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A Greentours botanical holiday in Gotland 3rd to 10th June 2023 led by Ian Bennallick. Hopefully my pictures give an flavour of the country
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3rd June: London HR to Gotland Visby and settle in |
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 Visby Airport to Suderbys 11miles |
 Prêt a Manger in Terminal 2 at Heathrow for breakfast before take off at 06:40. We were up at 03:00 |
 13:00 flight from Arlanda, Stockholm in an ATR 72-600. It leaves from Terminal 5 but we took a long walk to T4 and back going through security again! |
 Arlanda, Stockholm, a terminal being rebuilt and expanded with a lot of wood involved |
 The small automated Visby Airport |
 Suderbys Herrgard, our Hotel complex shortly to be taken over by the Swedish army |
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 Entrance drive |
 Reception area |
 The Dining Room where we had breakfast only. |
 Visby, East Gate, on our way to dinner |
 Visby Hof for our first dinner, excellent fine dining |
 Visby Harbour |
 The hotel's original "manor house" |
 More rooms |
 Our tiny room |
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4th June: Liste Meadows and Viking era Stone boat |
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 Round trip 95miles |
 Hawksbill |
 Viking era stone boat used for burials at Gannarve |
 Gael and Graeme checking the flora list. We were four plus Ian |
 Honeysuckle |
 Tragopogon pratense - Salsify |
 Wild Strawberry |
 Crested Cow Wheat |
 A Rustic Gate |
 Aquilegia vulgaris |
 Birds foot trefoil |
 Pulsatilla pratensis
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 Pulsatilla |
 Some arable fields |
 Cynoglossum officinale |
 Mainly Limestone Plateau |
 Lichen |
 Lousewort (Pedicularis) |
 Geranium sanguineum |
 Germander Speedwell, Veronica chamaedrys |
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The climate on Gotland is much the same as UK but not so much weed
killer has been used so there are more wild flowers. Summer days are
longer. There had been no rain for the previous month and many expected flowers could not be found We saw very few insects and I failed to photograph many of the birds we did see. My subtitles are open to revision! I should have kept notes. |
 Early purple orchid |
Neottia ovata. Common Twayblade. |
 Early purple orchid |
 Potentilla anserina |
 Pine tree flowers that caked our boots with pollen |
 Early purple orchid |
 Frog Orchid |
 Marsh Orchids |
 Water avens |
 Junipers |
 Burnt tip orchids |
 Saxifraga granulata |
 Lichen |
 Ladies mantle |
 Echium vulgare |
 Lighthouse at Narsholmen near Nars |
 Wild Thyme |
 Common Blue Butterfly |
 Orchis militaris - Military orchid |
 Yellow rattle |
 Green Winged Orchid |
 Green Winged Orchid, Pale form |
 Military Orchid (Orchis militaris) |
 Dactylorhiza sambucina - Elder-flowered orchid |
 Country House |
 Early purple Orchid |
 Fragrant orchid |
 A Summer Home |
 White Lilac was everywhere |
 Hardy Geranium |
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 Burnt tip Orchid |
 Buttercup and pollen eaters |
 Entrance to a preserved meadow. The local people care |
 Greater Spotted Woodpecker watched us |
 Fragrant orchid |
 Cowslip, most were over |
 Orchis militaris |
 Common spotted orchid |
 Dandelion? |
 Hieracium umbellatum Tall Hawkweed |
 Early purple with a white form |
 Herb-paris |
 Oriental Poppy (escapee) |
 Potentilla aurea |
 Wood anemone |
 Lily of the valley |
 Repro Picture stone |
 Ardre village Church. See narrative on the right which enlarges |
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 Dinner in a cafe by Visby harbour |
| 5th June: Faro Island | |||
 128 miles |
 Faro channel lime kiln on our way to Faro (farosunds-kalkugn) |
 The free ferry "ships bridge" |
 The ferry going the other way |
 Chives |
 A Chive close up |
 Rose Chafer on White Helleborine |
 Marsh Orchid |
 Oxeye daisy |
 Cephalanthera longifolia, Long-leaved Cephalanthere, White Helleborine |
 A Farm House |
 Mignonette |
 Common Vincetoxicum
