Visby, Gotland, Sweden
Under sunny skies and a hefty wind, the National Geographic Explorer docked a little south of the picturesque medieval walled town of Visby on the island of Gotland. From this angle we could see the city red roofs, church spires, and crumbling old arches huddled within the encircling protection of a strong fortress with ramparts which once protected the city merchants from the hostile native Gotlanders.
Because of its central Baltic location, Gotland has been an important warehouse stopover for traders travelling between Jutland and Russia in both Viking Times and later during the Hanseatic period. For this reason, the island is rich both in Viking archaeological finds, and in picturesque medieval stone and pitch covered wood houses.
On arrival, we were greeted by a colorful musical ensemble, dressed in period costume, playing the traditional Scandinavian “Keyed Fiddle” Nyckel Harpa, which looks like a cross between a fiddle and an autoharp.
A walk through the town took us past the imposing gray stone ruins of two ancient Romanesque and Gothic monasteries which flank the cobbled central square. Just a block away, the great white Dome of St. Mary’s rises against the stone cliffs which lead up to the best preserved defensive wall of the Baltic region. Most of the old German Hanseatic cities, which were free trading cities in an otherwise feudally controlled agrarian Europe, cast their lot first with St. Mary, then with St. Nicholas, the protector of seafarers, and finally with St. James. St. Mary’s was built by German merchants of the town in 1225 but was painted white and toned down during the reformation.
The original Gotlanders are the descendants of the Vikings who pioneered the great Baltic trade routes and left behind a thick layer of archaeological life history dating back to the 5th Century AD. In the Gotland Museum, we saw rune stones from the island which document distant travels, plus the fabulous Skilling hoard (a Viking era treasure trove), found in 1999 by a local farmer. This hoard contained over 40,000 silver coins, many of which are from Constantinople, Samarkand, and Bagdad.
Exploring Visby itself, some of us went to the lovely botanical garden, others walked up to the ramparts, and a photo group toured the town with our National Geographic and Expedition photographers, capturing the play of light and shadow on the varied colors and textures of this quaint and delightful town.
Back on the ship and under way, we were treated to an unusual spectacle of a Search and Rescue helicopter from Gotland, performing a training exercise on our open aft deck. The evening ended with a magnificent crimson, orange and magenta which slowly faded to a deep pink before night folded over us on the Baltic Sea.
