B and B (Birthday and Bornholm)

Sunday August 31, 2025

Bornholm, Denmark

Starting today's blog by sharing pictures of Nancy's birthday dinner and the wonderful staff on Viking.

Pictures of the amazing staff at the Chef's Table restaurant who helped make Nancy's birthday very special. Especially awesome was that there were two desserts, each served with its own beverage - Moscato d'Asti and a Champagne! One dessert was Chilled Mango Cream, and the other was a chocolate mousse cake. YUM! Please note that in one of the pictures I am blowing out a battery powered votive candle! So fun! (No real flames allowed on the ship!!!)

And of course, the food and wine pairing was amazing! We always enjoy eating at the Chef's Table. Pictured below are Fried Prawns with crispy garlic and chili, and Wok-fried Beef in black pepper sauce with rice in a lotus leaf.

And when we got back to our room our Room Stewards wished Nancy a Happy Birthday also. These are our fabulous room stewards:

Now on to Bornholm Denmark. Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea off the south coast of Sweden. We docked at the town of Rønne.

Fun Facts - Denmark

•  Denmark consistently ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world. 

• LEGO: The popular toy building bricks were invented in Denmark in 1932. 

• Hygge (hyoo-guh): The concept of "hygge" is deeply ingrained in Danish culture, emphasizing coziness, comfort, and contentment.  In essence, hygge is about creating cosy social gatherings and intimate get-togethers with family and friends.

• "Janteloven" is an unofficial law that emphasizes community over individual achievement. The concept plays a key part of the Danish culture and mentality where everyone is accepted and equal.

• Denmark became the first country to legalize same-sex unions in 1989.  And same-sex marriage was granted in 2012.

• Lars Ulrich of Metallica was born in Denmark.

Fun Facts - Bornholm

• Sustainable Development: The island is a leader in sustainable development, utilizing solar and wind energy. 

• Fennoscandian Border Zone:  Bornholm sits on the Fennoscandian Border Zone, where ancient granite meets younger sandstone. 

• Wildlife:  Bornholm has a diverse fauna, including fallow deer, various bird species, and even reintroduced European bison. 

• Chief industrial activities are dairy farming and arts and crafts industries such as glass production and pottery using locally worked clay.

• The sand at one of the beaches is so fine it was used to make hourglasses, one of which belonged to Napoleon.

We had a leisurely morning and then took an afternoon bus tour around the island. The size of Bornholm is similar to the size of Manhattan, yet only has approximately 39,000 people. Here are some of the highlights.

This is the city of Rønne, taken from the ship.

As the Fun Fact said, the island of Bornholm embraces a culture of caring for the planet by creating sustainable communities.

The port of Roenne is active in the construction and deployment of offshore wind turbines in the Baltic Sea. The island itself already gets the majority of its power from wind and solar energy, and aims to be 0 carbon emissions by 2030. We saw many of these windmills as we toured the island.

The interior of the island is mostly farm land, where they grow different types of grains which thrive in the rich soil and sunlit days found on the island. The farm land is also used for sheep and cows, and LOTS of pigs. Corn and pig meat are major exports. The farmers also commit to putting 4% of their land aside as fallow land, used to sustain native crops such as sunflowers and help restore the soil.

As part of their conservation practices the island also monitors the health and abundance of local species. For example, when the fox population dropped to practically 0, the species they preyed on saw a huge population rise, disrupting the balance. So now trained hunters, with licenses, hunt the prey the foxes used to control. Unfortunately the fish in the ocean were overfished and the islanders have not been able to bring the fish populations back - yet...

Bornholm has four Round Churches, out of the seven total in Denmark. These were built in the 12th century and played a dual role as a church and community defense structure, The upper level of the church has narrow windows and openings to use guns and arrows during wartime. While the men were upstairs defending the town, the women stayed downstairs in the middle of the church for protection. The inside central part of the church we visited had a beautiful series of paintings depicting events from the bible; this was done to explain the biblical story to those who could not read.

Beautiful shoreline on the northeast part of the island:

The famous Hammershus Castle, built in 1200, was the largest mid-evil fortress/castle in Scandinavia. It was originally built by a priest, and the inhabitants did not interact much with the rest of island's people. Now, only ruins remain.

Gudhjem is a small town and fishing port on the northern coast of Bornholm - population is 730 (our bus driver on the tour lives in Gudhjem). Gudhjem means "God's Home" in Danish and looks very much like an Italian village and is where smoked herrings were first prepared.

And Karen saw these Great Cormorants in the harbor when we first arrived mid-day.

We returned to the ship ....

Tomorrow we are taking a train to Berlin to do some site-seeing. This is a part of the cruise we have been looking forward to experiencing....we leave at 7am....so, early to bed, early to rise matters a lot tomorrow. Auf wiedersehen (owf VEE-der-zay-en)!