Copenhageners typically have vacation homes. One of those best-of-both-world scenarios of living and working in a hip and happening city, with the option to abandon it all for a slow-paced country life. The main escape tends to happen in July – Copenhagen feels a bit like a ghost town during that month, yet summer homes are also used on weekends and over Christmas time.
We decided to channel our inner Dane and give this a try. Not having a summer home of our own, we got together with friends and rented one on Airbnb. It was country living for 5 days. We made pancakes with maple syrup and strawberries and lounge around in the garden, drinking coffee, until the late morning; we sipped wine until into the wee hours of the night; we played tag, found bird nests and went on a minibeast (aka insect) hunt; we walked among wheat fields in the early morning and picked wildflowers; and we explored almost every inch of this beautiful Danish island – Bornholm.
Where is Bornholm, you might ask? It is to the southeast of Sweden. To get there from Copenhagen, we drove about an hour to Ystad in Sweden and took a 1 hour ferry (catamaran, actually) to the island.
We stayed near Nexø, at the southeast of the island, about a kilometer from Balka Beach and did plenty of exploring. We visited the butterfly farm near Nexø; watched candy making and glass blowing in Svaneke, as well as visited the Røgeri (smoke house) for lunch. We were blown away by fierce winds at the sand dune beaches of Dueodde and spent quite a bit of time in the charming town of Gudhjem.
Upon a recommendation from a friend in Copenhagen, we decided to try a new ropes course on the island, called High Park. After a bit of uncertainly (mainly by the adults!) we all agreed that it looked like good fun and decided to give it a go. It turned out to be a highlight of the trip! Our 7 and 8-year-olds completed a course 6 meters above the ground and even our 5-year-olds had a wonderful time on the Sparrow course, not too far from the ground, but still challenging. The moms challenged their uncertainty of heights on the 6 and 8 meter courses and the Dads boldly took on the 19 meter course!
So, you might say we got the summer off to a swinging start!