Friday early morning, I was having my breakfast, checking the weather and planning our route back home on Saturday morning. I normally work from 7 a.m. – it’s nice to start the day early.
And I was lucky – several meetings in the afternoon got postponed, and I could leave early, so that Henrik and I had the chance for one last hiking tour – Stenhuggerstien (English: The Quarry Workers’ Footpath). It was close to our home, and we could do it in 2 hours:
The whole area of Hammeren is very picturesque, and in principal, it doesn’t matter whish way you go and what path you choose. On one of our early hikes, for 2 weeks ago, I took a brochure somewhere attracted by the picture of the Quarry workers on its front page. Since then I wanted to walk this tour.
The granite which makes up Hammerknuden was formed 1.4 billion years ago and has been a prized commodity which has formed the basis of a huge quarry industry from the 1880’s until 1971 when all quarrying on Hammeren stopped.
We climbed up the steep slopes, leading from one terrace to another. Many of the slopes were built for cable railways, and when you reach the middle terrace you can see square rocks used for anchorage as well as remains of cable attachments on the rockface.
The town of Sandvig from the middle terrace:
We didn’t stop there, but continued to the third terrace – the highest one. The views from there were spectacular:
We had a break there, sitting on the rocks and enjoying the sunshine:
I was flying my drone:
I flew to the Hammeren Lighthouse. Since 1802, a warning light has been sent over the Baltic Sea from the top of Hammeren. The lighthouses have been modernized many times and have at times stood as examples of the best in engineering and ingenuity. It was one of the first places to use electricity and radio signals, long before they became public property. The Hammeren Lighthouse stands on top of the Ørnebjerget at 82 m over the sea, and is made of local granite:
Then I flew my drone to the Opalsøen (Opal lake) and Hammersøen (Hammer lake):
The quarry industry began on Bornholm in 1880’s, but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 hit the communities in Northern Bornholm hard. The quarry workers lost their jobs from one day to another and the tourist trade was severely afflicted. Social consequences were dire and many had to move away due to the lack of jobs. From 1911 to 1921 the number of people living on Northern Bornholm diminished to two thirds of the former level. The severe unemployment prompted the Danish State to approve renewed quarrying on Hammerknuden in 1919. By 1928 a new stone chipping factory was finished and in 1930 a new loading dock was built at Hammerhavn. Five hundred tons of crushed stone were produced daily (!) on what was now one of Europe’s most modern crushing works.
It was very interesting to walk these places and learn about their history. There were lots of goats on the steep slopes – they were eating all the leaves on the trees they could only reach, and at a very high speed!
After the hiking tour, Henrik and I decided to drive to Gudhjem for coffee and chocolate. But when we saw that the Pancake House was open, we changed our mind and went there instead of:
I got one with Grand Marnier, ice cream, oranges and almond flakes:
It tasted great, was really like I would make it myself at home.
Last stroll through the charming streets of Gudhjem:
I bought myself a new jacket in a local shop, it was nicely packed in a plastic bag with a map of Bornholm on – and here I show the bag off:
And a lazy stroll by the sea before we headed home:
Next morning we were going to fly back home. The weather on Zealand finally seemed to stabilise, and we looked forward to a warm and sunny weekend.