Bornholm
We went for a 4 day trip to the Danish island Bornholm in the start of my autumn holidays. I have been there one time before, but that was many many years ago, on a school trip in 7th grade. So, I don’t really remember a lot from that trip and at that time I didn’t find nature and historical places that interesting. But now as an adult I really love and appreciate nature, history and art.
The nature on Bornholm is something unique from the rest of Denmark because it is a rock island and not flat at all, like the rest of Denmark. For a while I wanted to go there to experience the beautiful places and nature.
Day 1
We left Copenhagen on Saturday morning taking the bus to Ystad in Sweden, where we caught the ferry to Rønne, the largest city on Bornholm. In total it was only around 3 hours to get there, and we arrived around 12pm. We had some lunch before we went and got the electric cargo bike, that we rented for our trip to get around the island. The public transportation on Bornholm is almost not existing, especial when you are used to public transportation in Copenhagen and none of us have a drivers license, so an electric cargo bike was perfect. We drove to the Airbnb we rented, which was just outside Rønne. It was a cosy, little house with all the things we needed and very close to the beach.
Afterwards we went out to explore the area and do some grocery shopping.
We went to a place called Kultippen, which means the coal tipper, if it was direct translated to English. The place was created by the waste products from the coal extracting during World War 2. This made the landscape changed into a place that now looks like a moonscape. I have never seen anything like that, it was a barren landscape and how I would imagen the moon looks like
Day 2
Sunday, we started the morning by going to the beach for a dip in the sea. I was a bit surprised that the water wasn’t as cold as I thought it was, but the waves were big so we didn’t go out that far into the water.
Afterwards we had breakfast and we went out on the bike to see some more places. First stop was Jons Kapel, Jon’s Chapel in English, which is a dry cave. Unfortunately, the stairs down to the cave was closed for safety because of stones falling down, but there was a beautiful view. We walked a bit more to see the view over the Hvidkleven cliffs, which also was a beautiful view.
We ended up biking around 40km that day, and the battery on the cargo bike almost lasted the hole day.
Day 3
For our 3rd day on Bornholm we had planned to see Svartingdalen, it was on my list of places I wanted to see and we got the place recommended as well. I must say the place was over my expectations, so magical and I would say if you were planning on going to Bornholm you have to go and see Svartingdalen. It is a rift valley, which looks like it could have been in Jurassic Park or a rainforest, so beautiful. We walked on the path and I took some pictures, but none of them truly shows how magical the place is.
We didn’t walk the whole path because we wanted to have time to see other places as well, but we saw the Jættebold that was there. A jættebold is a round rock that according to the myth a mythological giant who has thrown a boulder to hit something but missed. From the jættebold we had a view over the rift valley. If you have trouble walking I don’t recommend going there because it’s not an easy place to walk around and remember to wear waterproof shoes. I will definitely want to go there again, especially in the summer because I can imagine the place will look very different but still beautiful.
On our way back to our Airbnb we stopped by a round church called Ny Kirke. Bornholm is known for having round churches, so we at least had to see one. We also stopped by The Sapphire Lake, that was just by the place we stayed at.
Later in the afternoon, we went on a trip to Hammershus with Daniel’s friend, who was on Bornholm and had a car. Hammershus is the largest castle ruin in Northern Europe at the northern tip of Bornholm. I always find old historical places very fascinating in so many ways, so I’m happy we went there. And luckily it was first when we got back to the car that it started raining, so it was perfect because we finished being out for the day.
Day 4
Our last day on Bornholm we had to go for a morning dip in the sea before breakfast.
We packed our things and got ready to go back to Rønne to give the cargo bike back and take the ferry in the afternoon. We had some hours in Rønne before we had to get on the ferry, so we went to the Bornholm Museum. The museum was about local history of Bornholm and they had a special exhibition about the cold war at Bornholm. I can recommend if you are in Rønne and like museums to go and have a look.
We came back to Copenhagen in the evening, and when we got home Nimbu was very happy to see us, and we were happy to see him and have missed him.
Our trip was really good, we went and saw many places considering we were only there for a few days and we only had a cargo bike to get around with. Next time I would like to go there in the summer and that we have access to a car to see the whole island. Bornholm is definitely worth a trip.