Day 16-17: Gotland

Click here to enlarge this panorama or see an ultra high-resolution version.

OMG, Gotland is fantastic! The weather didn't cooperate in the end, but never mind: This island must have among the highest per capita cultural patrimony in Europe — every hamlet, no matter how small, has a church that elsewhere would be the highlight of a trip. The one above is in Gothem, a name given to a jumble of farmhouses around a junction (and about as far away from Gotham as you can imagine). Its tower is an amazing 47 meters tall and dates from the 1350s; on the flat plains of Gotland, it looks even taller. I took a panorama of the inside as well, where the decorations are eyepopping — I'll add that one soon.

The inscription on the tombstone above is kind of funny — the top part is actually one big advertisement/boast for the fact that the person mentioned, church warden Morten Söderström, paid for the grave. Down below, we find the two people buried there. I can't help but wonder what the back story to that is.

I also ended up taking the ferry to Fårö, off the northeast of Gotland — again, in gray weather. I drove to the Fårö light tower, saw those limestone pillars near the sea called rauks, and even walked on the beach where Ingmar Bergman got his inspiration from. I've got a panorama from a fishing village on Fårö as well — another one to add in the coming week.

(Oh, and BTW, on Fårö ("Sheep Island" in Swedish) all the sheep are black — which kind of negates the point of being a black sheep, no?)

Visby, the Hanseatic-era capital of Gotland, is remarkably beautiful and preserved. Enough sophisticated Stockholmers come here on weekends all year round for there to be great restaurants and nightlife. In a way, Visby is Stockholm writ small, but with all the same amenities. I started fantasizing about making a coffee table book of Gotland's churches, and needing to move to Visby for the project...

But alas, this morning (Monday) early I took the ferry back to Nynäshamn and drove on to Stockholm, where I've now dropped off the Volvo with 5,320 kilometers added to the odometer; that's about the same distance as from Los Angeles to Fairbanks, Alaska. Over the 17 days of this project, that's averaged 320 kilometers per day. Though it wasn't planned, it turns out I've also managed to cross all 25 Swedish counties (län).

I've got a couple more posts to go before this blog takes a sabbatical, so do come back a couple more times this week. But first, I'm going to go sit in front of the TV, for a change. Is the olympics still on?

Comment on this entry

There are 4 comments on this article:

Stefan

Country:  Sweden, Aug 28, 2008

Thanks, Duncan. Coming from you that means something. Of course, it would have been cheaper just to use Maya:-)

Re placement: Agreed you need to kind of hover in the area until you feel that you've reached a kind of local maximum of "interestingness" regarding the views of objects around you.

Duncan Brinsmead

Country:  Canada, Aug 28, 2008

Fantastic panoramas. These are not only some of the most technically perfect ones I've seen, they are also among the the most beautiful. It is an interesting art where the exact placement of the camera is important, but not the framing of the view.

Nika

Country:  Georgia, Aug 27, 2008

''Though it wasn't planned, it turns out I've also managed to cross all 25 Swedish counties (län)''
These comments with their own panoramas have created rudiments what it feels like to be in Sweden, moreover, to cross every län of Sweden. Must have been amazing! Stefan Geens is the luckiest guy in my eyes :)
Thanks for a wonderful work Stefan.

Chrisken

Country:  UK, Aug 26, 2008

"I started fantasizing about making a coffee table book of Gotland's churches, and needing to move to Visby for the project..."

Judging by the size of these panoramas that would be not so much a coffee table book, more of a coffee table! :-)

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