Biking Bornholm

This past weekend was spent biking on the lovely island of Bornholm. Bornholm is a small Danish island located in the middle of the Baltic Sea. It's actually closer to Sweden than it is to Denmark.  Unlike the rest of Denmark, Bornholm is extremely hilly. Most of Denmark is extremely flat- flatter than Iowa if that's even possible. There's one small hill by my house and I refer to it as the mountain because it practically is one compared to the flat expanse that surrounds it. Well compared to that "mountain", Bornholm felt like the Himalayas (and it certainly felt cold enough at times).  
I left with a giant group of about ninety students at about 11 on Friday night. We were bussed to the coast and then took a ferry to the island. It seemed more like a ship than a ferry to me but I guess I'm just not educated enough in water transportation. And it was actually really exciting because that was the largest ferry/ship/boat I had ever been on. Some students rented cabins to sleep on for the ride over but I didn't want to pay extra so just I slept on a section of seats. There was a ton of rain and wind that night so the ride was rather rocky. I actually didn't mind that though. The rocking of the ferry was more soothing to me than it was unsettling. Even so, sleep didn't really happen that night. That's mainly due to the fact that the lights were on the entire evening despite the fact that literally everyone was asleep. The ride took about six hours and it was really confusing because when we arrived at the island (in the town of  Rønne), it was still dark. My sense of time was completely messed up by this point. 
We were then shepherded off the ferry and onto another bus that we took to Gudhejm on the other side of the island. Thankfully, it only took about half an hour. When we got to the hostel, we were given rooms, ate breakfast, picked up bikes and were set loose for the day.  Originally, I was planning to bike around the island myself because I didn't really know anyone else going on the trip. And thanks to my dad's influence, I had thoroughly researched what areas I wanted to see on the island and how to get there. Well it turned out that the two other girls I was rooming with had no idea that there wasn't a guide for the trip and ended up deciding that they wanted to go to the same places I did. So the tree of us ended up biking together all weekend along with a few other people.

 

Inside of the ferry

 

My makeshift bed

 

The giant ferry

 

This is our hostel with everyone preparing to bike around!!

 So that first day about seven of us biked down the eastern coast. We ended up going from Gudhejm to Svaneke. Along the way we stopped at a Baltic Sea Glass shop and studio. It's a famous place on the island with beautiful hand made glass items. There were lots of wine glasses and plates and some jewelery. It was all so beautiful and even though we didn't get to see an actual demonstration, we saw a video on how it is all made- it was extremely impressive. I wouldn't mind learning how to do it. 

 

The coastline 

 

Me on the coastline

 

 

We walked around and collected sea glass. I felt the need to take a picture of myself holding it because that's what my youngest brother always does with things he finds in Florida.

 

Glasses and bowls from the Baltic Sea Glass shop

 

Impressive plates

 There wasn't a ton to do in Svaneke but it was a really cute little town that's actually famous for its smoked herring. We went to the smoke house and I tried their smoked salmon which was amazing. One of the girls in my group wanted to get the smoked herring on bread. Well, I guess she wasn't specific enough because instead of giving her slices of herring on bread, they gave her an entire smoked herring (face, bones and all) with bread on the side. Thank goodness mine was just a piece of salmon. It wouldn't have gone well if I had been given and entire fish.

 

Town of Svaneke

 

We actually got to watch a glass blowing demonstration here

 

 

Famous smoke house

 

 

Smoked herring....yum....

 

My lunch of smoked salmon (actually really delicious) 

 

 After Svaneke, we went with three other people, to a round church. These aren't very common and Denmark is extremely famous for them. There are about seven or nine of them in Denmark and four of them are in Bornholm. The one we went to was in Østerlars and it was really interesting. Though, it seems a little impractical because from any point in the church, there are always a few spots that you can't see. But we did get the chance to walk up to the top of the church which was really cool. There were tons of beams up there and parts of it were so dark that you couldn't see even a few feet in front of you.  However, getting to this church was horrible. Instead of biking back up the coast and cutting inland to Østerlars, we decided to bike inland the whole way. It a) seemed faster and b) for some reason we thought it wouldn't be as hilly inland as it was on the coast. Well that was a mistake. The whole way there consisted of nonstop hills. And they weren't the hills that you can power up either. They were really slow and gradual so that by the time you're half way up, you're already on the lowest gear and your legs are burning like crazy. And then there was the wind. The wind is awful in Denmark. Not only is it always windy but the wind is always against you. I'm not kidding. No matter which direction we were biking, the wind was always against us. Hills just got ten times worse. Lets just say that getting back to the hostel that night and sitting down and eating was the best thing ever. 

