Bornholm, June 2007

At the beginning of June 2007 we made a trip to Bornholm. Bus and ferry tickets arranged Bente and Frank, our Danish friends. The easiest way, how to get to Bornholm from Denmark is to take a bus from the Copenhagen central train station which takes you to Ystad in Sweden and then a ferry. The whole journey took approximately 2,5 h. We took a faster ferry which is able to go 80 km/h. Unfortunatelly we caught a very strong wind at the open sea and except Ales we all spent the whole voyage in pray just for surviving:-)and the happiest moment was approching Rřnne. I may mention that Bornholm is a part of Denmark and more suitable information about it can be found on http://www.bornholm.info/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bornholm . At Rřnne Bente's father waited for us and took us to Allinge, place where Bente's parents live. After refreshments we decided to make a short exploration of the town. Approching a small harbour in the center of the town our breath almost stoped. We saw a beautiful view of sea, waves splashing the coast line full of small cliffs and stones. Also the architecture differed from the rest of Denmark. Streets are narrow and together with houses they create a very picturesque unit. Everything seems to fit to the scale of the whole island. Then we continued to Olsker, a small village app.5 km from Allinge. There is placed one of several round churches in Bornholm. Bente's mum was so kind to open it for us and to show us the whole church, because this year the church is closed to public. The reason is simple, a vandal decided to open fire on altar and destroyed not just the altar but also frescoes on the ceiling. In the evening we made one more trip to Hammershus, the ruin on a castle from 1250. The seat of the Archbishop of Lund. Now has appeared a new discovery which makes the castle even 50 years older.

A view from the house of Bente's parents. The house on the picture was built by amateur astronom	Entrance to the Allinge harbor	Synchronous swimming :)
Half of the Bronholm island arose from granite	The island is full of small smokehouses offering local speciality - smoked fish	Granite formed beautiful seacoast
And it's everywhere in the western part of the island	Olsker round church was built in 11th century	Inside the church
In case of attack, the church was used also as a fortress	The 2nd floor of the church	Ruin of the castle Hammershus
We visited the Hammershus in the evening and setting Sun created really nice colours	Ruin of the main castle building	Hawthorn tree in the ruin area
A small castle building	View from the Hammershus to the seacost. I cannot imagine to conquer the castle	And the ruin one more time
Lighthouse in Hammershusso	View to the Hammershus casle from Hammershusso

The other day we drove south. At first we wisited Helligdomsklipperne, high cliffs close to the Bonholm's Art Museum and we continued to Dřndalen. This is a valley where the hignest waterfall of the islad in placed. Next visit was a tiny town Gudhjem. We walked around and admired half-timbered houses, rřgeri (smokehouse for fish, esp. herring, the local speciality)but mostly the view to the sea. By the way Gudhjem and Allinge are said to be the nicest towns on the island and we fully agree with the statement. We tasted a delicious soft is and visited Ipsens Glass Art shop and workshop (glass workshops are very common and probably most known is Baltic Sea Glass, hand made glass products - from earings to bowls with diameter 50 cm). From Gudhjem we continued along the coast line to Svaneke, where is placed the only one brewery on the island, but we missed the guided tour. So the only place we visited was Pernille Bulow work shop again devoted to glass. It is time for a lunch, don't you think? So let's make a short break and have a rest at Aarsdale Sildrřgeri, where Bente ordered smoke herring and Ales had an opportunity to try local beer. And after lunch followed final destination of this day - the real south of island with its wide beaches covered by a fine white sand. Just palmtrees and it would evoke faraway countries, don't you think?

Helligdomsklipperne - one can go down using wooden stairs and footbridges	Helligdomsklipperne from sea level	Seagulfs at Helligdomsklipperne
Waterfall is something really unusual in Denmark	Small harbor Godhjem (the house of God in translation)	One of the many smokehouses
Granite is used also as a building material - church in Gudhjem	All of the Bronholm towns are small and full of narrow streets	We took our lunch in this smokehouse
Our lunch - smoked herring with bread, vegetable and raw yolk	The eastern part of the island is completely different from the western - no granit, only send	A group of seagulf friends
White send beaches are typical for this part of Bornholm	Send dunes after the beach	Part of the dunes is under watter, but it's possible to use wooden path to cross it
Dunes with lighthouse	And the dunes one more time

The third day we started at Jons Kapel, a cliff. We descended to the sea level and relaxed by watching seagulfs. Then we moved to the center of island, where is situated the highest point. And to be even higher there can be found an observation tower. Next stop were Paradise Bakkerne, countryside coveres by forests with a possibility of tracks of various length. On our way back we passed a garden better say a little park full of huge rhododendrons. The final stop was the Baltic Sea Glass workshop with possibility to see on-line work of masters.

Who is this hunk?	Jonskapel clifts	Kuk!
The weather of this day was not ideal, but together with granite it made an interesting scenery	View from the highest point of the island - the observation tower in the middle of forest	Granite rocks in Ekkodalen
Ekkodalen is a valley where you can make an echo	Ekkodalen's resident	There was not any fence between us and these cows - it was not good feeling, at least for us
Small lake in Paradisebakken	The biggest rhododendron we have ever seen	Hand-made glass is another speciality of Bornholm
A couple of artists in Baltic Sea Glass company	Hand-made glass from this company is very beautiful. It has only one disadvantage - it's really expensive	A boat with German turists is approaching Allinge harbor
Small narrow streets and half-timber houses are very typical for Bornholm	Greeting from our home country (original Budvar beer)	Smokehouse in Allinge and Sunset
Ferlingetti wrote one poem exactly reflecting the feeling of this moment. Do you know it?	We and the sea

The last day was relax. In the morning we made a little walk along the coast line. We also had an opportunity to see one of the granite mines which is still used and Madsebakken, which is a place with drawings from the 9th century BC. Before saying good bye to our kind hostes we decided to go to a popular fish buffet where is for example smoke eel, smoke salmon, smoke herring or mackerel, fiske frikadeller, squid circles, fried fish and several kinds of marinated fish. The last stop was Rřnne, the capitol. We saw part of the town fortification and then there was no time left and we had to board to the ferry and say good bye to Bornholm.

Allinge harbor in the morning	Another narrow street in Allinge	Our lanch is being prepared (see the smoke from the white chimney of the smokehouse)
Granite seacost again	Church in Allinge	One of the many granite mines
Madsebakke - prehistoric paintings created app. 900 years before Christ	Madsebakke information notice	Small fortress in Ronne
Church and harbor in Ronne	Some military ship in Ronne's harbor	We used this fast catamaran ferry for our way to Bornholm
And this ordinary one took us back to Sweden	Farvel Bornholm, vi ses ...