Bornholm I

Hey Gang-

I'll try to keep this short tonight- I am on a wi-fi signal in the common room of a Danish campground- in the background on the TV is a Nicolodeon show dubbed into Danish on high volume with rapt blonde children soaking it in.  (Die flooden nich Twittershlabben!  Nien! Eat mien shoorts!*)

Anyway, we are here after Day 2 of our bike tour of Bornholm, an island off the Swedish coast, but actually part of Denmark.  It was highly recommended by our guidebook and pretty much every Dane we talked to.  You should have seen the misty eyes of a desk clerk when we recalled the smoked herring he had eaten there... (this is not a joke, btw.  I have learned there is pretty much an entire tourist campaign based on the Danish love of smoked herring-more on this in a bit).

You know when people build something up as this totally amazing thing and then you try it and you find out it is just okay, and you have no idea what the fuss was all about?  Well, Bornholm wasn't like that at all. It was built up as really cool, and in fact it is  (for bike touring and smoked fish enthusiasts anyway), nothing short of heaven.  A well-marked and maintained trail system, gorgeous scenery, a ridiculously bike-friendly culture, and all kinds of things to do and see along the route.  I just really can't overstate how great this is on a bike.

Due to the extreme popularity of this destination with Danes, Swedes, Poles, and Germans, particularly in July, it can be a challenge even to get passage here, particularly with our bikes.  But by booking the 6:30 am train from Copenhagen to Ystad,  and then catching the catamaran ferry to Roone on Bornholm (arriving at 9:30am), you can do it.  The wake up was rough, to be sure, though it is made easier by the 3:30 am sunrise.  We made our train groggily, and the passage over was pretty flawless (aside from our not having coffee until the ferry- though never fear, we got that and some really excellent pastries on the very clean and tastefully appointed boat ride- Denmark keeps it classy at all times).  We hit Roone, and found everything we needed within meters of the station- a tourist office full of great advice and an excellent bike touring map perfect for our purpose, and a grocery store where we could provision for a few days.  This we did, and in less than an hour we were fully informed, supplied, and rolling off on our new 4-day journey to circumnavigate the island.

National Trail 10 turned out to be our destiny, and the rapidly clearing skies revealed a wonderful rolling countryside with the Baltic Sea crashing against the rocky shore to our left.  The trail took us on a great variety of surfaces- from wide shoulders on roads, to designated bike lanes, to bucolic country lanes, to graded gravel trails plunging through rolling forests.  Most of the time, the hills were gentle and short, though occasionally we had to push our bikes up a steep, muddy track.  The vast majority of the route rolled us through idyllic countryside- to call the fishing villages "quaint" is to do them a disservice- and the waving fields of rye we wound through we hypnotizingly beautiful.  Any and all of the little villages afforded opportunity to take a break, munch on any variety of preserved fish product you could imagine, and wash it down with a Tuborg or perhaps a bit of Akvavit.

Okay, you could call this a paradise for Scandanavians, but both Jennifer and I felt so instantly at home here that it was as if we were living the "Borne Identity"- except that instead of learning we were brainwashed super spies we were just secret Danes.

Last night, after exploring the stunning castle "Hammerhus", we stumbled upon a "Naturkamp" (primitive camping area) that in fact was on the World's Most Picturesque Farm, and offered, for a few kroner, a lovely little camp spot with firewood, access to the basement of the the anicient farmhouse with hot showers and toilet, and sublime view of the Baltic stretching beyond a sun drenched field of rye and perhaps the happiest cows I have ever seen.

Today was less woods and more idyllic villages and paved bike trails, but we also worked in a visit to a medieval "round church" and an art museum between the pedaling and the munching on fish.  We rolled into camp only minutes before another rainstorm, but the entire day before that has been absolutely perfect weather- 60's, sunny, with a stiff tailwind.

Anyway, looks like Jen would like to catch up on the computer, so I will cut this short, but I hope I have impressed upon you the awesomeness of this gem of an island.

Except the "Sun Over Gudhjem".  This is the legendary, must have dish of Bornholm.  It's a smoked herring on Danish Rye bread with raw egg yolk drizzled on it.  I mean, it's fine.  The smoked fish is smoked fish, which is great, but the egg yolk doesn't really taste like much, except for potential intestinal disease.  Oh, there is rough salt too.  Net zero gain.  Don't get it.

But everything else is as good as they say.  Catch you next time!



*This is mock Danish.  Mock Danish to me somewhere between mock Swedish and mock German.