Baltic Trip - Nex�      23rd - 27th June:

23rd June
    There were howling winds and rain through the night, but a bright and breezy morning brought a cheery start to the day. Alan did some last minute wind forecast checks, and opted to motor-sail to the Danish island of Bornholm.
    I went off to town to buy provisions, only to discover it was a special day today, and a makeshift shrine to those fishermen lost at sea had been setup in front of the only decent shop I knew of in town. I trudged the streets, but there only seemed to be tourist junk shops open. Supper would have to be a hotchpotch tonight.
    We topped up with water and diesel, and just after noon we were crossing the harbour mouth into soft mountains of moving water, decidably bouncy. The wind was shifting from the west to south west, before shifting west again. Our only option was to sail as close-hauled as possible all the way.

24th June

Street Performers

    The midnight twilight gave way to thunderstorms, then rain sodden skies, but fortune shone on us and we were treated to a bright morning as we entered Nex� harbour on Bornholm. Nex� is the second largest town on the island, and possesses the largest fishing port on the island. Within an hour we were greeted by the harbour master, or rather a chap in charge of the marina section. He was cheery with a ready sense of humour, and spoke excellent English. We would have to pay him 400 Krone up front, so he gave us the address of the office where we could find him, and we set off to find an ATM in order to obtain ready cash for the payment.

Nex� Church

    His office also contained a baby buggy, cot, pillows and other soft furnishings. The explanation for this was the building, where his office was located, belonged to a woman who produced the soft furnishings herself. He pointed out the spread in the cot, which was made of a special material. He explained that it was cleaned by washing it with a tennis ball, or rolling it about in snow. I lost the plot there. A huge Polish flag on the wall represented the office's connection with the Nex�-Kotobrzeg (Poland) ferry service. He went on to explain the extent of his job: sometimes helping police track vessels, or contacting vessels in transit. We thanked him for his assistance and wandered off to find a bacon sandwich.

Church Hanging Ships

    We entered what appeared to be a cafe with three old men sitting by a long bench with their coffees and a plate of biscuits. We soon gathered they spoke no English, they were pensioners, and we had a good laugh, though what we all laughed about I'll never know. It transpired that the cafe served only coffee and biscuits, so we laughed our way out, and retired to the boat for a brief kip, followed by a shower in the toilet block that reeked to heaven.

Churchyard

    To sample the special day, a short walk to the main Market Square was in order. Today and the following day were Nex�'s two special days of the year, when music, performers, cycle races and large cake processions were held annually. We watched three young performers play a drum, bagpipes and violin before performing acrobatics, juggling and whirling fire sticks about themselves.
    Alan needed a more restive sleep, so I decided to explore the town a little by first wandering down to what appeared to be the only church in the town. It was a stunning yet simple black and white building, and the interior was fairly plain, simple, light and airy. Hanging from the ceiling were model ships, which I guessed served the same purpose as the hanging ship in the church I visited in Klaipeda; to wish the ship and crew safe journey, and to give thanks on their return.

Typical Nex� Street

    Outside the church lay a beautiful, manicured churchyard, with raked gravel paths, the whole being surrounded by a dry stone wall, similar to those of my home county, Cumbria. Many of the graves were raised flowerbeds, with nothing out of place.

Langelinie Estate

    I then strolled through the Langelinie estate, a row of colourful workers homes erected in 1875 in imitation of Copenhagen.
    At the other end of town was the Nex� suburb of Svenskebyen (Swedish Town) with its wooden houses in various colours, reminiscent of both oversized Lego bricks and of Astrid Lidgrens Emil Stories. They were not much different to many of the other houses, but the story of how they came to be is unusual. They were a gift from the Swedish state, which gave Nex� and other places a helping hand after World War II. 75 wooden houses were shipped over from Sweden and assembled on fields just outside the town centre, the latter having been razed to the ground by the bombardment of 7/8th May 1945, destroying nearly 400 and damaging 900 houses and residential blocks. The bombs were Russian and fell because the German Commandant von Kamptz, would not surrender to the "savage Russians". Local resistance fighters had been unable to contact Danish Foreign Minister Chritmas M�ller, but if he had sent just a single British representative, von Kamptz would have capitulated. For that reason many Bornholmers refuse to put candles in their windows on 4th May or fly the flag on 5th May, celebrating respectively the end of the blackout and the liberation.

