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.