Month: August 2025

Never had any cabin mates arrive last night; had a great night’s sleep.

I met two cyclists yesterday as we waited to board the ferry to Helsinki. Unsurprisingly I ran into them this morning. As we disembarked, they mentioned I should see Suomenlinna, my intended destination anyway. I asked which direction to get there, and instead they led me directly … to a ferry. I rolled off the ferry to immediately board another! My cruise ship was still docked on the other side of the harbor.

Suomenlinna, a fortress constructed in 1748, played a critical role in multiple wars. It occupies eight islands (the main three now interconnected). Suomenlinna translates to “the castle of Finland” (formerly known as Sveaborg, or “castle of Sweden”), once hailed as the most heavily fortified fortress in Europe. In 1748, Sweden occupied the territory now known as Finland, when Finland eventually emerged as a back-and- forth between Russia, Sweden, and Germany.

Suomenlina now houses a number of museums. including the remaining one (of five) submarine of Finland’s fleet.

In total there are over 8 km of walls.

I spent the day there. After a late afternoon ferry ride back to Helsinki, I spent the evening wandering the streets, finding the usual street musicians, open-air markets, and even a food truck rodeo.

Linda and I left early this morning and had no problem finding and boarding the ferry go Nynashamn. We caught the earliest train we could have by our estimates out of Nynashamn. While an earlier stop would have put me closer to the ferry to Helsinki, I opted to stick with Linda until her stop to at least make that much easier for her. Then we both went our separate ways (at least for now).

Despite the possibility scheduling could be tight, I made it to Viking Lines (ferry) even before registration opened. Unlike our last couple of ferries, the boarding pass doesn’t come from the front office. So I had a bit of a run-around before getting to the vehicle boarding point. Still with plenty of time. Along the way I got regular updates from Linda, with her arriving at her hotel, then dropping off her e-bike, then shipping the cycling things home. She should be set for the next step of her adventures in Sweden and Norway.

This “ferry” serves as more a cruise ship than a ferry. That said, my cabin is buried in the bowels of the ship, and potentially shared with three others. The ship should arrive in Helsinki at 9 am tomorrow.

Which I realized isn’t quite when I expected, as schedules on the ship showed Sweden and Finland time – I’ll cross a time zone.

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.

Today Linda and I cycled 52 km (round-trip) to view a reenactment of the Battle of Masterby – the battle that preceded the Battle of Visby. Armored Danes attacking farmers with pitchforks, with the predictable outcome.We arrived in Masterby early, and took the opportunity to explore the local church.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!

August 6, 2025

Visby, Gotland, Sweden

Today the winds were blowing with 35 mph gusts, so I declined the option of a bike ride. While Rick had an adventure, I wander around the shops and the market in town and enjoyed crepes topped with the local specialty of Linden berry jam, saffron ice cream, and whipped cream. Delish!

And while I was in the restaurant, a parade of medievalists marched by.

In the evening, after dinner, Rick and I walked outside the wall of Visby to find the battlefield where the archeologists had found the buried soldiers from the 1361 battle.

Linda and I spent yesterday walking about the parts of town with the medieval festival.

I walked the city wall mid-afternoon while Linda took a nap. Then we headed back over for the event of the evening – jousting.

Today Linda took the day off. I rode 20 km east to visit an old Cistercian abbey.

Along the way I met Oscar, a cyclist from Stockholm on his first bicycle trip. We spent a pleasant while exploring the abbey, and then chatting further at the nearby cafe. He’s a former economist who got tired of the stress of his job. Thanks to Sweden’s social support, he retrained as a programmer. Hanging out with him made my day. Oscar has cobbled together gear for cycle touring, including his backpack he uses for long-distance ice skating (with a external pocket normally used for a throw rope in case you need to rescue a companion!).

Back in Visby, Linda and I walked around town, finding an antique car show. We’ve seen a surprising high number of restored antique cars on our journey in Sweden.

Then we made a pilgrimage to the burial site from the Battle of Visby in 1361. The site has personal significance to me, because I fought for almost 20 years in armor modeled from that archaeological dig. I even taught classes and helped many others construct similar armor, as far away as Australia! My first website detailed how to constructe the armor.

I’ve found it quite disconcerting this past couple of days to be an observer instead of a participant.

August 5, 2025

Visby, Gotland, Sweden

Saw one of the many ancient churches on our first walk.

Then we visited the market. It’s sort of like a Renaissance fair, but way more people in costume! (And no turkey legs – native to North America.)

We ate lunch in the medieval market and chatted with various people including a couple of Americans.

On the way back to the apartment, we wandered along the western wall that parallels the beach.

In the evening, we went to the jousting tournament, which included a lot of different events leading up to the actual jousting.

There were two teams of 3 knights on horseback (and a host of others folks, entertainers, rangers, archers, speakers, the royal family of the event, etc.) This last guy was the champion. What I loved was that each of the two teams included a woman. Here is one of them.

August 4, 2025

Oskarshamn to Visby, Sweden

As planned, we left with plenty of time to catch the ferry. We took a side trip to a coffee shop to wait and on the way I found the limit of my e-bike. There was a short but VERY steep climb. I think Rick estimated 17% grade, and no matter what, my bike wasn’t going up it. Rick pushed it up.

Got to the ferry. SO BIG!

And a “pet lounge”!

Arrived in Gotland about 4:30 and biked through the very crowded touristy town of Visby, up a steep hill (that I COULD climb) to our apartment. Settled in and walked out around the walled city.

We are here for a medieval festival in honor of the battle of Visby in 1361. The Danish king invaded Gotland and slaughtered about half the males on the island. It happened in a hot summer and they left the dead on the field and eventually buried them in mass graves, leaving their armor on the bodies. When Rick was in the SCA, he made armor based off the archeological dig from that battle. There are reenactments of the Battles of Visby and Masterby. We plan to see the Masterby reenactment.

We got up reasonably early, and cycled over to the ferry pier. About 3 hours early. OK, so we overachieved; the office wasn’t even open. We rode back into town to wait in a local coffeehouse.

Big ferries are their own adventure. Cars line up a couple of hours in advance. When the ferry docks, cars pour out at an incredible pace, and load just as fast. Typically, regardless of how late a cyclist arrives, they move to the front of the line and load first, with a wave of cars following right behind. The compressed few days of ferries from Gotland > Stockholm, and then the same day (technically across two days) Stockholm > Helsinki, only the next day (again, across two days) of the ferry to Tallinn will be a lot of travel chaos. I look forward to that being in my past.

A quiet several hour ferry ride brough us to Gotland. After some confusion off the ferry (and Linda getting trapped in a roundabout) we found the way to our apartment in Visby, where we will stay for the next few days, visiting the Medieval Week festival.

In the evening, we walked halfway around the wall surrounding the town.