Svenskebyen (Swedish Town)

    What remained was a town in ruins, having lost many old and attractive buildings. Reconstruction took seven years, and today the Swedish wooden houses and the fountain on Nex�'s Market Square remain as monuments to World War II.
    In the evening we looked for a place to eat. A nearby seafood restaurant was strongly recommended, but we could not gain entrance without a reservation; it was packed. The only other place in town that we knew of was a pizza parlour in the Market Square. A typical pizza plus beer cost around �18 - a tad expensive!

25th June

Kiitaja in Nex� Marina

    Alan visited the tourist information office to get the wind forecasts for the next three days, and as before it was solid west winds. Apparently the chap who had greeted us the previous day had a daughter, and she was in charge today. She confirmed that there were now only two places to dine in Nex�, all the others having gone bankrupt because of the short four month tourist season. The town hibernated for eight months of the year. So how did the town's inhabitants survive? Fishing is the mainstay of the town economy, but most residents were supported by state handouts; Bornholm was the poorest part of Denmark.
    I went off to inspect a naval vessel that had arrived the previous evening for the Nex� festivities. The crew were very welcoming and helpful, and also spoke good English. The captain explained that the vessel was part of the Danish Navy Homeguard. Basically the thirty or so vessels that belonged to the Homeguard performed search and rescue duties, as well as cleaning up oil spillages. It was run on a voluntary basis, but the volunteers did receive a payment. Apparently there was so little work for young folk that they gladly volunteered.
    The ship was immaculately clean and spacious. I was amazed to find that I was allowed in the engine room. A young chap explained, in a perfect Irish accent, the workings of the diesel engines. The engines were standard truck engines, thus they could be repaired by a garage mechanic. When I asked him how a young Irish fellow came to be serving on a Danish ship, he surprised me by telling me that he was Danish, but had spent two years in Ireland.

Coastal Cycleway

    I later visited the museum. Unfortunately, all text was in Danish, including the multimedia slide show. I asked the curator if there was an English version. There wasn't, and he couldn't speak English, but he could speak German. The elderly chap kindly stood with me and explained all the slides to me in German, and told anecdotes at various intervals. He laughed as he told me how young men from Bornholm went to Copenhagen during the war working on ships. They would often get drunk and tell the German soldiers that they had Jews on board. The Germans shrugged them off as drunken fools. The funny thing was, there were Jews on board being smuggled to neutral Sweden.

Coastal Flowers

    With foresight, I booked a table at the harbour side seafood restaurant for the evening. The young Danish guy who took the reservation spoke to me with an impeccable American accent.
    Meanwhile, Alan was still trying to get to grips with extracting wind forecasts, so I decided to hike down the coast to Balka and Snogebaek. There was a dedicated cycleway/footpath along the coast, which I followed for a while, before diverting off onto a rougher track through woodland. The hike was delightful in the sunshine and breeze, and I came across hosts of wild flowers, and flocks of sea birds, with skylarks singing high in the skies above me.
    When I reached Balka with its charming small harbour, the shoreline turned to pure white sands, so fine that they were used in egg timers. I ambled along the beach, the waters ever so shallow and crystal clear, fading away into azure blue as it reached the horizon. Young children frolicked in the shallows. This was how I imagined Danish coastlines to be; sandy shores backed by dunes. Apparently the north of the island was the complete opposite - towering granite cliffs.
    I sauntered along the beach to Snogebaek with its picturesque harbour, quaint craft shops, and I guess tenfold more restaurants than Nex�. Tourists came here for the sandy beaches, reckoned to be the best on the island.

Sandy Shores between Balka and Snogebaek

    Strolling up the main street, I popped into various galleries and craft shops, one of which was My's Antik Gallery. There I met a delightful lady, who I discovered was My (pronounced "muee"). The gallery was full of antique bric-a-brac, paintings and drawings. I got chatting to her, and found she had a perfect southern English accent; she had spent six years in Surrey when she was young. The shop was a hobby of hers, she loved to collect and enjoyed selling. However, her passion was bird watching, and she travelled far and wide to observe our feathered friends. Antiques were not her main livelihood, she was a teacher by profession, teaching Danish, English, and a little German and European Politics in a secondary school. That would explain her excellent command of English. I explained to her the suffocating bureaucracy in the English educational system. She echoed back that it was almost as bad in Denmark, but where she taught, the school head was a progressive thinker who deemed a lot of the report writing unnecessary for children in their final two years at school. Indeed, the children were encouraged to write their own reports, under tutorage, in their final year.
    I had a long and interesting chat with her about the island during the war, and how Nex� and R�nne had been bombed. Although Bornholm inhabitants have an inbuilt fear of the Russian, after the war while the Russians were still on the island, the locals took pity on the Russian soldiers, who often gave children chocolate. Most of the soldiers didn't know why they were there, and didn't want to go back to Russia. Time was pressing on, so I wished her well in her ventures, she wished me a happy life, and we parted company.

