another beautiful sunny morning.........................

There wasn't much to do in town, so we waited for the ferry at the harbor. The wind was really picking up which made Mom real nervous about the ferry ride.

The ferry arrived at midnight so we stopped at first available parking and went to sleep. As usual Mom is up early, made breakfast and than we explored Visby.

It's a former Viking site on the island of Gotland, Visby was the main center of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic from the 12th to the 14th century. Its 13th-century ramparts and more than 200 warehouses and wealthy merchants' dwellings from the same period make it the best-preserved fortified commercial city in northern Europe.

The Gotland island is famous for 2 things, roses and most sunny days. We’re to early for the roses, but we awoke to clear blue sky and sun.................yaaay

By virtue of its position, Gotland has played a dominant role in Baltic trade for many centuries between Western Europe and Russia. Excavations have indicated that there was a trading settlement in the early Viking Age on the site of Visby. These trading settlements banded together for the protection of their chains of trading posts and to assert their interests by the rulers of the territories through which they passed (and also against their rivals)  By the 12th century Visby dominated this trade: all the commercial routes of the Baltic were channeled through the town. German merchants began to expand their sphere of interest into the Baltic and to settle in Visby. The Germans were followed by Russian and Danish traders, guild houses and churches were built in the town, and stone warehouses were constructed along the harbor.

The area is enclosed by the medieval City Wall built in the 13th century and substantially modified in the 14th century. From the town gates in the north, east, and south roads (prehistoric in origin) lead from the cliff to the harbor, giving Visby its characteristic townscape. Dating in its present form mainly from the 13th century, the streets are irregularly laid out, suddenly becoming broad or narrow in places. A similar street pattern existed in the heart of the later city in Viking times and can still be traced from the plan.

Medieval Visby had more churches than any other town in Sweden - fifteen within the walls and two outside, which served various functions: parish churches, guild churches, monastic churches, and hospital church.

The 14th century saw Visby losing its leading position following a series of disasters. The Black Death struck in 1350, when over 8000 people died in the town. The island was occupied by the Danish army in 1361, to be followed by the pirates known as the Vitalian Brothers in 1396; they were driven out two years later by the Order of Teutonic Knights, who occupied the island in their turn. The incessant warfare and piracy of the 15th century severely affected trade in the Baltic and the economy of Visby deteriorated. The 15th century saw further misfortunes for Visby, when it was the center of prolonged battles between the Danes and the deposed Swedish king, Erik of Pomerania, who made it the headquarters for his attempts to win back his kingdom. The end of Visby's greatness came in 1525, when it was stormed by an army from Lübeck which torched the nortern part of town.

In the 18th century, a hundred years after Gotland returned to Swedish rule, Visby experienced a revival Of trade and industry. New buildings were added, both on the ruins of earlier ones and in new areas on the cliff and around castle. The Swedish law of 1757 that exempted those who built in stone from taxes, in order to conserve timber, was of crucial importance for Visby, which continued to grow and prosper.

We walked around for 3 hours, and I didn't complain once, since I was so busy taking in all the new scents of town. The cobblestone streets where very narrow in places and sometimes you had to press yourself against a wall when trucks passed. 

It's early morning and a lot of people are biking on their way to work. They must have strong legs because Visby has a lot of very steep hills. 

 

 

 Mom will buy a bird book since there's a lot of birds she can't remember seeing before.  Arond the wall a lot of svallows were showing off their amazing flying skills.

 

 

 

on our walk we met the most amazingly gorgeous cat I’ve ever seen ( sorry Lilly) she was walking on a lead, and seemed very friendly at first.

 

   

 

she even gave me a quick kiss ............

 

 

The're so much history in this town, so if interested to read more, here's a link 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visby_city_wall

after lunch we continued North and made a stop at Lummelunda caves. At this place I had to stay and watch Lucy again, but I didn’t mind at all since a good long nap wouldn’t hurt after walking around the city for 4 hours straight...................Napping ?? Mom says, what about watching and protecting Lucy ?  My response is...............where can I find a sign like this ?

As we’re continuing north we came to an old village where we stopped and this time I came along to explore the grounds. 

           

   

here's a sundial

and a grind stone.......

and a funny looking kayak

 

we’re continuing north, and another ferry (that was free ?) took us to the very north Island called Fårö.

