Day 14- Midsummer! Last day in Gotland

I can't believe this is our last day in Gotland. We made an effort to get up earlier than usual to be able to get all the activities we want to do today in. I rode my bike along the water while I waited for Debra to finish getting ready, and noted we should come back after the Midsummer celebration. I met Debra at 10am and we went shopping for ourselves and friends. Of course I had to get another pair of clogs so I got these really cute red super high ones at Byrå











We quickly finished up and left our purchases at our hotel then jumped on our bikes and headed towards the botanical gardens along the water. We got to the park next to to the botanical gardens and saw everyone parked their bikes under the trees we did the same. Then we gound a good spot in the lawn to watch the Maypole dance. While we were waiting we start to here music traveling towards us, apparently we planted ourselves in the parades path. We scrambled to get out of the way and almost got knocked over by a flagpole. Now the costumed folk and little kids gathered around the maypole laying on the lawn and started to add branches of green and flowers to decorate. When it was complete they heaved it into the air and it was time to dance. Those Swedish folk have some crazy dances, a lot of milking and animal imitation.





Midsummer celebrations are definitely made for Swedes, I think you have be one to really get it and enjoy it, but it was fun to watch the kids.





We got our bikes and rode the coastline bile bath, it was striking in it's beauty and sometimes in it's intense sulphuric smells. Swans, ducks, and gulls dot the water making their dives for a fishy snack. We rode until the end of the path where there was a beach with placid water and two people and I tested the sand with my bare feet.





Around 3pm we started getting hungry so we peddled back to town and got really tasty pizza at Florence and I had a pear cider that's really popular in Sweden which I will always wonder why because it tasted like kids medicine, blech!





Next we stopped in at the supermarket to pick up some souvenir treats and just be mesmorized by some of the odded food items. We saw a boy band playing some Swedish folksy music on the way to the market. They were celebrating Midsummer, its a hardcore holiday!





Best food item in the market or grossest. Bacon and cheese in a tube!
Then back to riding bikes until dinner time. A few stops along the way.


















Last dinner in Gotland was at Rosegarden again, our choices were, pizza, pizza or Rosegarden. Everything closes by 3-4 pm on Midsummer eve. I had a Wisby weiss and a steak, delish. Debra had a filet of sole that was good but she liked her veggie dish from the night before. Onto packing and bed we have a 9am flight to Stockholm and a 12:21pm we'll be up at 6:15am, ugh.