August 7, 2025
Visby to Masterby and back, Gotland, Sweden
Today we biked 26 kms to the village of Masterby to watch a reenactment of the Battle of Masterby. The journey there was lovely, with a continuous bouquet of wildflowers along the road nearly the entire way.
We also noticed these things along the road now and then. I’ll let you know if we figure out what they are, but they seem old.
We got to Masterby early so we stopped at the ancient Masterby church, built in the 1200’s.
The Battle of Masterby and subsequent Battle of Visby took place in 1361 when the Danish king invaded Gotland. It was a hopeless battle of the Gotland farmers against the Danish soldiers. The Danes captured the island, but it was returned to Sweden about 300 years later.
Here are some photos from the reenactment. There was a narrator who gave details… in Swedish. (A fellow near us occasionally gave us the gist.) The had folks from all over Europe, Canada and the US taking part in the reenactment. There was extra long applause for the ones from Ukraine, who understand better than most about being invaded. They said a few years ago there were about 25 reenactors from Ukraine, but a number had been killed in the ongoing war.
Tomorrow, we get up early to catch the ferry to Nynashamn, the closest ferry port to Stockholm. Once in Stockholm, Rick and I say goodbye and he heads off to another ferry to the Finland and then the Baltics. I will turn in my bicycle in Stockholm and stay in Sweden about a week, then head to Norway.
Medieval drawings covered the walls.
Just south of town, cars flocked to a parking area, guiding us to our destination. The reenactment included several hundred people in armor with (as we learned later) participants from all over Eastern and Western Europe, Canada, and the US.
I’m not used to battles in involving warriors on horseback, although it was clear they took great care to not strike the horses.
We had heavier traffic on the way back, as participants and attendees drove back to Visby, but we managed to route onto roads that took a less direct (and thus less-travelled path).After dinner we both spent the evening repacking for the next stage of this journey.We’ll both travel by ferry to Nynashamn, then train to Stockholm. I’ll immediately cycle to the port to board the ferry to Helsinki. Linda will turn in her e-bike and ship home the associated accoutrements before meeting with family to travel in Sweden and Norway. There should be enough buffer for me to switch from ferry to train to ferry. And similarly Linda should have enough time to return her e-bike and get to her hotel to meet family.The stress of sequenced travel plans is far more exhausting than riding 100 km!