Sun, summer & powder sand beaches of Anholt

Sebastian and I bought our aircraft at the same week in April this year, with the difference of a couple of days. We several times considered buying one together, but ended up with a vintage Piper Tri Pacer for Sebastian, and a brand new Aeroprakt for me. Many times we talked about going flying together, and finally we had a day when we both could AND the weather was perfect. We decided to spend that sunny day on the island of Anholt.

First – preparing the aircraft, later – breakfast in the garden of our flying club in Holbæk:

Airborne and looking so much forward to a day off on a beach:

After about an hour of flight the island was on the horizon:

We got permission to cross over from Grenaa in FL95. It was a big relief, because we otherwise wouldn’t have had the gliding distance should the engine fail. There are some advantages of flying during the COVID-19 pandemic times – very little commercial traffic gives room in FL95 for an ultralight:

There was this funny small cloud over Anholt, the only one over the entire skies:

We did a round over the island in order to come down at a lower altitude and establish the aircraft in the landing pattern:

The wind direction was changing all the time, we ended up landing in tailwind.

Some paperwork – registration and payment of (the most expensive in whole country) landing fee:

We got the bikes, and headed on the road. Getting bikes wasn’t easy. They were at the airport, there was a phone number – but nobody answered. However, after I sent a text message, the answer with the code to the bikes came immediately.

The roads on Anholt are mostly gravel; in the desert they exist as well – but only walking is allowed there:

Our first stop was the church which was closed (I’ve never experienced it open):

Sebastian didn’t visit the church’s graveyard on his previous trips to Anholt, and I wanted to show him some graves there with stories behind that I knew.

At the entrance, there is a monument dedicated to two young girls. One was in the water playing, and began having troubles. Another one saw it, and tried to save her. They drowned together. If I remember correctly, it happened in the 19th century. The father of one of them made sure the memory of the girls would live at the graveyard:

Then there are graves of five pilots that lost their lives during the WWII – they were from three different Lancaster that crashed near Anholt.

Another gravestone was to four Danish men that died during the battle with Britain in 1811:

The monument on the photo below was erected in 1905 in commemoration of the Danish officers and men killed on 27th March 1811 during their unsuccessful endeavours to regain control of the island. Anholt remained occupied by British forces until 1814 when Napoleon was defeated.

On the right on the same photo is a golf cart with a couple – we met them several times during the day, and almost became friends. They were also tourists, from Tåsinge, but they were going to stay on Anholt for several days. They had kindly offered us a lift in their golf cart to the town from the airport where we were having problems getting bikes.

Ricco’s kaffebar – supposed to be the best coffee on the island, but was closed whilst we were there:

We’ve got Sebastian an “island passport” (a concept where you have a kind of a passport with either 27 or 37 Danish islands listed there, and can stamp an island’s page when you have visited that island) and a stamp:

Charming harbour with an old lighthouse in the background:

It was much warmer than we expected, and we hurried to the beach. Finally I was together with a person who took at least as many pictures, as I normally do:

The sea was so refreshing!

We hanged out there till the dinner time.

Then back to the harbour, making stops to take pictures:

In the harbour, two restaurants were open. Sebastian and I had a choice of either seafood dishes or grilled sausages. After some considerations and negotiations we decided to go for seafood where Sebastian could get a burger (again, as he said):

The food was good; they laughed at my request to get water of a room temperature, but I got it. My smoked salmon was very fresh, and Sebastian liked his burger.