 

Round church

 

Inside of the round church

It's actually really hard to understand what the inside of the church looks like from a photo so I took a video

 

 

Grounds of the church (it's actually a graveyard)

 

Danish farmland (and one of the people I was biking with)

I expected to be sore the next day but, surprisingly, I wasn't. No one really was. We were all a little bruised from sitting on the bike all day but other than that it wasn't bad. Actually, there was one girl who was so sore from sitting that she couldn't bike that second day which was a bummer because it was even better than the first. We biked up the coast that day to the Hammershus Ruins. The ride there was beautiful. The fist day it was cold and gray and rainy and almost miserable at times. And while there were definitely points like that on the second day, we did at least get a little bit of sunshine right as we were on the coast. There's really no way to explain how beautiful it was to see the water crashing on the rocky cliffs with tons of sheep sleeping not that far from the shore. It was amazing. It was also painful. The entire ride there was basically uphill. A slow and painful uphill where, with the wind against us, even on the lowest gear we literally weren't moving. No matter how hard we peddled there were times where we just weren't moving anywhere. We had to get off our bikes and walk them up the hills a fair number of times because it hurt too much to try to bike up the hill. However it was an exciting ride because I had a little bit of an accident. And it naturally happened on one of the few downhill spots. I was biking down a gravel path in a patch of forest and it suddenly became very winding. And for some reason, my breaks weren't really working and would only break half way. So I ended up going off path and pretty much jumping over a bunch of tree stumps and falling into a pile of leaves and tree branches. It was one of those times where I was really grateful that I used to be a gymnast because I was at least able to roll into fall so that I didn't hurt myself much. Just a few bad bruises on my legs where I fell on the bike. So it was a really exciting bike ride. 

 

Country side- right on the sea

 

Me and one of the girls I went biking with

 

 

Sheep!

 

More sheep!

 

A town we passed through

When we finally got to the Hammershus Ruins (about three hours after when we stared out) it started pouring. So we went to the cafe to eat lunch first. I had more smoked salmon but this time it was part of a sandwich. So yummy. Thankfully it had stopped raining by the time we were done eating. Perfect opportunity to explore the ruins. They were amazing, places right on the cliff at one of the northern most points on the island. It's also Northern Europe's largest Medieval Fortification. 

The bike ride back was so easy because it was pretty much all down hill. There were a few hills we had to walk up but for the most part it was much better. And it took us less than an hour and a half. That's half the time it took us to get there. I really appreciated the easy ride. 

 Pictures of Hammershus!!

 

Its very back lit but it gives a good sense of the space

 

 

When we got back at about 4 in the afternoon, we had to pack up and take the bus back to Rønne. From here we took a different ferry to Sweden. It was a really nice ferry and though not as large as the fist one, still felt a lot bigger than a ferry should be. This ride only took about an hour and a half. We were then bussed from Sweden to Copenhagen. I didn't get back until sometime after ten on Sunday night. It really was an exhausting weekend but also so much fun. We biked a total of about forty miles.  And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat- wind, pain and all. 

 

Gudhejm!

 

Ferry from Bornholm to Sweden

 

View of  Rønne from the ferry

 

Sweden! I was excited because it's the only picture of Sweden I have 

Now it's midterm week. I'm actually not stressed at all. I really don't have a ton to do. Just two tests at the end of the week that I'm not to concerned about. Especially compared to Grinnell, this week won't be hard at all. And when it's over, I get to go to Athens and Rome for a week. I'm really excited to travel. Especially after Bornholm and my short study tour, I'm really in the mood to travel and see everything. It will be extremely different from Copenhagen. Bornholm was already pretty different. The people there actually said hi to you on the street. I was really excited about that. We'll see how people are in Athens and Rome.