Danish Doings: Bonnie Bornholm, III

Despite the seagulls the kids slept in on Saturday. Three of us went down to the Baltic Sea for a morning swim where Judy managed to jump in off the high dive (see yesterday's photo). After a picnic breakfast we rode north towards the town of Gudhjem. We stopped near Bølshavn, a few kilometers outside of town, to explore the rocky coastline and rampart area on foot. Both kids enjoyed climbing around the rocks by the water, but both stayed dry.

The terrain was hillier as we moved north on the island. We stopped at Baltic Sea Glass to see a wonderful demonstration of glass blowing.

Pete, the co-owner came over to talk with us, and immediately broke into perfect English even though he has moved from Kansas 34 years ago. We all enjoyed his company and the studio has a back door that goes down right to the water and rocks on the coast.

picnic with beautiful view of the coast

We left and went up to Gudhjem where we stopped for another picnic lunch with fresh fruit, bread, Nutella, cheese, jam, tomatoes, etc. We explored the harbor and all seaside shops, including a stop for local ice cream.

Østerlars church

We made our ride a loop by going inland to Østerlars to see the largest of the thousand-year-old round churches for which the island is famous. We were pulling in around 5pm to the church, and were prepared for it to be closed. Fortunately for us there had been a wedding there, and the bride and groom were just leaving as we walked up.

view from the church

After the bridal party left, we had a great chance to go inside, and see the clearly dual purpose fortress/church in its entirety, with 3 levels, frescoes, all beautifully restored.

Svaneke water tower

We rode back to past the water tower again and into Svaneke and headed to the smoke house/restaurant, right on the harbor, trying several different types of fish meals.