Carra Tidings

Ronne, the capital of the Danish Island Bornholm, was lovely but full of tourists and the marina was rather soulless. Coupled with a long walk to the loo, which was more than my menopausal bladder could cope with first thing in the morning, so we decided to move.  We hopped an hour up the coast to Hasle – an old traditional harbour with stone walls, and a few old sailing ships – a proper harbour. The island is famous for its’ smokeries, many of the houses having a tall chimney, so a visit to get some fish was essential.  On our return, we wandered through the town, via a few craft shops – it is home to the Danish Royal Academy of Glass and Ceramics. It might be an expensive trip…

With some windy weather expected, we were keen to be on the other side of the island, as it would be in the lee. But that would allow just enough time to sneak a quick visit to Christiansø. This has been on my list of harbours I want to go to, as we had missed it, when bringing the boat over from the UK. The islands are 12 miles off the coast of Bornholm, but as it is very exposed, you can only go in calm conditions. The harbour, is created by the gap been 2 parallel small islands, which are link by a foot bridge. We arrived just in time for the weekly tour in English. Which was enlightening, albeit rather gruesome, due to the manner in which it had come into existence, as a habitable island. It was a penal colony to settle any score you had with anyone male. It would appear that you could write to the King and demand that a son/husband/brother/enemy who had upset you, could be incarcerated, provided the king agreed with your reason. The poor unfortunate man, was then sentenced to back breaking work extracting granite. For which, you would pay the Danish King. They created miles and miles of the most perfectly formed walls and beautiful houses – at an unimaginable human cost. You can’t ignore it’s past but you can appreciate a remarkable island – a real jewel in the Baltic, a nature reserve, full of nesting birds – and the buildings in immaculate condition, care of the 96 inhabitants, who are employed by the Minster of Defence. It makes it into our top 5 harbours ever visited.

With the windy weather due, we beetled back to Bornholm and to the picturesque harbour of Gudhjem. A tiny stone harbour, which was soon full – everyone was just settled, when the harbourmaster came down to move all the boats around, and play a spot of boat Jenga. Basically cramming as many boats into as small a spot as possible, such that no one could leave without reversing the process. Thankfully we were on the outside – but not that anyone was going anywhere for a few days.

We took the bus to Swaneke – home of glass blowing and the most fabulous ice-cream shop. Mags spent the day shamelessly rearranging shop displays for my Pride video…. all in the cause of art. On the way back we visited a round church with the most unique round interior

A card had taken our fancy, a montage of Bornholm scenes, in water colours. A quick google and we discovered the artist, Jane Hamilton (a Geordie in Denmark) was living on a boat in Nexo. On arriving, we gave her a call – she popped up on the next boat to ours. We asked if she had any more original watercolours. But she said that unfortunately she wasn’t painting at the moment but that we would be welcome to look at her sketch book, which was full of doodles, sketches and fab little watercolours – we bought 3, when she came over for a cup of tea and a natter. This added to the vase and the 3 other pictures… yes it was an expensive visit!