Thanks to a tip from a group of sailors from Estonia, we do not sail directly from Gdansk to the Danish holiday island of Bornholm, as initially planned, but to an island north of it called Christiansø!
Check the map – the island is so tiny that it’s hard to find. Thanks to GPS and autopilot, the ArgoFram heads straight for it, and after many hours of sailing across the Baltic Sea, it appears right in front of us. The entrance to the ‘harbour’ is so surprising and short that it almost takes your breath away; as soon as we turn in, we see that the harbour lies between two separate islands, but they are connected by a footbridge about 30 metres long. So pretty.
We anchor, go to the harbour master, introduce ourselves, and see how the tourist groups from nearby Bornholm return to their ferry boats – and we, a few sailing boats and the approximately 90 islanders, find well-deserved rest. That’s what we thought… The harbour master tells us that we are welcome to stay. But a storm is coming up, faster than forecast, and if we don’t go to Bornholm now, we’ll be stuck on Christiansø for the next while; even the ferries will hardly run!
So all we can do is walk around the island, which takes less than half an hour, and take the obligatory swim in the natural pool. Then it’s off, onwards, and we decide to relocate to Rønne, Bornholm’s main town. If we’re going to be blocked, at least we’re going to be in a place where there’s some choice of activities and options (and from where Martina can make her way back by plane if necessary).
On the crossing from Christiansø to Rønne, which takes about an hour, a sharper wind is already beating against us, the waves begin to rise, and as soon as we have moored in the harbour, the wind sweeps very stiffly over our heads – the harbour breaks the waves, but it does not offer effective protection against the wind, it is too exposed for that. And we decide to take the tent down again and spend the night with the cabin lid closed! That went surprisingly well. But not having your own retreat during the day is a bit stupid. The wind was supposed to get even stronger and turn into a real storm.
We decided to book two nights in a nearby hotel; with a bit of luck we got hold of a room that had been cancelled shortly before – that’s right: summertime, the island is completely booked out! Accordingly, the price-performance ratio is a bit out of control, but we make the best of it, enjoy the SPA, the breakfast buffet and the rental bikes. We need these urgently because we have to refuel, because only now do we find out that the only petrol station on the water is on the opposite side of the island of Bornholm… So we buy two new jerry cans, fill up at a car petrol station and do what we already did in Klaipeda, only during the day and with more muscle power: Fit for Sprit on Bornholm, who would have thought it?
Bornholm itself is an idyll. It’s so snug, so ‘boring’ (as the harbour master himself said!), really nice and small-minded, that it soon gets too crowded for us. Everywhere there are hot dogs, burgers and ice cream, nothing but hot dogs, burgers and ice cream… In between, it’s time to relax; the only thing that is stimulated here is the imagination, the mental cinema – if there’s nothing going on during the day, you can imagine the rest all the better. (I’ve heard that there are already TV series about this).
Insertion: It is immediately noticeable how people here on Bornholm – in Denmark in general? – ‘motivate’ each other. At every turn, everyone is so incredibly nice to each other, so caring, you immediately feel socially embedded. Or controlled with attentive eyes – because if nudging gets out of hand, as it does here, it backfires. That’s why I praise Estonia: there are two completely different ways of behaving, one Russian and one Estonian. The one seems a bit bossy, imperious, assertive (for example in traffic – you can immediately see who belongs to the Russian community). The other way of behaving seems rather smart and wait-and-see. Resourceful, I would say. Both types of behaviour are fundamentally different and yet somehow belong together. In Finland there is more harmony, there are a few clear (social) rules – and the rest is doing. Doing it yourself. Personal responsibility is very important. Sweden (I’m talking about northern Sweden outside the big cities) is also based on personal responsibility, but compared to Finland it is extremely lax, extremely laissez-faire. For me personally, it’s almost a bit of a denial of responsibility. But very free. – So here, on the exemplary Bornholm with the kind Danes, there are hardly any laws, no police, but all the more ‘comme il faut’. And probably that’s exactly what drives so many Danes (and Germans) here: Retro housing, beautiful scenery (lovely agriculture) and being safely nestled. A paradise?
From my point of view, there are only two other highlights here on Bornholm besides the island of Christiansø: The floating ‘swimming pool’ of Hasle (an architectural masterpiece – https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x4655046699a6de43%3A0x3745b77a147797ad!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNpLjH7LSDBfxcvsDneN2RLk9R9MjSmuI9Ujf1d%3Dw162-h108-n-k-no!5shasle%20bornholm%20-%20Google%20Suche!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipMnH_XFx2s_VQwdvFCS6mXBX8lVoiwF-WNkgjD1&hl=de or https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x4655046699a6de43%3A0x3745b77a147797ad!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNpLjH7LSDBfxcvsDneN2RLk9R9MjSmuI9Ujf1d%3Dw162-h108-n-k-no!5shasle%20bornholm%20-%20Google%20Suche!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipNpLjH7LSDBfxcvsDneN2RLk9R9MjSmuI9Ujf1d&hl=de). And there is the cycling path in the forest from Hasle back to Rønne, which is hard to beat in terms of natural beauty, especially recommended during sunset – for all the senses, pure active recreation!