If you’ve never been to a Swedish island, why not make Gotland your first? There you’ll find the town of Visby, which was once a Viking settlement! Visby features enough ancient architecture for UNESCO to call it Northern Europe’s best-preserved medieval commercial center. Part of that is over two miles’ worth of the city’s 13th-century walls that are still on display, and impressively so with dozens of watchtowers still standing along the route. That’s a testament to the hardy construction that’s common around here, with charming old stone houses and churches a common but nonetheless breathtaking sight. But even medieval times are recent history when you consider that there’s over 8,000 years of local history to be found in the local museum!