It was befitting that the sun shone over Gudhejm while we ate ‘Sol Over Gudhjem’ (sunshine over Gudhjem) – a popular Danish open faced sandwich with smoked herring, chives and a raw egg yolk representing the sun- named after the town.
I lost my passport which meant we could only have a staycation here in Denmark. The husband thought I coined the word staycation and kept repeating it over and over again. Its easy to impress a man whose first language is not English.
We went to Bornholm, a pretty Danish island. You have to take a train to Sweden and then a ferry to reach the island which makes it feel vacationey. Plus, Bornholm has its own flag which they fly along side the Danish one – an even more far away vacation feel – check! We stayed in a sweet spot at the center of Rønne in a sprawling house with a wild garden ambushed by fig and apple trees. In the evenings we drank red wine till our tongues were stained purple, grilled religiously with local produce and hit the hot-spots with our friend and his friends; which meant going to places called Krystal Bodega where the only music was from a jukebox. Over the night it played everything from the Danish folk songs, heavy metal, rock music to Celine Dion, in no particular sequence. During the days we drove around to smaller towns with pit stops at Gudhjem and Svaneke.
Say hello to Gudhjem. The word that best describes this town is – cute. Little houses placed on the cliff, red tiled roofs and walls in primary colours. ( The yellow ‘Little brother’s’ bakery where we ate breakfast was not in Gudhjem but in Ronne, but now its on the collage and I am lazy to take it off)
Gudhjem didnt impress Picolo much. See him yawning.
In Svaneke we went to Svaneke Ismejeri, they make without argument the best ice-cream in Denmark. They only use diary, berries and fruits from the island and sweeten up the deal by using honey instead of sugar. The cafe also has its own almond and licorice trees in the back yard. I had apple and chocolate. Picolo approved.
The picture to the left was at Hammerhus where Picolo pawed a hole into my tights and quickly took a ‘I didn’t do it, I was not even close to your legs’ stance.
We drove across the country side. Picked up a mother and son pair of hitchhikers who told us about a holy cliff they were going to. So we of course followed them to the cliff. We bought new potatoes from unmanned carts parked outside houses. Just a little enterprise and some faith. You pick the bag of potatoes and they trust that you will put in the 15 Kroners in costs into the money jar, in this case a milk can. I think its quite common across the Danish countryside, the cheating thieving city girl in me was quite impressed.
The city apartment dog met a porcupine hedgehog for the first time in his life and tried to make friends. He also ran and ran and ran, he needed 15 straight hours of sleep with heavy snoring to get over it.
We loved it there so much, we plan to hire a summer house there next summer or whenever. The only disappointment was the lack of fish. It is supposed to be fishing island but we found only one fish store in Ronne which is the biggest and central town of the island.
Here are the fine inflatable boats made on pure human breath and will power. There you go rental capitalists! We shall row as long as there is breath in our lungs. 2 men, a girl and a dog … floating on pure LUNG POWER !! 
We didn’t have life jackets either. I mention that because I cant swim. But I can drive and I figured it may come useful if our Lung Powered Flotation device goes pop.
Here I am with Kallejandro, our all purpose friend. I mean, do YOU have a friend who simply happens to have not 1 but SIX inflatable boats in his garage? … No? – I thought so.
