Bornholm, Denmark

Hello from Rønne,
a town on the island of Bornholm,
in the country of Denmark. 

View from the ship

Here comes the afternoon rain

To get here from Southampton we had to pass under the Great Belt Bridge last night, the used-to-be second longest suspension bridge in the world. (According to Wikipedia it has now moved to #6.)

Beautiful evening for sailing under

My plan today originally included taking a bus around the island but with the unknown about whether I could take the scooter or not, I took my time leaving the ship and went into town instead. A free shuttle bus was available to take passengers to the church so I ventured my way there only to find out I couldn't go on it, either.

Sorry, no place for scooter, not even underneath

Thankfully I had spent some time after breakfast watching the going ons in the port area... 

You can get an idea of how big these wind turbine blades are
by the size of the teeny tiny people in the bottom left hand corner

and spied a bus that look more compatible.

Bring on the scooter - we'll even put the ramp down for you!

It dropped passengers off at the bottom of the church. Later I found it also dropped off in town. Darn.

At this halfway point Scooter said no more and
I had to drag him up the rest of the way

Whew, that was a workout

With all the cobblestone and steps I didn't even see if I could venture inside. So I grabbed my map and tried to figure out where I was and how to get to town.

Not much help

Even the text didn't help much

Sign isn't going to help either. Terminal means ferry, not cruise ship.

So I just wandered, trying decide which way to go. I wound up just following people instead of trying to forge my own path.

No matter which way I turned or who I followed, it was very extremely terribly tremendously difficult. Because of this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

Cobblestones were EVERYWHERE. 

A very brief respite before the cobblestones started again

I thought I might be at a Vietnam war protest by what Scooter was trying to tell me again and again:

Hell, No, We Won't Go!

The only thing making the adventure worthwhile was something I stumbled upon. I mean, followed a crowd to.

The European Street Market travels the summer through Denmark and this just happened to be the week it was in Rønne. Lucky us! Not so lucky for me was it was held in an area of nothing but cobblestones. It was crowded with locals with their kids (and dogs) so while I ventured by every stall, I didn't get pictures of everything. Lots of free samples were being given and I was able to partake in a few. With my smeller and taster still broken, it all tasted and smelled the same - with two exceptions. I could tell the maple fudge was sweet, and the lavender sachets smelled like lavender. Maybe I have a first step in my taste and smell coming back???

So much bruschetta

Salami and sausages

I don't know what kind this was but I tried it

Another stall of salami. They looked so good!

Add some cheese with the salami

Throw in some bread and I could be in heaven.
I think these were sweets, though.

I can taste sweet maple. Yay!

Beautiful chocolates

Colorful nuts and fruits

I couldn't smell their soaps but could smell their sachet

Today was by far the most difficult day of the trip. The constant roughness of the cobblestones not only required Scooter's motor, but my feet and legs to get him through it. By the time I got back to the ship I could hardly move. The combination of a long, hot, almost-scalding shower and ibuprofen and acetaminophen helped relax things enough where I could at least order dinner in. I'll keep my feet up for the rest of the night and hope I'll be ready for tomorrow when we'll be in Visby, Sweden. We're supposed to have some rough weather coming up, but I'll be there figuring something out anyway!

Apologies for any errors. I'm a hurtin' and can't think straight. I already found about a dozen typos I corrected and wouldn't be surprised if there were several more.