Bornholm is an island closer to Sweden then it is Denmark but it is nevertheless Danish territory.
It has a very interesting post-WWII history. It was occupied by the Nazi’s during the war. In 1945, the Russians ordered their surrender but the German commander of the island wanted to surrender to the British, not the Russians. The Russians bombed the city of Ronne and other areas of the island killing Danish citizens and forcing the surrender.
Denmark was aligned with the west having been liberated by the British and Americans. Bornholm was the only part of the country under Russia’s influence. They remained as occupiers for 11 months until an agreement was reached and the island was freed. This home was in the bombed area, but went untouched. They commemorate it with a painting over the door.
I wish I could say we got all this information from our guide, but we did not. She was a very sweet women who talked low and was more interested in the architecture of the area then the history. Oh well, sometimes that happens, you can’t always get a guide that matches your exact interests.
She did take us to a local cemetery, and that is one of Fred's interests. No one famous was buried here she just wanted to show us what a Danish cemetery looks like. It turns out it looks like a garden.
We did ask her about the secret – not so secret – base on the island that listens in to Russian communication and probably some other stuff as well. She said, they really don’t talk about it, it’s not part of their daily lives (that makes sense). She did say that a very large transport plane was seen over the city last week and that there are ‘a lot of’ American soldiers on the island. The base itself is quite a distance from Ronne where we were today.
Her home has a barn and she told us one day Danish soldiers showed up asking to use it for some search exercises. She told them sure, what else was she going to say.
So, the city itself was very charming with narrow streets and many half-timber homes, as they are called.
That last one is for sale and has been for sale for a while if you're interested. I think she said they are asking in the $300K neighborhood.
I forgot to get pictures, but in the shipyard where we were docked there were dozens of wind turbines ready to be set up in the Baltic for the production of electricity. Our guide didn’t know when they will be going in but all the parts appeared to be there. The city is also building a cruise terminal to attract more ships to the island, that will be quite a boon to the economy here.
Our guide told us that some people on the island actually work in Copenhagen and fly to work each day. It’s a 25-minute flight she said.
It was a nice visit for us. After the walking tour we looked around ourselves for a while and had lunch at a restaurant in the town square before heading back to the ship.
Tomorrow we are in Kiel Germany.
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