Churches and the woods

The church at Aakirkeby, an inland city in the south-central part of the Danish island Bornholm.

Today it was back onto my bicycle. I made my goal the south-central town of Aakirkeby, 15 kilometers or so from Rønne, and I figured I'd stop along the way at Nylers to see the "rundkirke" there, one of the four round shaped church-fortresses on the island. Historians think (although there is a little bit of debate about it) that Bornholmers of the 12th century built these unique structures to protect themselves and their valuables from raiding parties that would sail up from the European mainland. The bottom floor of these buildings seem to be designed to be working churches (the one at Nylers is still in use), and the top floors were defensive, with peepholes, lookouts, and the like.

A lot has already been written about these buildings in other travel and historical literature; I'd read various arguments about the purpose of the buildings, one suggestion being that the situation of the four round churches were making up part of some kind of calendar system. The defensive theory seems more likely to me; supposedly you can see to the sea from the top of each of these churches. I wanted to confirm that myself. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible. I was the only one visiting the church at Nylers today, which was eerie in itself. But secondly, the leaflet I picked up about the church said that the top levels of the church were off limits to the public, and I couldn't even find the narrow staircase that supposedly led upward. Maybe the Bornholmers are still not interested in showing the world all their secrets...

Anyway, after that I completed the last ten kilometers or so of the way to Aakirkeby, which is home to the largest church on Bornholm. (But it is not round.) After a peek inside, I bought a sausage at a small grill nearby, which I washed down with some coffee to warm me up. It had been a hard ride there, fairly flat but directly into the wind which seemed to be blowing from the northeast. At times I had some protection from the gusts thanks to a few patches of birch and evergreen trees, but for a good part of the ride I was exposed.

It wasn't yet too late (not even noon) so I thought I'd ride up to Almindingen, the thickly wooded area in the center of the island. I had to ride uphill for about four or five kilometers to get there, but it paid off. While the paths weren't as well maintained as the bike paths from Rønne, the trees blocked the wind, and along the south edge of the woods I could see the island's southern coast and beyond. From there it was another 15 kilometers or so back to Rønne, mostly alongside small, scenic dairy farms, where the cows and horses gave me puzzled looks.

So tonight will be my last night on Bornholm. Early tomorrow morning I'll fly back to Copenhagen, which I'll explore (by foot) for a few hours before starting back to Berlin.