
Hi readers,
There has been some time i have not written new posts. Here is the time to present to you one of the hidden gems of Denmark, the island of Bornholm. The island is situated in the Baltic sea and is between Sweden and Poland. It is also famous for its cliffs and the long and sunny, summer days. The island is not that big and has around 39 695 inhabitants.
The north and south coastline of this island is about 40 km long, offering great cycling routes for you to explore with different elevation. No matter whom you ask from the danes, Bornholm is number 1 destination for scenic cycling during the summer, and this is what we did when we visited this beautiful island.
You can reach this place by ferry that departs from south of Copenhagen, from Køge or by a flight that lasts 35-45 min with the Dannish Air Tranport company, DAT, but make sure that you book in advance as ticket prices seem to be quite high. The advantage of going with ferry is that you can take your bike with you.
Some time ago the fishing was a primary activity on the island, also the one for whales, but for a short period. In Bornholm you can witness this fact by the very common for the island traditon for smoking of fish. Nowadays the fishing in the Baltic sea has decreased but visitors can still see the traditional smoking of fish in several locations like: Gudhjem, Svaneke, Hasle, Allinge, Sømarken, Aarsdale and Nexo.
Something i did not know about Bornholm is that there is watch craftsmenship. Everything started in 18th or 19th century when a British ship stopped on the island on it’s way to Russia and it transported British watches. A few locals could get few of the watches and started their own industry. You can still see some hand made watches in Rønne, the biggest town on the island.
On our tour around the island we managed to cycle about 70 km for a day and we saw the coastline on a trip starting from Rønne , passing through the middle of the island towards Gudhjem , then cycling around the coast towards Hammershus Castle ruins and heading back towards Rønne again on the coastline.
Here a little treat on what we saw on our way.
While cycling through the middle of the island we passed through a very nice forest, the weather was so warm and all was so green.
We passed through little villages and we saw the typical for the island white, round churches. If any of you have seen somewhere else round church buildings, feel free to share this with us, they are really interesting little buildings. This one below is in Nyker.
Let’s do not forget that start of June is the season of blossoming, there were so many flowers and trees blossoming that the colors fascinated me.
I would have to mention that cycling on this route it was incredibly safe, no trafic or noise as such, it was more relaxing than tiring. Remember, book a camping place and take a tent, or just book a little wooden house in a camping area around Rønne, this will make your trip trully Bornholm. Nothing nicer than staying in the nature and enjoying the good weather outdoors. Interestingly this island can get pretty warm during the summer, reaching about 28-30 degrees celsius.
We headed towards the Helligdomsklipperne, cliff at the coast line North East side of the island. They are located 5 km away from Gudhjem.
You can reach the water by walking on the well mantained wooden stairs.
You would possibly need 2 hours to walk the whole range of the cliffs, but if you do not have time, you can simply go to the water and jump bare feet in it.
Right after seeing the beauty of the cliffs we headed towards the Hammershus Castle Ruins. On the way we saw the sea of Allinge and the flowers of Nature 🙂
Below the entrance of the Hammershus Castle’s Tower, we arrived at the biggest and most famous attraction in Bornhom, also the biggest castle ruin complex in North of Europe.
The castle is founded in 1200 by King Valdemar. The castle is build on 74 meters high cliffs and it occupies 35.000 square meters. After 1576 the catles was regarded as old fortification this is why it was turned into a state prison. In 1743 Hammershus was vacated and then used as a quarry, which among other things was used to build the main guard in Rønne.
We spent about 1,5 hour at the ruins for making photos and enjoying the views from there.
After seeing the ruins we headed back towards the camping place where we were staying. We did not want to cycle at dawn. We passed through nice wheat fields. The produce was still green though but it was also beautiful. I would recommend you to also see the stone mine that is situated close to the ruins. If you like climbing you can also do it on the mine’s walls.
On our way back to Rønne we passed through a magical forest. All the trees were covered in ivy. It looked like we are in the jungle.
View over the town of Hasle.
And here we were almost at our destination, as we were dead tired.
Following are few photos of the beach close to our camping place and Rønne, the port town of Bornholm. Hope that you enjoyed this vistual trip and if you come to Copenhagen for more than a week, go to Bornholm, you will not regret it.