Gotland - Sweden

More than beaches.

Thursday - March 22, 2007

I think I’ll call today Music Day. It’s 1:30 A.M. We just got in from an afternoon and evening of hitting three different music scenes here in Visby, Gotland, Sweden. Our first stop was an opera recital held in the Visby library. Before I go on with Music Day, I’ll tell you a bit about Gotland, and how we came to be here.

Gotland is a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. The island is located in the Baltic Sea about 90 miles from the mainland of Sweden.

Today Gotland is a summer beach getaway for Swede’s, and a very productive farming area. Interestingly, the name of the island doesn’t refer to goats. We got different stories on where the name originated from. The primary livestock on the island is sheep. The mascot for the island is a ram with great curled horns.

Very few Americans visit this island. I “discovered” Gotland while I was looking for information on beaches in Sweden, and came across an article on Gotland beaches on this web site for information on beaches.

During the Viking era, Gotland was a base for Viking exploration of Europe and Russia. More Vikinng artifacts have been found on Gotland than in any other part of Sweden. To this day, hordes of silver are still being discovered on Gotland. There is, on average, one find a year.

In the Middle Ages, Gotland became a trading center for the powerful Hanseatic League. The center of operations for this trading organization on Gotland was the town of Visby. The merchants of the League, primarily Germans, during the 12th century, built a defensive wall, with a moat, around the city. The wall is over 2 miles in length, Most of the wall is stil in tact. The wall, and the town it encircles is one of the b est representations of a Medieval walled city in Northern Europe. Unesco has declared the old town of Visby, and the walll, as a World Heritage site.

One of the unique features of the wall is its defensive design. There are towers located along the wall which served as defensive positions. The distance from each tower was determined by the effective shooting range of crossbows. Looking up at a tower, you see a solid stone wall 20 to 30 feet high. Cut into the stone, you see slits just big enough for an archer to take aim and fire. In one of these slits you see a stone that was launched from a catapult during an attack on the city.

There are two way to get to Gotland. You can take a flight of about an hour, or take a ship, for a three hour cruise. If you take the ship, you can get to the port by either train of car. We chose to go to Gotland via the ship, and, because cars can go on the ship, rented a car to get to the port, and for use on the island. The port is about an hour’s drive south of Stockholm.

We generally prefer to use public transportation. However,we chose a rental car because we could pull the car right up in front of our apartment in Uppsala, toss in suitcases, bags of groceries, and jackets without having to give any thought to packing strategically for a train, and ship journey.

Using the internet, we found a vacation style 2 bedroom condo that was about one mile from Visby. From our living room window, we looked out over a grass lawn, and the sea. A walking path ran along the seashore to Visby.

March is still not a tourist time on Gotland. Many shops and cafes are still closed, and won’t open till Easter time. We found it amusing that one of the tour guide books stated that there’s something to do on Gotland every month of the year. Yet, the calendar in the book omitted January, February, and March. Never the less, we did have great weather, the old town was still fun to wander around in, and we did find something to do. Which brings us to Music Day.

Music Day began for us in the afternoon. We entered the modern town library, and took up seats arranged for the viewing of an Opera Special. The purpose of this event was to generate interest in having operatic performances regularly in Visby. There was room for about 100 people, and all chairs were taken well before the performance began. We were in the 2nd row of chairs. In front of us was the piano and small area where the performers would sing pieces from some famous operas. Looking to our right there was a glass wall 75 feet in length and 15 feet high. Beyond the glass was the city park with a pond. In Viking times this area had been a boat basin where merchant ships unloaded their cargos.

The six performers came on stage. I hadn’t expected a great deal,knowing that they were locals who just wanted to promote opera in Visby. I was shocked then when the notes began coming out of the mouth of the first singer. Her singing grabbed my heart, and such was the beauty of her voice that tears began to run down my cheeks. And so it went, for an hour these six people shared with the audience the majesty and beauty of opera. It was a performance that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Then we returned to our condo for a light snack, and some wine. We didn’t have dinner because later that evening we would attend a 1st anniversary party for an Irish pub in old town. We arrived at the pub around 8 P.M. The timing was perfect. They had just set out the free buffet which consisted of salad, chicken wings, and BBQ pork ribs. We each ordered a pint of Guiness, collected plate fulls of food, and headed for the basement to listen to the band.

I would call the music RockaJazz. The band really rocked. Too bad there wasn’t room to dance, because the beat had you tapping your feet, and swaying to the rhythm.

A bit before 10 P.M. we headed out to another bar that was featuring reggae music for the night. We checked out coats at the door. This is pretty standard in Sweden where people in the cold months wear heavy, bulky coats in the evening. We were wearing coats because the temperature was around 38 degrees. The charge for checking our coats was $2.00 per item. We should have taken note that ours were the only coats on the rack. Still, it was early. Then we paid the admission fee of $10.00 per person, and went up stairs.

There was just 2 other people there. Well, the band wasn’t scheduled to start till 11 P.M. We figured that the place would soon fill with fun loving people. Afterall, isn’t reggae the kind of music that just makes you happy, and want to dance. After awhile a couple of guys who looked like band members showed up. Then a few more guys came in. They looked like they had just finished doing something with sheep on a farm. We sipped our beers slowly. By 11 P.M., the band had all showed up, and began to play. About 15 minutes earrlier, four women had come in, but they had now left. I counted 10 men in the bar. All looked like they had been involved with sheep earlier in the day. One guy had a womann with him. He was drunk. The only other woman in the bar was Pat, my wife. The band began playing. The drunk took the floor with his woman. Their dancing had no connection to the beat that was being played by the band. Chad, Pat and I took the floor when the next piece began. The song wasn’t being played well at all. And, oh, did I mention that the band members all looked like they had been hanging out with sheep? We couldn’t get into the mood of reggae. Chad noticed that the guys were all watching him closely. I saw this as well. We decided to leave this place to the sheep guys, and return to the Irish pub. The great band was till there. We had more Guiness. Then headed home.

On our last day on Gotland, we toured the island. There are many miles of sandy beaches. On the island of Faro, located about 250 yards off the northern tip of Gotland, are some of the most popular beaches. Many of the beaches have small rock formations called rauks. We read in several different places that the famous director, Ingmar Bergman lives here. It certainly is a place for seclusion. You can only get there on a ferry that takes you across the small channel from the main island.

So, even though most tourist things were closed, we had a great time on Gotland.