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the morning of Friday, July 18th, the Noordam dropped anchor
at Visby, Sweden on the northwest coast of Gotland Island. I
had signed up for the shore excursion, "Visby - Town of Roses
& Ruins", and that met at 8:30am in the Princess
Theater. Upon gaining clearance for a tender, we walked down
to the tender loading platform and were on our way to Visby.
Just from what I had heard and seen thus far from the tender, I
gathered that Visby would be much more of a smaller and intimate
environment from that of Stockholm. |
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The
Noordam at anchor in Visby. |
There are
approximately 50,000 residents of Gotland and 22,000 of them live in Visby.
Despite the island appearing to be so serene and ideal, thirty percent of
one's income is taxed!
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We
met our tour guide, Folke, and he took us off to our first part of
the excursion. He not only explained the many sites throughout
the tour but also taught us some interesting facts about the island
itself and its culture. We first began our tour walking
through some beautiful botanical gardens and learning about how
Visby has come to be known as the "town of roses and
ruins". |
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There
is a melodic combination of beautiful greens, flowers, and medieval
architecture throughout Visby. |
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After having toured through the botanical gardens and seeing some of
the architectural buildings that have gone through various
transformations over the years, we took a drive to a panoramic
lookout. The lookout where we stopped is 48 meters above sea
level.
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After
having had the opportunity to take photos, we proceeded the old town
of Visby that is enclosed by a wall. The wall is 3.4
kilometers in length (2.1 miles). The wall was erected in the
year 1250 making it approximately 700 years old at the time of my
visit. Within the city of Visby, there are fifteen church
ruins. There may be more that exist but have not yet been
located at the time of this publication. |
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| Within
the walls of the old town, a primary attraction was St. Mary's
Cathedral. There is beautiful stained glass windows within as
well as ornate and detailed architecture throughout. |
Much like throughout the rest of Europe, I truly love how everyday
businesses can be incorporated into classical buildings and
architecture. Some guests on our particular tour group had
needed to stop for film in a shop and I was happy for that to see
this part of Visby's culture.
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As
we headed out of the old town I spotted a beautiful hotel, the Wisby
Hotell. The hotels appears to blend a combination of
modern amenities and medieval charm. It would certainly be an
ideal venue by which to gain experience of the culture of Visby. |
Regrettably, this shore excursion ended when just about all of the
others ended and when everyone had decided to return to the
ship. This, therefore, elicited the formation of a very long
queue for the tender. The tender ride back to the ship was
pleasant, however, and we were back and having lunch in no time.
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Noordam
was schedule to leave at 1:00pm on this day and we were setting sail
for Warnemünde, Germany. This provided a nice afternoon at
sea for me to use the gym, take a nap, and get ready for the final
formal night on board. We were all surprised that the
disembarkation talk was already taking place and we were feeling as
if the cruise were to end soon when we still had two more full port
days remaining. Nonetheless, I made sure to watch the staff
and crew of the Noordam perform their rendition of "Love
in Any Language" as is to traditional on many Holland America
Line ships.
Dinner
this evening was very enjoyable and the wait staff provided the
traditional Baked Alaska performance in the Amsterdam Dining Room. |
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It was an enjoyable evening out and around the ship. Joanne, Karen,
and I enjoyed a bit of 50's and 60's rock and roll night in the Horn Pipe
Club. I was able to enjoy a relatively longer night of rest given
that my day would be starting at about 10:00am the following day.
Given that I had just returned from Berlin, I did not opt for the full day
excursions that went there. Instead, my plans included meeting my
good friend Kristin and her husband Björn in Warnemünde pierside.
On this evening, we had to cover 305 nautical miles to get from Visby to
Warnemünde - the longest distance to cover this voyage save from that of
the one full sea day. The seas were very calm on this evening and
the Noordam sailed smoothly and gracefully.
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