Biking around Bornholm

You're probably wondering where the hell Bornholm is..I know I was. It is a small island south of Sweden - it is actually closer to Poland and Germany than it is to Denmark, and yet it is one of Denmark's 406 islands! Crazy. It is absolutely beautiful though.

Friday night, i said goodbye to my parents, and got on a big bus that took us to Køge, the ferry landing. Seeing as my ferry experiences are pretty much just to Orcas Island and back, I was expecting something similar to a Washington State ferry. This was nothing like it. It was more like a cruise ship. You can pay for a cabin, or just sleep on the floor or reclining chairs. We chose the floor, and had some sleep on the 6 hour ferry ride to Bornholm. As soon as we got there, we saw a beautiful sunrise!
Then we proceeded to eat some breakfast at our hostel, took a quick power nap, and got on our bikes. We decided to be ambitious and bike the "Killer Tour" - 65 kilometers! It turned out to be tough but definitely worth it. Although we had some bike trouble on the way (word of advice : next time your bike breaks - just kick it around a bit, swear at it, and even spit on it, it worked for us!) There were 5 of us biking together which turned out to be a great group. We tried some of the famous smoked herring on the way - everyone liked it except for me.Notice the intensely gold color! After biking along beautiful coast through cute Danish towns, we ended up on a beach that is famous for having the finest sand in the world! They export it for hourglass clocks. I have never seen a sea like this before - it was pretty incredible.

We even built a sandcastle, complete with a moat, medieval ramparts and a mini stonehenge!

At the end of this day we were pretty exhausted, and went to bed pretty early after eating some Digestives (no they are not for senior citizens, they are actually delicious biscuits that I have become slightly obsessed with despite their humorous name).

On Day 2 we decided to explore the northern half of the island, and biked about 45 kilometers. We biked through very peaceful farm land, and even some sheep pastures! We visited some very adorable towns that you can see pictures of in my photo album, as well as the Hammerhus ruins - the largest fortress in Northern Europe. There were amazing views from there of the sea and the forests.

Overall, the sore legs and lack of sleep was well worth the trip, Bornholm was one of the most beautiful places I have been to!

http://picasaweb.google.dk/lizadadiomov/Bornholm?authkey=KNdsycLmpNk#

There's a link to see the rest of the pictures!