Gotland - South of Visby ...

On a warm August morning we set out from the HEJDEBY area, where we had been staying, by Audi along route 147 to Visby and then along the coast on highway 140 to Gotland's southernmost point. To get around the island there are two alternatives - a car or a bicycle. The quality of the roads is enviably excellent both in residential areas and in remote forest districts. Road signs and various direction markers make navigation easy. Sometimes it even seems there are too many of them (written as if for small children). Moreover, every now and then along the roadside there are small lay-bys with wooden tables, benches, and WC facilities. Unfortunately Latvia still has some catching up to do in this regard.

Although the journey is not long (Gotland is only 170 km long and 60 km wide), we allocated two days for the drive to go around the entire southern end and stop at all the visually pleasing places. The road as in that song "dust-covered and white," the sun in the sky, the wind from the sea and on the right-hand side a view of the Baltic Sea waters. In the distance the small Gotland islets LILLA KARLSÖ and STORA KARLSÖ were also visible (www.storakarlso.se)

KLINTEHAMN - a small harbour town, whose symbol is a penguin-like figure, with a ship berth and a long wooden footbridge over the bay. The place is notable for the ancient Viking settlement or "Viking ship." From the information board at the site we could not make much of the history, as everything was written only in Swedish (as in many other places) with no translation into English or German. It looked like a pile of stones in the shape of a boat (see image below).

Incidentally, a feature that fascinated me - almost every Gotlandic farmstead had a pole flying the national flag, i.e., the Swedish or Gotlandic flag. Gotlanders feel remarkably safe and protected in their environment, as the house doors when leaving, for example to go shopping in Visby, are locked and the key simply tucked under the doormat right there or slipped behind the windowsill. Similarly, cars are never locked and are confidently left on the roadside or outside the house, not to mention any alarm systems.

Remember the story of Don Quixote and the windmills? Well, the NÄS peninsula on Gotland would have been just the right battlefield for him. Alongside old wooden mills in juniper groves, which were spotted along the roadside, a whole array of wind generators is to be seen here.



Approaching the island's southern tip, the wind gathered strength and a downpour was nearing. Rocky hillocks overgrown with moss and short grass, with few trees or practically none at all. A truly Nordic landscape.

Night came like a dark wick, only the distant lighthouse beam bore witness that someone was keeping watch for seafarers. The illusion of a place on earth untouched by civilisation.