Nex� from Snogebaek

    I retraced my steps back to the boat, where I found Alan had been entertaining the three young performers who had been performing their music and acrobatics around the town over the last couple of days. As they sipped English beer, they described how they were all students at a Copenhagen school for circus, a three year course which they had to fund themselves, hence their need to earn cash. They were all musicians before attending the school. After their studies, they would have to consider seeking employment in St Petersburg or Canada. Two of the youngsters were from Bornholm, the other from Copenhagen. They confirmed that there was not much to do on the island from a work stance. They also mentioned how Bornholmers were always invited to talk in Copenhagen, since people were fascinated with their singing lilt.
    In the evening we dined at the harbour restaurant. The lady who served us had a perfect American accent, Californian to be exact. She had spent some years there. Perhaps the young fellow who took the reservation was her son. The food was delicious, and the wild garlic collected from the forest was out of this world.

26th June

Gamle Rogeri Sculpture

Gamle Rogeri Smokehouse

    A bright, warm start to the day, but none of the bustle on the quayside. For some reason, the festivities had been running on Friday and Saturday, but not today, perhaps because it was Sunday.
    It was just a lazy day, a few things to fix, and time to sit back, relax and catch up on some reading. As I sat on the aft cabin roof, I watched hoards of cyclists queuing patiently by the Kotobrzeg ferry. The island was a Mecca for cyclists, with many routes around and across the island. I couldn't ascertain whether all the hundreds of cyclists congregated here were Poles returning back to their homeland, Danes visiting Poland, or other nationalities visiting both; more than likely a complete mixture. The large empty back deck of the ferry gradually filled up with cycles, then the gangways alongside the decks filled up; crumbs - no health and safety issues here. I came to the conclusion that there must have been scheduled cyclists ferry times since every cycle on the island seemed to be loaded up.
    In the evening we headed up to Gamle Rogeri, recommended by a German couple on the boat moored next to us. This was a small establishment that smoked fish and also operated as a fish restaurant. We had smoked herring, and it was truly delicious.

27th June

Nex� Countryside

    Today was warm and cloudless. Alan had been checking the weather again, and there was a possibility of leaving in the early evening. I went and bought provisions for a trip that could last up to three days, and as Alan was going to visit the museum, I decided to explore a short distance into the interior of the island.

Solitary Tree

    I walked up through Svenskebyen and climbed up out of town into a land of gently rolling hills dotted with trees, large woods, and the occasional farm building. Swathes of wheat and barley gently rippled under the warm breeze. Wild flowers were scattered in abundance across the fields and verges. Apart from the occasional car passing me, I had the whole world to myself. The hike wasn't tiring, and I appreciated the hills to help stretch my legs. Half way around the loop I was taking, I could look down over Nex� and across to Snogebaek and beyond. The sea was azure and calm, nice to look at but not good for sailing.

Countryside Flowers

    All too soon I started dropping back down towards the coast, but the hike, only seven miles or so, was most enjoyable, apart from the pollen - my eyes were streaming at the end of it.
    Back at the boat, Alan and I chatted with the German couple next door. They, like many of the sailors we had met, were fair weather sailors who only harbour hopped during daylight. They could not understand how we would sail through the night and also in rough seas. They wondered what we would do if we got to a marina that was full. Simple, we would just find a sheltered spot and drop anchor. The German fellow's mouth jaw hit the deck; dropping anchor was not in his vocabulary. So many of these boats had anchors that had never been used.
    After saying farewell to the German couple, we departed mid afternoon, with indications that we should pick up a favourable wind. We motored out into a calm sea with hardly a breath of wind, past Snogebaek, and round the southern tip of Bornholm where we hoped to get some wind. Alas, a mirror calm sea stretched before us, dissolving gently into the horizon. By sunset some cat's paws were appearing across the still waters; promise of a wind.

Wooden Sculptures by the Shore