Travels every which way

This is my first weekend home in about a month! It's kind of nice.

Here we go! The first trip was with my European Politics class. We visited southern Denmark (specifically, Lolland and Sønderborg) and the northern German province of Schleswig-Holstein (Lübeck and Kiel) to learn about border region development - specifically, the role that EU development funds play, and how they are obtained.

The EU has wildly increased in size in recent years, and we heard from both Danish and German officials that dealing with the bureaucracy in Brussels to secure funding - designated by the EU for projects which span borders and increase political and economic integration - means putting together a lobbying office (and, of course, having the resources in the first place to do that), something which I'm fairly certain was not an intention when this fund was created.

The project in question was the recently-announced Fehmarn Bridge, a 32 billion kroner ($6.5 billion US) link between Germany and southern Denmark (specifically, the route to Copenhagen) that will be completed in 2018. Denmark will benefit far more from this bridge than Germany does, because it will have better access to all of Europe, whereas Germany will have better access to... Scandinavia. Germany has, in fact, refused to pay for any of it. The EU is funding 15 percent after some hardcore lobbying, and Denmark is paying the rest with bridge tolls north of $100.

Apart from our meetings with various regional representatives, we also had time to explore Lübeck, including its famous marzipan factory, and Kiel... ok, not so much to do in Kiel. We also had a very fun night in Sønderborg (multicultural experience: ordering Italian food from a German/English menu in Denmark). We visited Dybbøl Banke, the battlefield where Denmark got hardcore whooped by the Germans in 1864, which is supposedly still a huge part of Danes' national identity and the beginning of their "turning inward," after realizing that their hard power is basically nonexistent. Very interesting to see the large number of people flying Danish flags in this part of Jutland, which remained part of Germany from the time of the defeat until post-WWI. (Making up for lost time?)

The next weekend, I went on a bike trip to the island of Bornholm with a DIS group of about 100. It's way out east in the Baltic Sea, located between Sweden and Poland, actually, but Danish territory. The only way to reach it from Denmark is by a 6-hour overnight ferry (now that was a fun time). Dean and I biked about 100 km over two days, and had ridiculous amounts of fun!

On the first day, we visited Dueodde, the white dunes and beaches at the southernmost part of the island, where the sand is apparently the finest in the world. It was definitely fun to play in, but the water was very cold, so we continued on through some cute little hamlets and Almindingen, a big forest. We eventually reached the famous, Crusade-era round church at Østerlars. It was well worth the 10 kroner to see the inside. There are three other round churches on Bornholm, which are thought to be linked in mysterious and intriguing ways to the Knights Templar, although we did not find out the details.

By Day 2, we were both quite sore, so we did an easier route up the north coast of the island. We visited Hammershus, the medieval castle/fortress ruins at the very northern tip of Bornholm (absolutely beautiful), and stopped at a smokehouse in Allinge on the way back. Bornholm is famous for its smoked herring, and I was totally ready to not leave the island until we found some. The smokehouse was right on the water, so it was very hygge (cozy) to look outside at the stormy sea while eating an extraordinarily hearty meal of buttered rugbrød (Danish rye bread), onions, an egg yolk, and a whole herring, which had a small mountain of salt piled on top of it. Oh, and the Bornholm dark beer, too. Yum!

Aaand... this past weekend, I went on another DIS adventure trip, this time to southern Sweden. We biked about 45 km the first day up to Kullaberg Nature Reserve, a peninsula in the Kattegatt Strait, and back. Not as many cultural stops as Bornholm, but the Swedish countryside was absolutely beautiful, and the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula had great views. We had the opportunity to check out Ladonia, a 1-sq. km. micronation that an artist has founded within the nature reserve. You'll have to look at the pictures to believe this - the dude has built ridiculous driftwood and rock sculptures all over a beach that can only be reached by a hike of about an hour. You have to climb through a tunnel of ankle-twisting driftwood goodness to enter the "kingdom," which kind of resembles a castle. The artist claims 13,000 citizens (although no permanent residents), and one can become a noble (you pick your own title) by paying him $12 on his website.

The second day, we canoed on a river that passed through lots and lots of farmland and, finally, Ängelholm. It was very soothing, except for the whole paddling-against-the-wind part.

Picture time!
Northern Germany photos
Southern Denmark photos
Bornholm Day 1 photos
Bornholm Day 2 photos
Sweden photos

Enjoy!