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In one of Denmark’s most delightful months, the month of May, I take a weekend trip to the Danish island of Bornholm. If you were to draw a map of Denmark on which Bornholm were placed correctly, you would have to use extra paper and include the southern part of Sweden. However, on most, more compact maps of Denmark, Bornholm is stuck in as an inset somewhere in the top right-hand corner of the paper, so it looks like it is floating around in the waters north of Zealand.
Bornholm is somewhat removed from mainland Denmark in more ways than one. It has more hours of sunshine than the rest of Denmark and Danes therefore call it the “sunshine island”. The island’s scenery is somewhat different from the rest of Denmark, too, much of it being shaped in stone.
Where the land is rocky, there is a paucity of farming. The upside of this is that the area is rich in untamed forests, beaches and cliffs. On my first day, I head for the hills – the Paradise Hills (Paradisbakkerne) and hike for a couple of hours in the woods. In the middle of the forest sits the natural tourist attraction “Rokkestenen”. It is a huge boulder, left behind by a glacier, and is propped in such a way that it can be moved slightly when you push it. During the day I see a snake, a tiny goldcrest and lots of hares. I hear the warble of a nightingale and the gurgle of a babbling brook. I absorb the stillness of the towering forest.
