To the island of Christianso

On the last day of the conference in Bornholm, 10 of us headed on a field trip to an island 45 minutes off the coast. If we'd wanted to go either of the two previous days, we'd have been out of luck: it was too windy for the ferry to travel. But on Thursday the weather was perfect, and ironically it got WARMER as we headed out into the Baltic Sea toward this tiny island.

Christianso - also called Ertholmene (the Peapod Islands) - is basically an old fortress, built in 1684 by King Christian V. Over the years it's been used in various wars, such as with Sweden (1684) and Britain (1808). It was also used as a prison. In 1855, its use as a naval base, fortress and prison came to an end, leaving just a few inhabitants. In 1863 former soldiers and others took up residence there as fishermen.

In 1926, the Danish government to preserve Christianso as a "memorial and to tell coming generations about the greatness of the Danish navy, but at the same time to keep the islands as a living society." The islands are now maintained by the Danish Ministry of Defence and are not a part of a county or municipality, and therefore the population may not vote in county or municipal elections. An administrator, Peter Riis, runs the islands.

Interestingly, the islands are known at "the island," as opposed to Bornholm, which is "the land."

Today, there's a lovely little pub where we had lunch, an inn, a church, a couple of souvenir and ice cream shops, a museum, a doctor, and a school. About 70,000 people make the voyage in the summertime; but in the winter it's a different story. As the promotional material says, "The community takes a breather, and the islanders collect their energies for a hectic summer ahead."

 

Because of the timing of our tour, we hadn't been able to take the ferry from Gudhjem, but rather went to the town of Allenge by cab, and arrived on Christianso just after lunch. Our return tickets were for 4:30, back to Allenge, but then I noticed that there was a 4:15 boat back to Gudjhem, so I hopped on it. The others quickly followed, but there were a couple stragglers. We waved to them from the boat and they hurried across the little bridge to get there, but they weren't quite quick enough: the boat started to pull away. But then the captain stopped the boat and went back for them - a wonderfully island thing to do!

It was an altogether grand day. Thanks, Chris McMurray, for keeping me company on our tromp around the islands!