At first I thought that I had made a mistake by renting a house in Sundre, the southern most part of Gotland, far from anywhere.   Then I realized it was perfect.

We are on the southern tip of Gotland, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours drive south of Visby.  I found the house on Airbnb.  It is over 200 years old.  I was looking for peace and quiet, and we found it.

We have the house for ten days, with no big agenda.  I have a tendency to over schedule my vacation time, so this was a concerted effort to avoid that problem.

The church at Vamlingbo

So far, we have seen many churches, lots of cool looking barns, rocks for all uses, four types of windmills, and sheep. But don’t call them sheep.  One resident said “We don’t have sheep, we have lambs and lamb kids.”

We stopped at the local CO-OP and bought groceries, then followed the directions to our home for the next ten days.

Maria, the home owner, met us and gave us the tour, and strict recycling directions.  We have also temporarily adopted her dog Kia, and two cats.

Our aim is to casually explore the area, eat well, and relax.

There are 92 or 95 churches on the island of Gotland, depending upon your source.  Our small parish has a church, the Sundre Church, and we think that churches and parishes define each other.

We have also seen quite a few thatch roofed houses.

Rocks are a common theme on Gotland.  They are at the beach, many of the houses are made of stone, and the fences too.

This photo shows the interior construction of a restaurant where we stopped for lunch, Grå Gåsen.

Sheep are mostly in the fields, but some areas are open grazing, and signs warn of animals in the road.

Windmills are everywhere.   There are four types, but most of the ones we’ve seen are old and unused.  We did see a few newer ones, and there are quite a few large energy producing windmills along the coast.

This eight-sided cornerjointed windmill was built in 1794 and is on display at the Bungemuseet.

The area is very rural, with many working farms and old barns.  We visited the oldest farm on the island, Kattlunds.

There are many good looking barns with very nice windows.

The Oja Church.

We like having a house with a kitchen so we can make our own meals.

This is the view from our back yard.  The church spire is the Sundre Church.  We heard the bells ringing one evening.  At first I thought it was just the 8 pm bells, but they did not stop ringing.   We saw a smoke plume and realized the church bells must be a call to parish volunteers that help was needed.  It made me think that not much has really changed here.  The parish church was a way to communicate to the surrounding population.  No wonder there are so many churches.  There needed to be a church in bell ringing range to all the people.