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 Sea Stacks near Lauters |
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 Sedum caespitosum |
 At Helgumannars |
 Hieracium murorum, Wall Hawkweed |
 Sea shore |
 Rock Samphire, Crithmum maritimum |
 Helgumannars fishing village. Summer use only |
 Rock thyme (Acinos alpinus) |
 Herb Robert |
 Famous Fishermans Huts |
 Silene uniflora Bladder Campion |
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 Seastacks at Langhammars |
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 Queen Victoria? |
 Farm house |
 Donkey driven Mill |
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Terns nesting |
 Arctic tern? |
 What motorists should do on the ferry |
 Typical mixed woodland
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 Lysimachia europaea |
 Green Hairstreak |
 Old style Barn |
 Frog Orchid |
 Bird's-nest orchid |
 The pond at Norrsund |
 Viola riviniana, Violet |
 Dame's Rocket |
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 Anemone nemorosa
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 Wild Strawberry |
 Ice cream stop on our way back to Suderbys |
 Green hairstreak |
Cultivated fields |
 Built 1887 |
 Our dinner restaurant in Visby main square |
Photos by Ian. Waiting for return ferry from Stora Karlso |
 Military Orchid |
 Ladies Slipper Orchid |
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6th June: Western Woodlands |
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 97 miles |
 Poppies edge the Road |
 Echium |
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 Flax |
 Reseda lutea, dyers weed |
 Small Blue |
 Field Cricket |
 Blackthorn leaves, Flax flower? |
 Common Cotoneaster |
 Ceanothus thyrsiflorus?? or a Globularia |
 Flax |
 Tingstäde Church |
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 Locally made latch |
 Column decoration |
 Font |
 Church Garden Entrance |
 Blue and White Lilac |
 Convolvulus |
 Forest Track |
 Traditional fencing, not driven in to the solid ground |
 Ramsons, Wild garlic |
 Viscaria vulgaris, Sticky Catchfly |
 Pearl Beaded Fritillary |
 The only stream we saw, feeding the mire |
 Carex lepidocarpa, Long-stalked Yellow Sedge |
 Tetragonolobus Maritimus Yellow vetch |
 Pinguicular grandiflora |
 Man Orchid |
 Lesser Butterfly Orchid |
 Bloody Cranes Bill |
 Ladies Slipper Orchid |
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 Barberry |
 Wood Brown |
 Lotus maritimus |
 Reindeer lichen |
 Marsh Orchid |
 Walking out of the wood. We walked 7 kilometres that day. |
 Helianthemum nummularium |
 Anemone alpina |
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Alpine Aspodel |
 Pyramid Orchid? |
 Salsify |
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| 7th June: Stora Karlso Island | |||
 44 miles |
 Klintehamn Dock |
 Our boat to the Island |
 Common columbine |
 Cafe etc on Stora Karlso |
 Guillemots |
 Memorial Plaque on the route up to the plateau |
 Cotoneaster |
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 Eider Ducks and babies |
 Tradition House now loos |
 The grand Lighthouse |
 Globularia |
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 Pulmonaria angustifolia, Blue Cowslip |
 Sedum Alpestris |
 Crowded Rocks |
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 Guillemots see off a Razor bill |
 A Razor bill |
 Nesting on the cliffs |
 Rose |
 Viscaria |
 Red Kidney Vetch. Anthyllis vulneraria var. coccinea |
 The Archway |
 Conference |
 Norderhamm (North Harbour) with children bathing |
 A bothie |
 Micro Moth |
 A tern dive bombing |
 Loading sawdust at KlinteHamn |
 Dune Grasses |
 The Dock at Grisvard |
 Oyster Catcher |
 Fisherman's Huts Grisvard |
 Sanddunes Tofta Strand
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 Marsh and Common Spotted Orchid |
 Marsh Orchid |
 Alkanet or Common Bugloss |
 Common Spotted Orchid |
 Military Orchid |
 Greenbottle |
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 Pedicularis oederi |
 Visby harbour in the evening |
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8th June: Southern Headlands |
