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Day 5, Roma, Visby, Högklint, Gnisvärd, Tofta:Map over the fifth day travel. This day we investigated Visby and the Western part of Gotland close to Visby. Bunge picture stones:
We start this day with a visit to the Picture stones at Bunge. After we parked the car and walking towards the picture stones we see this. What is it ? A fundament of some sort, a windmill or an oven for manufacturing cement ? 
The front side of the stones were in the shadow, but it wasn't any trace of what picture these stones once had. The big stone must have had a height of 3 meter. More information about Picture Stone:
Visby:
After this we went to Visby, parked the car just outside the city wall. We felt after four days we have already seen everything we want of Gotland outside the city Visby. This tower in front of us is Kvarntornet, or Milltower. 
Most of Visby's houses inside the defense wall are very old. It's very nice to walk around here and not much traffic is allowed here. 
A tar cookery, part of the defense wall. The house protrude outside the wall, maybe because of danger of fire. 
Prison tower, the door was locked today so we couldn't see what it was inside. 
Kajsarporten, Kajsar's gate. I think most of these gates has been built in later times to accept modern traffic which need more space. 
Part of this house is older that the defense wall, it's not far away from Southern gate. |
A staircase on the outside leads down to the basement, maybe more than 500 years old. 
Southern port, it has been rebuilt over the years. Now it has three openings, one for the cars and two for walking. 
Many of the towers are open at the side towards the city. I read somewhere that once it was 29 tower and today there are 27 left. What a lot of soldiers that were needed to protect the city. All of them needed somewhere to live and food, expensive. 
Not all old wooden buildings are renovated, lot of work left to do here. 
We followed the Southern wall on the inside towards the sea. 
Climbed up on the tower at the street Visborgsgatan, from here we see all the way to the sea. More information about Visby City Wall:
Visby are vary famous for its roses, this maybe some other kind of flower. They were black I noticed. 
I found a small opening in the wall, almost where it finish. It looks exciting, I have to examine it. |
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Is it a passage through the wall, or ? 
After I pass through the opening I came out on the outside of the defense wall. I could see remains of some old house. On the other side against the wall it was a big castle once, Visborg. It was demolished by Denmark 1679 when they gave up Gotland. 
When I walk back to the city wall I took another walkway and pass by the old prison house, now a hotel. 
At the park near the streets Blekhagsbacken/Kommendantsbacken there is a model of the old castle Visborg. More information about Visborg:
Continue the walk down to the harbor. Against the harbor is this little red house is placed, maybe a store once, now a restaurant. 
At the street Hamngatan in a park the Ångbåtskontor is found, Steam ship office. 
A bit further along Hamngatan, Harbor Street, is another part of the defense wall. 
Donnerska huset, its oldest parts are from the 12th century. Visby was once a very rich city, it belonged to the Hansa comunity. More information about Donnerska huset and Hans:
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A stop for orientation where we are, we have the Harbor, Almedalen, Eastern Gate and Big Square in different directions. 
Walk through the gate and you come into the park Almedalen, famous for its politician meetings. Saint Per's Church:
S:t Per's Church, only ruins left today. 
We walk into it to get an overview and see what's left there. 
A panoramic view from one of the corners, even if it's only a ruin today it's impressive. it was built already in the 13th century. More information about Sankt Hans och Sankt Pers kyrkoruiner:
A cliff in the city divide the ground in two levels, steep stairs connect the two levels. Saint Katarina's Church:
At another ruin there is a back door with inscription in Latin. 
We go around the corner to the Big Square where the entrance is to the church. |
It's impressive with these arcs, how it come that it doesn't fall down, it looks to be so fragile. Not many years ago we had an earth quake in Sweden, then they closed some of the ruins for inspections. Earth quakes almost never happens in Sweden. More information about Sankta Katarina kyrkoruin:
Saint Lars Ruin:
Now we have come to the most important church of them all, Saint Lars Church. My own ruin ! 
Inside the ruin we found a staircase that is leading upwards somewhere. 
From the upper floor where we came to we got a great view. A steel bar has been installed to hold the walls of the ruin together. 
One of the openings let us see the sea above the roofs. More information about Saint Lars Church:
Drotten's Ruin:
On the other side of the street we have Drotten's ruin. One of the ferries to Gotland has this name. 
The remains of a pillar is buried in the wall. More information about Drotten's Church:
Christopher Polhem:
At the backside of Drotten's Church there is a statue of Sweden's maybe most famous engineer, Christopher Polhem. He invented a lot of equipment for the mining industry and other things too. More information about Christopher Polhem:
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This day we have watched at a lot of old buildings, our legs hurts and it's time to leave Visby. But we must make a visit to the park first, one of the alleys lead us to it. 
First we thought it was a coffee shop at the end of the park, but it wasn't. But the park was great with its arrangement and all flowers. A group of twelve men stands behind to preserve the old character of old Visby city. DBW, The Bathing Friends. More information about DBW:
Saint Nicolai Ruin:
One more ruin of a church, will it never stop ? This is Saint Nicolai's Church ruin. 
Gunilla stayed at this little hotel many years ago and like it a lot, it's in the Northern part of Visby. Högklint:
A couple of years ago Gunilla stayed at Högklint with her friends, 4 km South of Visby. 
Not far from this hotel is Högklint's viewpoint. Up to the left you see the big white ferry anchored at Visby. 
A staircase leads us down from the cliff to a plateau. In earlier days the goats that climbed down here never came back up and starved to death. The plateau go its name from that: Getsvälten (the Goat Famine). 
No place for children to play, no barriers, free fall down to the sea. More information about Högklint:
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Gnisvärd:
One last thing, we want to see is the beach Tofta. On the way to that place we pass through Gnisvärd once again, that place we visited the first day when we looked at the Stone Ships. 
We saw people taking evening baths, temperature in the water was freezing 16 C degrees. Better to look at the sunset. Tofta:
The house Solbacken at Tofta. Found a parking lot, it cost us 3 Euro for 10 minutes. 
Waking from the parking lot towards the beach, we have just passed by a big yellow house, a pensionat. 
A lot of sand dynes, something we haven't seen on Gotland before. 
Daytime in the sunshine we believe it's very crowded here with people, now we were almost alone. More information about Tofta Beach:
Roma:
We thought we were finished now, but on the way back we noticed that we hadn't have a closer look of the train bridge close to where we live. Easy accessed from a small road. 
Look at this train bridge, what narrow it is. It has no connection today with the museum railroad. Now we are satisfied and can go back to the hotel.
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