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.
