Blogs from Gotland County, Sweden, Europe

25th June - 29th June It's been a relatively busy and WiFi free few days but most of what we have seen and done is Basketball and Island Games related, so I have condensed my time in Gotland to a single post. As Gotland is quite flat and the Basketball venues, the ICA Maxi Arena - a very modern sports centre and the A7 Hall - a school gym, were a fair walk from my AirB&B place, I rented a bike for the week to get around. I was also a little further than expected from the NOVI Resort, where Team Jersey are staying, which was a little disappointing. Both Men and Women's teams are guaranteed 4 games, the Ladies started with a game on Sunday, just about, after a nightmare scenario where the NOVI Resort ... read more

The alarm was set for 02.50am a time usually dedicated to returning party goers it certainly was an early start. We arrived one by one all a little bleery eyed at Newcastle airport and by 4.30am the group were complete and ready to start our journey. There is always that moment when the suitcase hits the scales that you wonder if the kitchen sink was the only thing you left behind but we all checked our bags in under the limit. There were rumours the 6am flight was booked by our colleagues because it was the cheaper option but we know the real reason was to maximize our first day and give us plenty of time to settle in. We arrived at schiphol airport in what seemed to be a matter of minutes with some breathtaking ... read more

Geo: 57.6407, 18.2961This time it didn't come about by poor hygiene, or rats, or some mysterious curse. It came from an Australian traveler, shuttled by a small life boat from a cruise ship onto the unsuspecting shores of Visby. I am the plague. Such is how I've felt lately. Ever since Copenhagen, Ive had a horror flu like infection. A blocked, then runny nose, coughing up horrible rainbows of gunk, spontaneous vomiting, clouded thoughts and dazed states, zero energy. I should have been quarantined, shut away from others, possibly thrown overboard. I even tried to seek assistance at the medical centre. However the price of a remote chance at salvation to see the doctor came in at $170US for a short appointment. Not a price I was willing to pay. So the ship medical assistant handed ... read more

We were really looking forward to our visit to Visby, Sweden - on the island of Gotland. But unfortunately, the day dawned pretty horrendous…. We had booked horse riding out in the Gotland countryside but as the hours passed we realised this was no longer going to be do-able. The rain was coming down and the winds were pretty rough - so rough that we were supposed to tender in from the ship to the port but it was a slow process - the waves were pretty huge and the tender boats were struggling to get anyone ashore. Arriving about two hours later than expected on to the shore, we battled the weather to find the guy we’d booked to take us horse riding, we’d found his farm on the internet prior to our trip. We ... read more

Geo: 56.6079, 19.1602We lost an hour last night and we were at sea today so we didn't get up until 9am. We got ready and left the stateroom around 10 so that Sean, our Stateroom Host, could clean the room. Nikki and I had Brunch at Palo at 10:30 and the girls went to get some breakfast. On the way we stopped by Shutters to check out our photos. Brunch was delicious as always. We left STUFFED even though we tried not to eat too much. While we were at Brunch, the girls went to a scrapbooking activity. We checked in with the girls and then decided to go up to the Quite Cove Pool and put names on our photos so that we could remember what they were called. You know, we are getting older ... read more