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| From Denmark III |
Weekend: An over-nighter on a Danish & German tourist island. Ærø (pronounced ehrroo and roll the r) island, located in South Denmark, was founded 100s of years ago & survived on fishing and farming. When the rest of Denmark was being upgraded and remodeled over the decades/hundreds of years, this island was too poor to make any changes. Today it has a thriving summer tourist market that comes to enjoy the perfectly preserved historic towns, ambiance, beaches, and farm scapes. Winter is the sleepy season, so we went without reservations.
Saturday morning my coworker & I left our Grenaa hotel around 8am and drove the rice box of a car over the fjord bridge (east of Kolding), past Middelfart, and headed south to Faaborg. Soon after arrival, we parked on the Søby car ferry. Søby is the village on the west side of Ærø. Upon docking, we mosied the car to the popular historic town of the island, Ærøskøbing. The town really does live up to its reputation of being quaint, colorful, and old! In Frommer's travel book, it was described as a place Disney must have been to in his lifetime. I can see where that comes from.... cobblestone streets, half-timbered homes, and you're lucky to find a block of homes/buildings with all vertical-standing walls. Over the centuries, they seem to have settled crooked.
Saturday afternoon lunch was ingested at the only restaurant open in the town. The choice consisted of a fish plate, homemade tartar sauce (best I've probably ever had), salad, brown bread and tea. There's a great nature walk on a beach and swampy spit just outside of town. There we came up on colorful beach pantrys built in the 1920s. They resemble darling beach huts, however are only large enough for a picnic table, chairs, and some shelves for food. We only saw a handful of people on their afternoon strolls, though this place has 1,000s in the summer.
Next, the Store Rise Kirke (church) seemed a worthy destination. A beatiful church, with well-floristed cemetary stones, a red monk's door, and a 5,000 year old suspected fertility cult worship space. This last feature is in the middle of a farm located a few hundred yards from the church. It consists of a long rectangular grassy hill, outlined with embedded rocks, a tree, and a rock entrance to an underground tomb. Also, think fertility cult as in soil... not women. After the news of the octuplets, my mind was going the wrong direction. Anyways, that was pretty neat.
Our feet were wearing out though, so final stop was Marstal. Hotel Marstal's appeal and price surpassed expectations and so I provided the receptionist w/ my name and CA phone number in exchange for a key. No credit card, nothing. The room was large, with a kitchenette and small dining table. It's super reasonable in the off season. It was an evening of dinner in the hotel restaurant followed by knitting and reading. Quite lovely.
Sunday morning walked Marstal village in the snotty-marine-layer-borderline-sprinkling-chilly weather. Marstal was nothing special so we quickly moved on in the rice box of a car. After a brief roadside stop to check out the site of an old castle mound (castle is long gone), the weather enhanced our desire to just get outta there. So, we headed to the ferry terminal and drove right on the awaiting boat.
Uneventful drive home. Stopped in Arhus for a bite to eat next to the Strøget (walking street) and by the time I parked it in Grenaa, it was sunny.
Lovely weekend, it was one of my very last "top 5s" on my Denmark to-do list. Thinking of the west coast for next weekend. We shall see.
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