18 Sep Getting to Gotland by Ferry

The high speed ferry as it approached the harbor terminal

The first stop for our “Siblings in Sweden” trip would be the Swedish island of Gotland where on March 6, 1944, the B-17 Liberty Lady made an emergency wheels-up landing after it was badly damaged during a bombing raid over Berlin.  In fact, March 6th was the date of the Eighth Air Force’s first full scale daylight mission to Berlin, the farthest the Liberty Lady had ever flown.

In May of 2012 my son Johnny and I took a similar trip following in the footsteps of my parents … his grandparents.  That made it easier for me to take over the role of planning this year’s itinerary. I put every detail on Tripit so it was always there on my iPhone.

Johnny and I had flown from Stockholm’s Arlanda airport to Gotland on a little prop Skyways airplane. As we flew into Gotland we imagined that we were seeing the same land below us that Herman and his crew had seen from their B-17 on that day so many years ago.

Sadly Skyways has gone out of business so I decided that we would take the ferry from the Swedish mainland to the island.  In September the high speed ferry leaves twice daily from the harbor town of Nynäshamn to Visby, Gotland.  In 1944, two days after they landed, the Liberty Lady crew also took a boat from Visby to Nynäshamn. They left late at night in case enemy airplanes or submarines might be looking for them.  So yes, it would be the ferry for “Siblings in Sweden” … myself, sister Barbara, brother Bill, and sister Kathy.

Bill, “David”, Barbara, Kathy In the Aft section with reclining seats … great views.

All the information you need for taking the ferry can be found at the Destination Gotland website. There may be more trips across during the busier summer months but during September we could either catch the 11:05 am or the 8:05 pm ferry.  Regularly scheduled buses take you from Stockholm’s City Terminal to the harbor. The bus leaves exactly one hour and forty-five minutes before the ferry takes off.

Since our international flight didn’t arrive at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport until 7:15 am I was concerned about getting to City Terminal in time to catch that first bus. If we’d missed it, we could have stashed our suitcases in a locker and explored Stockholm all day. Not ideal after getting no sleep on the plane but we still would have made it to Gotland.

My other concern was not having pre-paid tickets. Three of my Gotland correspondents assured me that especially during September it would not be a worry. The ferry would have room for us.

And we’re there … at the Visby Harbor with just a short walk to our hotel.

We arrived at Arlanda in plenty of time … caught the high-speed train Arlanda Express to City Terminal in Stockholm. When we got there we were unable to buy ferry tickets (as the Destination Gotland website had indicated we could) but no problem.  We caught the bus for Nynäshamn and had a relaxing 55 minutes checking our email with Flygbussarna’s free wi-fi.  Getting tickets was easy once we got there.

We elected for reclining seats … a little more expensive but worth it after a night of no sleep.  We chose the Aft section. The forward section had panoramic windows but practically no one opted to pay for them.  The economy tickets would have been fine. You sit around a table in a hard back chair. There is a play area for kids. A nice cafeteria is convenient to everyone.

To have wi-fi would have been about $10. We just used the plugs between our chairs to charge our phones.

The ride was about three hours and felt much like being on a cruise ship.  We enjoyed it thoroughly.  And before we knew it, we were there!

Related Posts:

Siblings in Sweden
Getting to Gotland 2012
Target Berlin

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