Visby

29 May 2025 – 1 June 2025

My first outing of the year proved rather less productive than hoped. A long-weekend in Scotland led to a pleasant day out in Arrochar, but not not the winter conditions I had hoped for. I got some much needed rope handling practice in, but otherwise little was accomplished. Fortunately, spring has a high-density of public holidays, providing a good opportunity to get out without spending paid holiday allotment.

Given the spring season and short duration of a long weekend, destinations were limited to city breaks – something that isn’t really a priority at the moment, but that there are several places I’d like to see, they fit the short window well, and sometimes you just need to roll the dice on mixing up the travel-norms. I bounced between a few ideas, but Visby and Lithuania were the clear frontrunners.

Visby has been a destination of interest for some time now, being quite a photogenic little town with a rich Viking and Hanseatic history. Initially I had intended bundling it with a return to Stockholm and maybe a stop in Åland. A long weekend seemed perfect opportunity for Visby alone though.

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Things got off to a poor start at Schiphol leading to a tight turnaround in Arlanda. Fortunately, my departure gate was literally next to my arrival gate and I was headed down the next jetway for the short hop into the Baltic within minutes of arrival. Sweden respected Schengen and did not force border checks – an increasing rarity. It was a scenic descent, with Gotland showing that not all flat land has to be boring. With only two services from the airport a day, I was going to be walking into town. Fortunately, I had left the rain behind.

Visby is a popular domestic summer holiday for Swedes (and other Scandies) and it is easy to see why! A beautiful old town filled with all the typical trappings except mass tourism. There was a cool sea breeze and even the suburbs are drenched with flowering greenery.

I spent most of my time roaming the old wall, but walked out of town to see the nearby seacliffs. It would have been nice to get up to Fårö for the Rauk fields. Without public transit options, it was just not viable though.

Visby was exactly what I was expecting: a very pleasant place to hang out for a few days. It would not have been worth sacrificing ‘real’ holiday time that could have been spent in the hills, but I’m very glad I was able to go. Something of a summer counterpart to Røros at Christmas.