Once we got to Bornholm we disembarked and got a couple of buses that took us to the other side of the island where our hostel was located. (In total, the island is about 40km north to south and 30 km east to west.) When we got to the hostel, we were told where our rooms were, had a little bit of time to get settled, had breakfast, got our bikes, and were on our own for the remainder of the day.
I ended up with my friends Gillian and a girl, Jen, who I had met the night before on the bus. We decided that we would try to tackle the ‘Killer Tour’ as it was called in our booklet. (We get these info booklets with practical information for every trip you go on with DIS. In this one they had outlined three suggested bike routes for us.) Now the reason we decided to go on the hardest tour they outlined was because it would take us to the southern most beach on the island, which is known for its ridiculously white sand. It is actually from this beach that people will export sand to be used in hourglasses. So we began this intensive tour. We actually began with a bunch of other people around us, but then we all eventually spaced out within the first 5-10 kilometers. It was also within those first 5-10 kilometers that I began to worry about biking all day long, luckily once we got into a good rhythm my leg muscles began to function a little bit more properly.
The first town we stopped at is called Svaneke. It was still late morning by the time we got there (and it was a holiday), so things we still pretty quite although there were a few shops and restaurants being to open. Originally, we were thinking of eating here, but it was a little too early. Instead, we simply took a short break down by the harbor, which is lined with small mustard-yellow houses. It was rather quaint. 
We then tried to find our way back to the bike path (they tended to sort of disappear once we got into any town). On our roundabout way to finding it though, we passed a few random sights including: a dead tree filled with birdhouses, a lighthouse, and this rather interesting rocky area that extended out into the water.Once back on the path, we began to make our 9 kilometers ride to Nexo (Bornholm’s second largest town). Unfortunately, we began to realize that some back weather was going to fall. The clouds were getting darker and there wasn’t really way around it. Just as we were approaching the outskirts of the town, the skies opened up and it began raining rather hard for a good 15-20 minutes. At this point, we were out in the farmlands (which actually make up a good amount of the island), so the only thing we could really do was to keep going. Once we got onto the main road again, which appeared to being heading into the center of the town, we spotted a smoke house. Since it was still raining, we decided to take our lunch break now.
Bornholm is known for its smoked herring, and the three of us had decided that is what we should have for lunch. After translating the menu, most of which we were able to do by ourselves, however one of the guys there did help explain it to us a little more, we all ordered the traditional dish of smoked herring. It was rather simple, just a fish a couple pieces of bread and some vegetables. I was a little neverous because I didn’t really know what to expect, but surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. Herring is actually rather bland, so the only thing that it really tasted like was the smokiness. The hardest part about it was definitely pulling the meat off the bone and getting out as many of the little tiny bones that I could. It got easier as I kept eating. Interesting, we all actually enjoyed it, and it ended up being a really nice lunch.
After lunch, our goal was to get to the beach. We had about 10 more kilometers to go until we got there. Most of it was rather pleasant, however just when we were getting about three kilometers away, the bike path turned to parallel the roadway, which had these incredible winds on it. It got to the point where riding the bikes wasn’t really helpful (mind you the wind was not in our favor). We got off our bikes and began walking into this crazy wind, which wasn’t really that much easier. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really anything we could do. Eventually, we made it to our turn off to get to the beach and then the wind definitely calmed down.
There was quite the walk down to the beach itself, however it was pretty flat and we were able to bike most of the way. The long trek down there was definitely worth it though. The beach itself was practically white, which in turn made the water appear like a crystal blue. It was absolutely beautiful. The only downside was that the beach was also VERY windy. At one point, we asked a gentleman to take our picture and he had serious trouble keeping the camera still. Once we got our fill we headed back down the path and out of the wind.Now originally, we had planned to take a bus back from the beach area back to our town, so we wouldn’t have to bike all the way back (which would have been another 30 kilometers). Unfortunately, after looking at the bus schedule and consulting with someone working at the snack stand that was open, they informed us that the bus doesn’t run all the way down there at this time of year (only in the summertime). This meant that we had to get back on our bikes and try to get to the nearest larger town (sadly this was 16 kilometers away). We figured we could then get a bus from there to get back to the hostel. It was a rather tedious ride, mainly because we were all starting to get pretty tired.
We did eventually make our way to the town, however our plan still didn’t function as we imagined. We were able to find the bus station, yet hardly any buses were running (because it was a holiday) and there wasn’t anyone who was particularly knowledgeable about it either who could help us. We then tried to call a cab, however the cost of that was going to be astronomical because we not only had us but also our three bikes. We actually also had someone offer to drive us there (for a fee), but they couldn’t take our bikes so that didn’t really work out either. Therefore, we decided we had better just try to bike a farther and just hope that we make it back.
