Danish Bike Trip (Day One, June 29, 2009)

Dennis and I got up much earlier today to be on the road in time to get to Mommark, which is where we would get on a ferry to Ærø, a small island to the east of Als. We left the house at about 7:40am and headed south to Mommark. The morning was cloudy and looked a bit as if it would rain. Luckily, it didn't, and it only took us about 45minutes to travel to the ferry. Since we were early, we looked around at the small boats that were docked in the harbor, which was one of the smallest harbors I've seen. Once the boat arrived, we found some seats and got comfortable for the one hour trip to the island of Ærø.

This ferry was much like the other ferry I had been on when I came to Denmark in December of 2007, but this time, I was able to see outside. Dennis and I sat inside for a bit and drank a coffee and hot cocoa. We talked about the trip and did a bit of planning on our one hour trip. What had once started off as cloudy was becoming clearer as we got closer to Ærø. As we approached the island, you could actually see the sun come out as we looked on at the island's lighthouse and the rolling meadows. We both looked forward to our ride ahead.

Once we reached the island, we stopped by the tourist information office, which was unmanned, and got a map of the bike paths on the island. It didn't take us long to find a sign marking the way to a bike path from the harbor. The town of Søby, which is where the ferry landed, was quite small as was the harbor, so making our way to path #90 was pretty easy. This route took us along the northern coast of the island as we traveled south east to the town of Ærøskøbing. This path was one of the most beautiful spots I've ever been. The combination of sea, fields, flowers and old homes really added to the comfortable atmosphere and laid-back feeling of the island. You could feel the remoteness of it all and experience the quiet simplicity of country living. We encountered only a few other bikers and a few other vehicles along the way, which helped us relax and enjoy our surroundings. One house on the route had a beautiful front yard of wild flowers that grew high and colorful to the roadside. It was the most picturesque home I had seen at that point on our trip, and it really captured the essence of Ærø. Many yards and gardens in Denmark are filled with flowers. I would say that it is most uncommon for a home to have only a few flowers. This yard, however, was without a doubt the most flower-filled that I had seen in Denmark.

This route took us also by little paths to the sea. Most often, the sea was separated from us by a large field of some type of grain, but there were the few times during our ride where we could get on a beach. It was a nice place to pause on our trip to look out and reflect. Though most of Denmark is flat, there are times when you might encounter hilly spots. We had our fair share of hilly spots on the island, as well as gravel roads were common from time to time. It gave one the idea that the road was less-traveled, which made the hills seem not so bad.

After riding about two hours on the island of Ærø, we reached our destination of Ærøskøbing, which is the most popular and largest town on the island. This isn’t saying much since the island and towns are all relatively small; however, this town retained much of its medieval charm since the buildings and streets in the town’s center were mostly kept the same way as they were in the Middle Ages. It is something that I have to comment is very nice about Denmark. When other countries have buildings and town that were rebuilt after various wars, many of the old charm of Denmark is original with tender upkeep and preservation.

We decided to park the bikes near the harbor and visit the information center, which was in a small building and resembled more of a shop than a tourist bureau. The women working there were helpful and gave us some information on the island, and I also was able to get a few things to remember Ærø. We then decided to walk around the very small town to get to know the scenery and general make-up of the town. We saw many lovely buildings along the stone-paved streets and managed to stop for a few quick photos of the ones that caught our eyes.

Since it was lunchtime, Dennis and I took a moment for a quick bite and tried one of the island’s microbrews. The beer is simply called “Ærø,” and Dennis and I shared a bottle of ale. The brewery, as we learned from the tourist office, is in a smaller town south of Ærø by about 20 to 30 minutes by bike. Because of the limited time it is open and because the gift shop was the only area we could visit, we decided to experience the beer from Ærø instead of making the trip to the brewery. We had a nice light lunch of open-faced sandwiches and decided to ride to the campground where we would be staying for the night. We weren’t supposed to check in until about 3pm, but we thought we would see if we could check in earlier. Much to our surprise, the office was completely closed until 3pm, so we decided to ride our bikes around to see the area where we would be staying.

The campground had a main building where the kitchen, restrooms, store and office were kept. Just to the left of this building were the little cabins were Dennis and I would be staying for the night. We didn’t have a tent or a camper, so the cabin was our only option. Behind the cabins were open areas for tents, and further back were grassy areas for campers. It really seemed like a nice, family place with a large jungle gym on the other side of the main building. We went a little further past the tent area where there was a small walking path to the beach. Dennis and I were still on bikes, so we rode there. It wasn’t far off, and the day was perfect for time spent in the water.

Denmark normally has warm weather in the summer, but this summer was an exception. It was very hot by the time we arrived at the beach, and Dennis and I thought it would be nice to cool down in the water. Our suits were still backed, so we decided to get into the water as far up as we could, which meant just getting our legs wet. The water was a bit cool, but it was so clear. You could see your feel and the sand/rocks/seaweed below for as far out as we could walk. We took our time in the water and walked around until we could no longer feel the coolness of the water and were just content to be at such a relaxing spot.

We wanted to check out the small cabins that were along the coast on this beach, so we got back on our bikes. We had to walk them for a bit to wait for our feet to dry off. The little cabins along the beach are built by those who visit the beach often. They reminded me of ice fishing cabins, which like these small buildings were not for an accommodation. The beach huts were more for eating lunch or changing clothes. Many people could not be in one at a time, but they were very quaint looking giving the beach scene a multicolored, unique feel to this area of Denmark. After riding along the coast for a short while, we were also able to take some pictures of the boats in the distance before we went back to the campground to check in. This spot proved to be a nice area for pictures and relaxing.

At the campground, we quickly put the bags in the little cabin and went back into the town to see the Bottle Ship Museum. Apparently, the world-famous, master of bottle ship making was from Denmark, and though dead, his spirit and bottle collection live on in the town of Ærøskøbing. Though the picturesque appearance of the town was valid enough, one of the main reasons to see this town was to go to this museum. No where else in the world can a person find such a unique and skilled display of something specifically Danish. I loved the bottles that seemed to be misshapen and the large bottles with naval battles. Everything was so detailed down to the buildings in the background, water underneath and the frizzy pieces of red thread that served as the gun and cannon smoke. There were even tiny little wooden bodies floating in the bottle’s “water.” This guy thought of it all, and we were very impressed. Dennis found one of the largest bottles that I had ever seen with an entire town and harbor scene in the bottle. It was truly amazing how this man was able to get everything inside these bottles and have them look perfect.

Next to the Flaske Peter Museum, was Sygehus Museum, a very small exhibition within the grounds of the bottle museum dedicated to early history of the hospital. Though we weren’t planning on seeing this museum, we were glad to been able to witness such hilarious teaching tools as wooden butts with syringes sticking out of them. I guess it is better than practicing on a real person, but it also goes to show how far we’ve come in the means of training people in the health field.

After the museums, we went to the local grocery story Nekko, which is also a chain, to get food for supper. We had thought of going out to eat, but since we had a kitchen at the campground, we thought it would be nice to cook our own food and eat on the porch to our cabin.