wall around the town of Visby

St. Maria's Cathedral, Visby

Astride the famous Visby rams

View from a tower on the Visby wall

Midsomer parade in Visby

Local dancers sheltering from the rain at the Midsomer celebrations

Midsomer dancing

Visby Marina

Spry old dude and partner having a Midsomer knees up

local family, Visby

Callisto in Visby