Visby Local Customs

During the summer the church of Visby has an open white tent in the hrbour between 21.30 to 03.00. From midsummer and all July. This is a place where you can have a glas of fresh cold water after a tough party night. You can come here and just have a quiet time, relax, talk with somebody. A place where you can get contact with a person who can listen to your problem. You dont have to be religious to visit Nattskutan.

The tourist is situated in the harbour of many reasons, first it is a very central point and many of the tourists move around in this area. And at the same time many of the tourists arrive with their sailing boats and also the big ferries arrive little further away, but very close anyway. So the location is perfect for all tourists.

In this tourist office you can get help withmost of the things from booking events and places to stay at, buying concerts tickets, buy guided tours through Visby, buy gifts for your family at home or for your kids. You also can free maps and booklets about Gotland and Visby. They will provide you with all things.

The address is Skeppsbron 4-6 Visby. You can buy an ice cream to the kids while you go in here, because it can be many tourists visiting this palce at the same time.

This is an adventure company on Gotland and they fix all kind of excursions and adventure trips for you. They do everything from paintball, climbing, waterskiing, walk on a rope and many other kind of different travelling. You can call them or send them a mail and ask more about all their guided tours. With them you will explore a different Gotland!

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The Medieval Festival is held every year in August. The entire town transforms back into Medieval times with people dressing up in ancient clothes, the market being transformed to by-gone times and functions and events hosted as they were a few hundred years ago. And the natural background is available, the towers and town walls as well as the ruins of Visby. Over the years this has become one of the main medieval festivals in Europe!

Pippi is a nine-year-old girl, who lives with a complete lack of adult supervision. She is very unconventional, assertive, rich and extraordinarily strong, being able to lift her horse one-handed without difficulty. She frequently mocks and dupes the adults she does encounter, an attitude likely to appeal to young readers; however, Pippi usually reserves her worst behavior for the most pompous and condescending of adults. Pippi's full name is Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter Longstocking!
The island of Gotland was Pippi Longstockings home - since it was filmed just outside Visby!

Visby being on the east coast can get some spectacular sunsets and everyone has their favourite spot to watch them but up at Kyrkberget behind the cathedral is the most obvious. There is also the creperie in Hästgatan with its terrace as well as down on the northern beaches (but then you don't get medieval Visby in your view with it - quite spectacular).

As you walk from the harbour to the Old Town, you are met by a lush little park just before the city walls start along the water. This is Almedalen and was actually Visby's harbour in medieval days before the landrise. Today it is a cherished park where once in the 1960s, Olof Palme (having a summerhouse on Fårö) was talked into holding a spontaneous speech from a lorry. This he did, not knowing that he has just started a tradition, since these days "Almedalsveckan" is a whole week full of political speeches by all parties here every July. This of course generates a lot of seminars and so on as well, so if you are going in mid July, it is worth checking that you've got accommodation if you clash with this event.

All public signs in Visby are in Swedish, but most of the people there understand English and German. Here are some words in Swedish that may be helpful to you:

thank you = tack

yes/no = ja/nej

please = var snäll

hello or goodbye = hej

you're welcome = var sa god