Above: Former officers quarters on the tiny and sparsely inhabited island of Christiansø.
It's hardly been more than 24 hours since I last posted, but it's been a pretty busy day for me. I'll start with my most recent excursion and then catch you up with what I did yesterday afternoon...
Crossing the sea (again)
As I think I eluded to yesterday, the plan for this morning was to make it to Gudhjem, on Bornholm's northern coast, and from there catch a ferry to the tiny island of Christiansø. There was about an inch of snow on the ground when I woke up, and then considering the nearly two hours it would take me to make it to get there by bicycle (about 25 kilometers), I decided to play it safe and take the bus. So after a quick breakfast with my host and a trot into the center of Rønne, I caught the bus, got off at the Gudhjem harbor and was onboard the Peter before I knew it.
We set off for Christiansø, the largest of three tiny outcroppings that make up the Ertholmenes, about 12 miles north of Bornholm, at about 10:00. As if on queue, the sun came out and warmed my face and hands as I sat on deck. The only entertainment I needed was watching the water and our progress out to the islands.
Christiansø today is populated by about 100 permanent residents, but is visited by approximately 80,000 visitors each summer. The reason it is populated at all is because about 400 years ago, the Danish king decided to make the tiny islands a forward base for monitoring Swedish shipping lines. Today it is militarily useless, but the fortifications have been beautifully preserved, and there are numerous eider ducks, puffins, smews, and of course gulls that live there alongside the human population. There are no cats or dogs, and apparently the largest non-human mammals living there are hedgehogs. (Rats and mice have been eradicated, thankfully.)
As it's not a popular winter tourist destination, I'm pretty sure that I was the only visitor there today. But that of course didn't bother me at all. I had the grounds to myself for strolling and taking pictures, and I also got the chance to talk to a very nice couple, who were excited to tell me about the eider ducks and their nesting habits.
Yesterday at Hammershus Sløt
After catching you up on my arrival yesterday, I took off north by bicycle to Hammershus Sløt, the ruins of an old castle on the northeast coast of the island here. Eager to try out my rented bike, I hit the bike paths that run from Rønne, on the southwestern tip of the island, to the northwestern tip, a ride of about 20 kilometers. The weather remained kind for most of the trip, snowing lightly at times, but also providing a lot of sun. While some of the bike paths were flat and paved or at least hard-packed, part of the stretch was muddy, and at one point, I encountered some steep inclines (the steepest at a grade of 23%) that required pushing the bike.
The pot of gold at the end of that trek is Hammershus Slot, the ruins of an ancient castle. It took me about two hours to make it up there, stopping regularly for breaks and to take pictures. From there, even on a not-so-perfectly clear day like yesterday, you can make out the southern tip of Sweden across the sea, which I’m sure is exactly why the Danes of centuries past selected this location on the island for a defensive fortress above others.
For the ride home I took that “highway,” which is really just a two lane road with an extra-wide shoulder. It wasn’t nearly as pretty as the ride up, but I was getting tired at that point and wanted to keep to the relatively flat, paved automobile road. In the end it it took me only an hour to get back, which is good because it was starting to get dark. By the time I made it back to Rønne I’d logged 40 kilometers on my bike – admittedly at a leisurely pace, but I felt good about that anyway.
Tomorrow is my last full day here on the island... I'm going to play it by ear, but I'm thinking about taking my bike up to some of the "round churches" they have here, some of which are over 800 years old. I'll have to see how the weather is first...
Below: part of the ruins at Hammershus Sløt, near the northwestern tip of Bornholm in Denmark.
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