We could see from our map that there was a bike route back to our town, however we couldn’t figure out where to pick it up from the town we were in. We eventually figured our which way was north (where we wanted to go) and started biking in that direction. This turned out to be more difficult than imagined. After a few turns, we found ourselves on a gravel tractor road with only a basic idea of where we were. Once admitting that we were lost and way too tired to try to get ourselves home, we called the hostel (who we had been in touch with either, although they simply told us to take the bus or a taxi, which didn’t work as effectively as envisioned). We practically had to convince them that we were truly lost, and once we did, they sent some one out to come find us. About 30 minutes later (and a little more biking on our part), we were rescued. The odd thing though was the gentlemen simply locked our bikes to the tree in the forest and told us not to worry about them. If they only would have told us earlier that we could have left the bikes somewhere, this ordeal wouldn’t have been so cumbersome.
Finally, we got back to the hostel around 7:45, managed to have some dinner (which they nicely had put aside for us), showered (sort of – it was really, really cold water), hung out with everyone else for a little bit, and then we all crashed around 10:00pm. It was a rather long first day, and we needed to somehow get rested up for another full day of biking.
The second day of biking went much better than the first. To begin with we picked a path that seemed a little more feasible. It was heading north this time, and our goal was to see these ruins that date back to the 13th century. We began slowly (mainly because we were sore from the day before), but we eventually picked up pace once our muscles readjusted. We also had decided to try to make some short stops along the way, so as not to get too tired too early on in the day.
First, we stopped at the Bornholm Art Museum. We didn’t go inside, however behind the building there are these really beautiful cliffs that look out over the water. There is also a cave in that area, however we decided against going all the way down there.Next, we were going to try to stop at a waterfall, what is supposed to be Denmark’s highest waterfall. However, it became a lot harder to find than we imagined. Additionally, there was a group of guys who were also trying to find it – they kept going back into these random trail and would then catch up with us again along the main road. Overall, it ended up seeming to be too much of a hassle to find it (and we had clearly must have past it), so we just kept going to the ruins.
Another sight that we made it too along the way was one of many round-churches. However, the one we made it to, we were told was the “highest round fortified church”. We initially thought it was simply worded wrong and they must have meant the tallest, however once we realized that it would take three kilometers going up hill to get there, we figured they really did mean the “highest”. After a good amount of time and a lot of walking uphill (cause we simply couldn’t bike the whole way), we eventually made it to the church. It was rather plain and simple but still nice. Sadly, it was locked so we weren’t able to go inside, however my guess it that it would be pretty plain inside as well.
We then knew from this point that most of the remainder of our ride to the ruins should be rather easy (basically because we couldn’t go much higher, so most of it had to be downhill, which it was). The bike path to get there was more enjoyable too. It was mostly through the woods and farmland. It was rather interesting because I didn’t expect to see such variety in nature on one small island, however it had its forested areas, open farmland, random rocky areas, and waterfronts.Once we made it to the ruins it was about 1:00 and we decided to stop for lunch at the cafeteria prior to checking out the ruins. We were definitely in need of a recuperating break. We had biked about 25 kilometers by this point. Lunch was really good; huge sandwiches and good French-fries. While we were eating one of our chaperones, who was biking with the group of guys earlier, met up with us. He told us that after much searching they did find the waterfall, however it wasn’t really that spectacular. I guess it was a good thing we decided to keep going.
After lunch, we headed up to the ruins and walking around and in them a little bit. I didn’t stop to read much about them, but they were really cool. They also sat practically at the waters edge. You could get up on pieces of the ruins at some points and look directly out into the Baltic Sea. We took our time, but we also made sure to not get too carried away – we wanted to make sure that we were giving ourselves plenty of time to make it back.
Initially, we were once again going to try to make it to a nearby town where we could catch a bus, however by the time we got there, we still felt pretty energized and decided to keep going. We did stick to the bike trail though, which followed the bus route just in case. Luckily, the ride back seemed much more feasible than the ride out in the morning. Therefore, we proudly made it back on our own, by biking, with time to spare before we had to return our bikes.
With the remainder of the time before dinner, we visited the little ice cream shop in the town. We figured we deserved the treat after biking so much over the past couple of days. In all we think it was about 90-95 kilometers (that’s over 50 miles!). For the rest of the evening, we cleaned up our rooms, ate dinner at the hostel, then simply hung out until 10:00pm, when the buses came to pick us up to take us to the ferry dock for the night ferry back to Copenhagen. I was so exhausted; I began to doze off on the 30 minutes bus ride, and then was completely out once my head hit my pillow on the boat. We then arrived in the Koge around 6:00am and finally got into Copenhagen at 7:00am. I still had to make my way home though. The train was running, which was fortunate, however I did have to walk from the train station to my house because the buses don’t run quite that early on a Sunday morning in Denmark. All and all, I eventually made it home around 8:30am in the morning. While I am still rather exhausted my plan is to make it through a semi-productive day, followed by a rather early bedtime. If I get those two objectives accomplished, I think I should be ready for my last week of classes for the semester!
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