I'm in full control..............

Here we stopped for the night at a campsite on the ocean. Mom filled water, emptied the toilet and added fresh water,charged all batteries to the cameras and PC, so now we’re good to go for a few days. Not sure where we’ll go today, but I’ll keep you updated................later alligator

 Just one more thing about this island, length 176 km =109.4 miles width 52 km =32.3 miles, and their coat of arms is a ram, which is pictured on their flag

Yesterday afternoon, we left Lottas house and continued south, driving for about an hour we stopped at a real nice campsite by the Baltic sea....................(maybe we'll see a Russian submarine  ;-) )

So it’s Wednesday morning, and Mom still awakes at 4 AM and can’t go back to sleep. It can’t possible be jetlag because if that was the case she should be ready for bed since it’s 10PM in US ..........oh well, whatever the reason I sure hope it’ll change soon, because I’m still very sleepy. This morning she let me stay in bed as she went for a walk to take pictures of the sunrise............

after breakfast 2 hours later I happily went along to explore the cliffs. There’s signs all over the place about dogs HAS to be on a lead, but nobody is awake yet, and we all know how ornery Mom can be about rules, which is just fine with me.

It looks like it’ll be a wonderful day except it’s windy as hell, and Mom has decided to take the ferry to Gotland, which is Sweden's largest island located in the Baltic Sea. 

   

   

 

 

I'm so sorry about not updating my blog, but as you know it's never my fault, it's Moms. We are once again in a place where they have no WIFI and when Mom went to the store to buy a wireless card, the lady in the store didn't know much, which as usual made Mom irritated and the drop that sent her over the edge was when the lady received a message on her phone and HAD to look at it right in the middle of conversation.

Mom hit the roof and walked out with no card to the PC.

Tomorrow we'll be in a city so no more excuses ............

The daily "fika"is continuing, Mom and Vanja made more trips into town ,and this time Vanja was kind enough to share some of her shrimp with me.............. but Mom ..................not even a small bite ? 

it's sunny, but windy and cold, so we made a very quick walk around town to make sure everything was still in right places. This little statue is new to Mom and it's a memorial of a little immigrant boy who's crying for his family ............can't blame him

This deer has been sitting in this place as long as Mom could remember, and the flowerbed has always been beautiful. This time of the year it's only tulips that can take the cold

We made a quick stop at Mom's cousin, and there was a tiny human that at first was afraid of me, but when she understood how nice I was she pulled my hair so she got two big handfuls................not so nice but I kept my cool and got away by jumping up on the couch.

We left Mom's puppy town around 5 pm Sunday evening and drove about 180 miles heading south. Lucy is purring almost as fine as Lilly, and we had the sun in our back all along. Since the highway is so boring we took a few backroads through the woods

So far I have seen a Moose, a red Fox and a Eurasian Curlev...........the last one is a bird that reminds the northernes it's spring time.

The shadow from Lucy on the road shows how low the sun is.

we went to sleep for a few hours at a truckstop mom was very familiar with, and as soon as Mom felt rested we continued south on the highway.

Next nap was by a lake and we was half way to our destination.

Finally we arrived at the village where we left all of Adriennes stuff 2 years ago, and it was great to see our friends again.................don't know what Mom was thinking about, since she forgot taking pictures of everybody ?? but here's me and the guy that's the easiest to flirt with. Mom keep telling him to stop spoiling me, but he doesn't listen..................in other words, a real good guy 

A lot of fresh air and freedom to run, require many naps...

This is one strange puppy sitting on a field, and I have no idea what he's all about 

This is a barn Swallov that was flying making loops and putting on a real show. It was fun watching, and even more fun when he flew in through the front door, made a few circles around the fixture above the

kitchen table, and than out .....................

They sure know how to fly.

Tomorrow we'll continue our trip south and eventually we'll end up with Moms puppyfriend and "personal chef" Lotta, who's supposed to come along on our trip through Norway..................woohoooo

Wonder if her cat Morre will remember me ?  he's buddy Saba went over the rainbow bridge a while ago, so maybe he'll be a little friendlier to me this time?............I'm hoping so my missing Lilly will be less painful.

All is well with us, even though the weather stink so far................it's cooooooldddd