Funnel
Food and Beverage Manager- Special Contributor
There hasn’t been much ferry traffic in the Baltic Sea since mid March this year. A lot of ferries have been laid up.
To survive our ferry companies have been forced to find alternatives. It has been allowed to travel free within Sweden since end of June. This means that the ferry companies can do cruises within Sweden, but with limited number of passangers.
I was onboard one of these cruises, together with my sister and her family, from Stockholm to Visby on the island of Gotland, just outside of the Swedish east coast.
It was two nights onboard and one day in Visby.
The ship run at about half capacity (1400 pax) so it wasn’t crowded onboard.
At the buffet you had to wear gloves when you took the food.
There were no shows or other indoor entertainment onboard. A small band played at the sun deck.
We could park the car onboard the ferry but couldn’t get it off in Visby as we docked at a cruise pier. We walked off the ferry through the car deck (on a red carpet) and the aft ramp.
Visby is an old Hanseatic walled city. It’s a bit similar to Tallinn in Estonia.
We had a sunny day there, walking around. It’s a lot of Swedish tourists in Visby during summer and some of the restautants were surprisingly crowded when you think of the times we live in right now, but people sadly act rather careless from time to time. We didn’t eat anything in Visby, just walked around.
It was a nice cruise. We spent most of the time onboard on the sun deck as the weather was rather good. As usual the cruise through the archipelago was very nice.
Here are some photos from the cruise.
The sun deck onboard. Not too crowded. As you can se there are no pools, but as it’s a cold climate 75% of the year outdoor pools would be a waste of space. There are some smaller indoor pools for kids plus hot tubs.
They had a bbq when we left port up here.
There was a small band playing music on the sun deck.
My cabin, with a small (and rather enclosed) balcony.
The indoor promenade. Not too crowded.
Here we are leaving Stockholm. The spherical building in the background is a hockey arena.
Sunset.
Here we are approaching the cruise ship pier.
These ships usually docks so the cars can get off, but as this was only a cruise we used the cruise ship pier. I think the ferry is too big to enter the inner harbour of Visby.
We debarked through the car deck. It was possible to park the car onboard instead of in port.
We walked the red carpet - felt like we were movie stars.
We got off through the aft ramp.
The ferry.
Old walls around the city of Visby.
Openings so you could defend the city.
One of the gates to the inner city.
Once you got off the main street is wasn’t crowded at all. A lot of smaller, nice houses.
Roof tops in Visby.
Now we are back in the beautiful archipelago of Stockholm on our way home.
There are lots of private yachts in the archipelago.
A sea fortress. I think it’s the most narrow part of the fairway in to Stockholm (for the bigger ships).
An archipelago ship, rather old. It runs in between mainland and the islands, kind of like a hop-on-hop-off ship. It’s very nice to take a trip with a ship like this.
Another archipelago ship. This is a lot faster, to be able to reach further out in the archipelago in a relatively short time.
There are islands with cabins, hotels, restaurants and bars you can visit.
That was it. Thanks for reading/watching.
I hope all photos come through. When I did a ”preview” some didn’t show up, but it was different photos that didn’t show up every time I did a preview.
/Erik
To survive our ferry companies have been forced to find alternatives. It has been allowed to travel free within Sweden since end of June. This means that the ferry companies can do cruises within Sweden, but with limited number of passangers.
I was onboard one of these cruises, together with my sister and her family, from Stockholm to Visby on the island of Gotland, just outside of the Swedish east coast.
It was two nights onboard and one day in Visby.
The ship run at about half capacity (1400 pax) so it wasn’t crowded onboard.
At the buffet you had to wear gloves when you took the food.
There were no shows or other indoor entertainment onboard. A small band played at the sun deck.
We could park the car onboard the ferry but couldn’t get it off in Visby as we docked at a cruise pier. We walked off the ferry through the car deck (on a red carpet) and the aft ramp.
Visby is an old Hanseatic walled city. It’s a bit similar to Tallinn in Estonia.
We had a sunny day there, walking around. It’s a lot of Swedish tourists in Visby during summer and some of the restautants were surprisingly crowded when you think of the times we live in right now, but people sadly act rather careless from time to time. We didn’t eat anything in Visby, just walked around.
It was a nice cruise. We spent most of the time onboard on the sun deck as the weather was rather good. As usual the cruise through the archipelago was very nice.
Here are some photos from the cruise.
The sun deck onboard. Not too crowded. As you can se there are no pools, but as it’s a cold climate 75% of the year outdoor pools would be a waste of space. There are some smaller indoor pools for kids plus hot tubs.
They had a bbq when we left port up here.
There was a small band playing music on the sun deck.
My cabin, with a small (and rather enclosed) balcony.
The indoor promenade. Not too crowded.
Here we are leaving Stockholm. The spherical building in the background is a hockey arena.
Sunset.
Here we are approaching the cruise ship pier.
These ships usually docks so the cars can get off, but as this was only a cruise we used the cruise ship pier. I think the ferry is too big to enter the inner harbour of Visby.
We debarked through the car deck. It was possible to park the car onboard instead of in port.
We walked the red carpet - felt like we were movie stars.
We got off through the aft ramp.
The ferry.
Old walls around the city of Visby.
Openings so you could defend the city.
One of the gates to the inner city.
Once you got off the main street is wasn’t crowded at all. A lot of smaller, nice houses.
Roof tops in Visby.
Now we are back in the beautiful archipelago of Stockholm on our way home.
There are lots of private yachts in the archipelago.
A sea fortress. I think it’s the most narrow part of the fairway in to Stockholm (for the bigger ships).
An archipelago ship, rather old. It runs in between mainland and the islands, kind of like a hop-on-hop-off ship. It’s very nice to take a trip with a ship like this.
Another archipelago ship. This is a lot faster, to be able to reach further out in the archipelago in a relatively short time.
There are islands with cabins, hotels, restaurants and bars you can visit.
That was it. Thanks for reading/watching.
I hope all photos come through. When I did a ”preview” some didn’t show up, but it was different photos that didn’t show up every time I did a preview.
/Erik
, was wondering where you disappeared to. Think im going to move to Sweden just for the paid vacations.........