Denmark – Svendborg

Svendborg, Denmark – July 29 to 31, 2013

Svendborg is a little town out on a Southwestern peninsula of the country that juts out into the Baltic Sea. It is a bit of an old industrial port and still has some commercial activity going on down by the docks. It also has its very own, albeit small, beach as well as access to the ferry to Aero Island, which is the reason we were there in the first place. Svendborg is not an overly touristy town and there is not a large amount of accomodation to be had. Lodging on the small island of Aero was not to be found so after somewhat a somewhat difficult search, we managed to find a small, private guesthouse to call home for three nights. This wasn’t something you could locate on trip advisor or hotels.com but only through the local tourism board. It turned out to be a lovely home right on the bay owned by a gentleman who lived on the bottom floor and rented out several rooms on the top floor. Our room was spacious and had an amazing view of the bay and water from which we could watch the ferries go in and out. These types of private residences can be really interesting. The set-up was really strange and there was a mini-kitchen which could be accessed by our room and the hallway which also led to the shared bathroom. The owner could have benefitted a bit from a woman’s touch as the cleanliness was a little suspect, however, we were the only ones staying there for the first two nights and the lovely balconly and view made up pretty well for the other short-comings. The first evening after arrival, we walked 10 minutes down to the little beach and enjoyed relaxing and watching the local children enjoy the hot weather, which is not generally long-lived in this area of the world. I put my toes in the water and it was a bit cool, so I opted to relax and watch and it was very enjoyable. The next day we rented some bicycles (three speed, with back-peddal to break – talk about a blast from the past)and rode out about 10 miles or so to a local castle park. This particuar castle (Egeskov) dated from the 14th century and had actually been a family residence up until the 1970’s at which time they figured they couldn’t really afford the upkeep any longer. You can still tour the house, but we opted to tour the grounds, complete with hedge mazes (yes, plural), old car and motorbike exhibit, playground and some sort of ropes course for children. The castle and grounds were beautiful and we enjoyed our visit before heading back across the Swedish countryside to our little balcony and dinner al fresco at a little local Italian restaurant. We walked the beautiful midieval streets of Svendborg which were completely empty and magical at night, before turning in.

The next day we took the one-hour ferry to Aero Island which also boasts an incredibly quaint midieval village along with many small streets and bike trails on which to traverse and enjoy the beautiful scenery. There was a brief rain storm when we were arriving to a little beach at the other side of the island, from which we hid in a public (one stall) bathroom (sorry, forgot to take a pic). This was an installed port-o-potty sort of a deal which actually was fairly spacious for what it was, and we hung out as close to the door as possible, leaving it open as much as possible….after 20 minutes, the storm was over and it quickly became a beautiful day again….we rode over hills and by the shore, we stopped to visit ancient burial sites and just in general had a fabulous day. I definately recommend this trip, we wouldn’t have minded spending a couple of nights on the island. We were sad that our very brief tour of Sweden was over at this point and prepared to jump back on the train to begin a long stay in Germany the next day……