Wow. Thank you, Bettie! That map is going to go straight on top of the list!

Hunt for U479

Swedish Gotland

Bettie wrote: "Swedish Gotland"

Beautiful ... what a great place to live in!

Yes *sigh* - and they have a medieval (hanseatic league) festival every year, which must be fun to see.

Indeed!

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I have auto-magically skagged that for my folder. Wonderful!

I love medieval miniatures!

Found this one when searching for "Hanse" and "Mittelalter" ...

Recollections of a Baltic encounter (not mine; my grandpa's) -- hard to imagine that this took place almost 100 years ago!

That's interesting T-A. I find these evenings with the lists to be very invigorating. I hardly ever leave a list without ordering one penny wonder, so from that point of view, where I was trying to diminish my TBR pile, the reverse is happening. lol

This list has reminded me that I started the Teutonic Knights and never went back to it. I shall remedy that sooner rather than later.

Also, if my geography serves me right, the moomins were created in a group of islands off the Finish coast.

Yess!! (The only part of Finland -- other than a day trip to Helsinki -- that I've ever been to, in fact; and it's extremely beautiful there, too!!)

... and, yes, I absolutely agree on this "list evening" experience. Nevertheless, I think I'll cut this one short now and cuddle up in bed with my kitties. Have a good night! (How do you say that in Swedish?)

I'm away to my truckle too. Sleep tight.

You used to be able to see Google Streetview on Gotland, but the feature seems to have gone away. :(

Why -- out of privacy concerns?

I don't have any specific knowledge of why, but that's probably a good guess. My own city block here in the U.S. used to be on Streeview but no longer is - but some blocks in my neighborhood still are. It's a mystery to me! I have heard that some parts of Europe are more resistant to Streetview than Americans or other parts of Europe - right now I'm looking and Germany doesn't have Streetview, the Netherlands does, England does, France, Spain, and Italy do, but not Portugal.

Lobstergirl wrote: "I don't have any specific knowledge of why, but that's probably a good guess. My own city block here in the U.S. used to be on Streeview but no longer is - but some blocks in my neighborhood still..."

Actually, Germany does have Streetview -- here it's a matter of individual choice whether you have your home depicted or not. (This link, for example, should -- if you have Streetvew enabled on your computer -- take you to Karlsplatz, or "Stachus," in Munich, with part of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice on the left side of the image.) But, yes, privacy concerns are certainly an issue here. Whereever individual residents of a street object to having their homes depicted, the houses in question will be blanked out/scrambled, in the same way it's done with all car registration numbers and other individualizing features.

Lobstergirl wrote: "You used to be able to see Google Streetview on Gotland, but the feature seems to have gone away. :("

It is a contentious place, just right for a certain aggressive border changer to have his beady eye on:

http://www.thelocal.se/20150625/russi...

Great. That's all we need. Meanwhile some of the American right has hero worship for Putin.

How can all these be classified as "Baltics"? Because according to Wikipedia, there are only three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. So an author from e.g. Sweden or Finland isn't Baltic.

I think Themis-Athena is referring to the wider Baltic region, as described here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_...

Aa! I didn't even consider that! I think it was a translation mistake on my part. I'm from Finland and in Finnish Baltic States = Baltian maat and Baltic region = Itämeren alue -> not even remotely similar :-).