Wednesday 11 May 2011

Bornholm – “Little Big Island in the Sun”

We reached Bornholm in the morning around 7:00 am – in perfect time for our planned morning excursions. The weather could not have been better, clear blue sky and sunshine combined with temperatures around 18°C.

For many of us it was a geological highlight to see this amazing island. From geological point of view the island is divided into two parts. The northern part of the island belongs to the so called Fennoscandian Shield, the area has been formed during the time of the Proterozoicum and its characteristics are the granite rocks, steep cliffs and scarce vegetation typical for Northern Europe.
The southern part of the island however is formed of ancient sediments an area shaped approx. 500 million years ago, thus younger than the northern part. Typical for this southern part of the island are the flat white colored sand beaches, and classical dunes. A truly amazing geological highlight we could experience when travelling in-between this two geographical zones as this means we are crossing the geological border between Middle Europe and Northern Europe, this line is called the Tornquist Zone.

Today’s excursions showed typical landscapes, houses, villages, windmills and vegetation. The excursion highlights for many guests were the visit to the various destinations such as the ruins of Hammershus, Gudhjem, Round Churches in Nylars,Osterlars and Nyker, the charming villages of Hasle and Svaneke. Culinary attractions on the island included the famous “Bornholmer” a freshly smoked herring served on rye bread, delicious soft ice cream with various toppings such as crusty chocolate or salty liquorices and handmade sweets. Cute little shops offered a variety of local hand crafts.
During the afternoon we had a selection of lectures touching down on various topics related to our upcoming destinations. The evening ended with the one and only famous “MV FRAM FASHION SHOW”.