Welcome to Bornholm

On our first day on the island of Bornholm, we rented cars in Ronne, and drove to Bodelsker to visit the church where the Nielsons' ancestor was christened. It was open and we were free to explore and even sit and enjoy reading from the journal of great great great grandfather Nielson. (Our big group filled out the small chapel nicely.) The caretaker met up with us at the bell tower and gave us some interesting history of the area.

Alice played something perfect on the piano for us.

The night prior was one of those where I did not sleep. At all. Just look at those tired eyes. And man, I am sure getting the mileage out of that peach sweater!

 The Bell Tower.

The landscape of every little town was so beautiful. Farms and green pastures as far as we could see.

We got separated from the rest of the group, but found our way to one of the beautiful beaches with Christian and Stephanie. We discovered the most fine and soft sand. It was squeaky to walk on and felt so good on our feet.

Christian collected sand for his kids, but I was scared of the mess it would make in my suitcase, so I gathered some cool flat rocks instead. They were all over the beach. And most of them we could easily break in our hands. (These few resisted breaking, for whatever reason.) I want to know the story behind both the sand and rocks.  My basic college geology isn't really helping.

 Skipping rocks was a must.

We ate a delicious five course dinner at a restaurant called Le Port, overlooking the Baltic Sea. (But then, practically everything overlooks the Baltic Sea on this small island.) Mark and a few of the brother-in-laws took a little swim in the Baltic, earlier this day. I didn't have to do it, to tell you it was icy cold! Like the kind of cold where I was a little worried Mark would have a sudden heart attack or his body would seize up and sink. He not only survived, but repeated the swim the next day with a few others.

Polka dots. 

photo by liz