Kick-off 2016 - Gotland

It's time for kick-off again - our annual weekend trip with the whole company!!! When? 5th to 7th of February. Where? No one really knew in advance (except for the organizing team of course). We only knew we had a (very!) early flight from Oslo to Stockholm.

Early gathering at (at 5.30 a.m.?) on Friday morning for the bus transfer to Oslo Airport.

And even at that early hour, Stéphanie is already in good mood :-)

Being welcomed at Stockholm Airport by our colleague Ann-Louise.

And where did we go next, from there? This year's destination was kept super secret. Even upon arrival at Stockholm airport where me met with all other colleagues (mainly from the Stockholm office) we didn't know immediately where we were heading next. Only after an hour drive by bus and by the road we took in direction southwards we speculated that it was the island of Gotland that was awaiting us this weekend. And so it was :-) About an hour after arrival at Arlanda Airport, we arrived in Nynäshamn at the Swedish coast where we boarded on a 3 hours boat trip to the island of Gotland.

Sunshine, lunch and a conference on board.

At around 3 p.m. arrival in Visby harbour. The Hanseatic city of Visby is the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia and since 1995 on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

Check in at Clarion Hotel Wisby.

After a little welcome drink/apéritif, we start a little sightseeing tour by foot in the historical city centre...

...visiting some Medieval sites...

...and including a local brewery for some beer tasting.

Some more yummy snacks combined with local beer...

...before a Medieval dinner in some vaults in nice atmosphere.

Not only the design/decorations of the table were held in Medieval style, same could be said about the menu:

warm and freshly homemade bread with caraway cheese

sand leek soup with chicken leg (and other body parts *urggggg*)

smoked lamb and fish, goat cheese with beetroot, white mashed potato and roasted carrot, grilled porc, grilled lamb sand leek, camelin sauce (whatever that is?), apple jam and root vegetables and much more

pear pie with almond butter and vanilla sauce

Back at the hotel, a few of us remained for one last drink at the hotel bar. At that occasion I got to know about the existence of a drink that totally caught my attention: fish shot or seaman's shot. No, it doesn't taste fish! But like "fisherman's friend" - hence the name. Love it :-) 

On Saturday the day started with some kind of treasure hunt. We were randomly divided into groups of 3/4 and given a car (I just say "rent a wrack"). I was in a group with Anna, Ulrika and Peter. The groups had to answer several questions about typical things regarding the island, show up at various places around the island and take pictures and getting in touch with the locals for the strangest things.
One of the stops to reach was this cosy place for lunch.

Another one was those ancient rock formations at the coast in Folhammar/Ljugarn.

HAMAN GROUP - smile :-)

 

Another task: take a picture of at least five Gotland lambs...

...or a selfie in a bathtub...

...or a selfie together with an old lady, a dog and minimum two kids. In absence of a live version we found them on our smartphones - and got a point for that :-)

Back in the hotel we had a little bit of free time to relax (some of us tried to get space to get into the hotel spa area) or have drink at the bar.
In the early evening we left for a little visit of an accommodation to be used for FITs...

...before gathering for dinner at "Munkkällaren".
While everyone had Skagen toast (shrimps flavoured with caraway and aquavit served on rye bread) for starter, I got some goat cheese croquettes since I'm not a big fan of sea food. For main, we had delicious and super tender lamb marinated with herbs, roasted garlic, rosemary and salvia butter, beetroot purée accompanied by potato fennel gratin. Yummy! Dessert: oven baked saffran pancake with dewberries and whipped cream. That was really really good! Plus all the wine we had...

...led to a very good evening :-)

Not to forget to mention that I was nominated (well, eventually not elected, but still, at least nominated) "employee of the year" that evening :-) :-) :-)

The evening only ended at 3 a.m. after having experienced the discotheque for about 4-5 hours until we were kicked out at closure. Munkkällaren is a cosy restaurant in the early evening that later at night turns into a massive discotheque which is spread over two buildings with several dance floors all with different music types (house, folk music, pop/rock...). That was really a great evening! It was a long time I hadn't been to a discotheque dancing to music I like; house is so absolutely not my kind of music.
With great foresight of the kick-off organizing committee that the Saturday evening would be long and most probably accompanied by more than just the few glasses of wine served during dinner, they had left the Sunday morning time at leisure. For some to sleep in until departure time, for others to become sober during a veeery late breakfast or during a warm bath at the hotel pool. I started with Jana and two other colleagues a refreshing walk through the old town of Visby. Beautiful!

Next to a number of church ruins, also this 3.4 km long town wall that encircles the town center is one of the most notable historical remains from Visby's Medieval times.

At 3 p.m. it was time to say good bye, to Gotland and to the colleagues from the Stockholm office. While the "Stockholmers" still stayed for a couple of hours on the island before taking the boat back to the mainland, the Oslo staff went to Visby airport for a flight via Stockholm back to Norway.

Thanks again, dear colleagues, for a great weekend together :-)

Thanks, FV, GB, ALA and OO for a couple of your pictures I copied from FB.