Visby, capital of the ‘Pearl of the Baltic,’ Gotland, is a wonderful place to visit. A small walled medieval city with very quaint streets and ages old homes surrounded original fortress walls, ruins of various descriptions and lovely cobbled stone streets.

Work got rather in the way for me and I was only able to spend two half days exploring the town, and while we’d searched out a good restaurant with lovely outdoor seating in the one of the town’s squares for our Saturday evening outing, when it came time, the heavens opened, making the outdoor arrangement impossible and they were fully booked for the remaining seats. We ended up enjoying a more casual dinner at “The Black Sheep Inn” – which unfortunately didn’t serve Black Sheep, my favorite bitter – but they did a great line in Fish and Chips!

Visby was to be our last hurrah before setting off on our return trip – so it was really disappointing to have to leave the place much earlier than expected due to favorable winds immediately, and totally unfavorable for the next several days if we were to delay. So sadly we left Visby far too early to be able to do it justice – with The Keil Canal in our sights, some 350 miles to the south west. Making it more painful to leave, we ended up leaving at the start of their Medieval week – where everyone on the island is expected to dress up in period costume – some restaurants apparently refusing service if you were not appropriately attired… Rats – missed it!