When on Bornholm, a must place to see is Ertholmene – the easternmost islands of Denmark. Ertholmene is situated 18 km northeast of Gudhjem, and a ferry from Gudhjem will bring you there in about an hour.
Henrik and I arrived to Gudhjem a bit earlier and I went flying drone. That morning was calm and sunny, and I took many good photos of the town.
Soon we departured:
Ertholmene consists of three main islands – Christiansø, Frederiksø and Græsholm, where the latter one is not inhabited. Often the archipelago would be referred to as Christiansø which is the main island where the ferry arrives to. I took the photo below from marinaguide.dk – Frederiksø is on the left, and Christiansø – on the right. I would rather have taken such a photo myself, but it requires a special permission to fly a drone there.
My favourite is Frederiksø – I love tiny islands – and we went there first by crossing over from Christiansø via a bridge:
The island has an area of about 4 hectares, and its highest point is 8 m above sea level. Approx. 30 people live there. We went through its narrow paths, trying to respect the privacy of its inhabitants as much as we could.
Small gardens of Frederiksø:
A family of swans was peacefully swimming on the northern side of the island:
Everything was flourishing, and the Aviator also appreciated the spring at its best:
I showed Henrik a red house on Frederiksø – the only one red house on the islands (the rest are white – governance offices, yellow – inhabitants), with an intriguing past:
The islands’ executioner used to live in that house. One day he had a fight with his servant over a lost pair of slippers, and killed his servant (just out of a habit, you know). Because there was no one to execute him on Ertholmene, he was transferred to Bornholm where he could be beheaded. After that story the islands of Christiansø and Frederiksø never had an executioner again!
We also visited the State Prison at Frederiksø. It was built in 1825 and had 8 cells. Doctor Jacob Dampe spent 20 years in cell number 8 on the first floor:
Jacob Dampe (1790 – 1867) was a Danish theologian and a political activist. In 1820 he was sentenced to death because he had demanded the abolition of the Absolute monarchy in Denmark and the introduction of a free constitution. Later the sentence was changed to prison for life. Dampe was released in 1841, and settled in Rønne on Bornholm.
We went back to Christiansø, and walked slowly around:
I always take a photo of this house when on Christiansø:
Imagine, how cold it must be living there, especially during winter time! It only has 2 small windows – one on the ground floor (on the other side, facing the harbour), and another one – on the first floor.
Canons, facing the enemies (all those terrible wars!):
On the top of Christiansø, somewhere between the graveyard and the tower, there are a couple of small lakes. One of them is always full of singing frogs. Visitors often sit there by the lake, having lunch and taking pictures of frogs – so did we:
On small islands, one can often see beautiful gardens, squeezed in between the rocks. That was also the case on Ertholmene; here a small orchard on Christiansø:
A building where arms and ammunition where once stored:
We went inside, and The Aviator couldn’t resist a chance to be photographed on top of a sculpture someone so tastefully placed there on a rock in the middle:
Time on Ertholmene went quickly; an ice cream with the view to Frederiksø before sailing home:
At home, we had a nice a nice evening, reading about Bornholm, and going for a walk on the hills around.