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 125miles |
 Öja Church |
 Picture Stones |
 Masonic? |
 The Devil? |
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 St George etc |
 "Men and Milk Witches" Further research needed! |
 A bather and his dog |
 Pepper-saxifrage - Silaum silaus |
 Oxeye Daisies |
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 Woodland |
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 Hybrid Avens (hence yellow) |
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 Field penny-cress |
 A hand rotated Windmill |
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 Bullocks approaching |
 Butterfly Orchid |
 Fly Orchid |
 Vamlingbo Church for picnic lunch under the trees |
 Temporary roof on the gate |
 Main door |
 Mediaeval painting |
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 Lars Jonnson's house - the bird painter |
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 It seems like an art gallery with coffee and cake |
 Solomon's seal |
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 A Gotland Sheep |
 An old barn restored |
 The Shop |
 Note the roof slabs not flammable? |
 A Forge |
 Windmill, top rotates |
 Small Barn |
 Maianthemum bifolium, False Lily of the valley |
 Pinguicular Grandiflora |
 Yellow Scabius |
 Dried up mire |
 Tadpoles |
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 Feral Gotland Russ Horses |
 A foal |
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 Keeping an eye on Russia |
| 9th June::: Dunes Norder Strand | |||
 51 miles |
 Sand Dunes |
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 Eggleaf twayblade |
 Hooded Crow |
 Sea Sandwort |
 Milkweed? |
 Wintergreen |
 Our daily stop for picnic food |
 Mobile Champagne bar, not used by us |
 Not a railway station |
 Gods Terminal (or Goods Depot) |
 Around the town |
A tourist map of Visby an unspoiled Hanseatic City. A red dotted line follows our walk
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 The North Gate |
 Small houses |
 Hot tar painted walls |
 Over the City roofs |
 Not much traffic |
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 Over Visby |
 Tar painted wall |
 St Mary's Cathedral |
 City Wall |
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 Tar painted walls |
 By St Nicholas Church destoyed by the Luebeckers |
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 Into the Botanic Gardens |
 Beekeeper in the Botanic Gardens |
 Horned Poppy |
 The Herb Garden with Gazebo to the left |
 Umbilicus oppositifolius, Lambs tails
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 The Oval |
 Linnaeus |
 Art? Bee Smoker? |
 The ruin of St Olav's by the the way out |
 The Apothecary |
 An old door |
 A bar |
 A Pub |
 Into the Visby Museum |
 We had coffee in the Museum |
 She had really long legs |
 Graeme was off hunting a cable for his phone. The museum assistants told us where to go should he fail to find one. |
 A light show |
 A Norse Legend |
 An old Fisherman from Olja by William Blair Bruce |
 A Student |
 How the Church would have been painted |
 Art Display |
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 Helen on a Gotland Ram |
 We did not watch the student parade that closed many roads |
 A Student from the End of School Celebration parade |
 Many different Ice Creams were available |
 We sampled a few |
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 "Stora torget", the Main Square |
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 The ruin of St Catherine's |
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10th June Last Day: Beach and then Airport |
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 Beach and airport |
 Another stone boat |
 Bugs |
 Rose |
 The coast with Merganser etc in the sea |
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 Corn flower in the field |
 An unspoiled field border |
 A different poppy |
 A flight to Arlanda having checked in at Visby and "baggage dropped" entirely automatically |
 Airbus 320 for home via Heathrow and the stress of trying to contact our taxi |
