This day was basically dedicated to traveling, and it shows beautifully why traveling in Germany (and I think basically all over Europe) simultaneously always feels so much longer than traveling in the States and also so much more doable without a car. So, on the one hand, I could say that we traveled all day–over 12 hours–to cover the paltry 234 miles (as the crow flies) from Andrea and Peter’s place in Hamburg to our vacation rental on the Danish island of Bornholm–and it would sound ridiculously slow by American standards. But on the other, I could point out that we were able to get here using only affordable public transportation, including 4 different modes–bus, subway, train, and ferry! So pick your bias–the bottom line is that we are good and tired this evening, but we also had a really good time getting here and a big dose of random good luck. So if you appreciate travel logistics challenges, you can read the following, or you can skip to the first images we took of our destination, Bornholm, at the very end!
We had packed everything including our picnic food the night before and set out at zero dark thirty (literally leaving the house on foot at 5:15 am) with our four little suitcases, four backpacks, and a few odds and ends to catch a city bus to the subway to get the main station. Peter, who had done the travel planning, had built in extra time for possible delays at every step of the way, because the trains are currently overcrowded and the train infrastructure outdated, so planning for contingencies is a must. But that meant that we were 15 minutes early and had enough time for me to grab a latte at Hamburg’s main station! We also managed to get four seats together on the regional train we took from Hamburg to Rostock, a journey of about 2.5 hours, so we were happy as clams. But as we settled into our spots and started looking at the route, we found a glitch in our travel plans: the ferry that we were supposed to catch in Sassnitz on the German island of Rügen was not leaving from the harbor close to Sassnitz downtown but much further South, at a dedicated ferry terminal. With a quarter of an hour of somewhat frantic research on our phones, we figured out where we needed to go, and that there was a special regional train that could take us directly from a city South of Sassnitz, Bergen, to the ferry terminal. That felt very lucky, because special train has only been running since 2022, only runs on Saturdays and in fact just started running TODAY, because it is strictly a summer season route. It also only runs every two hours, so there were exactly two chances for us to catch that train and still get our ferry–one a very tight connection on the one end (our current train), and the other a tight connection on the other (the ferry at 2:30 pm). We didn’t have a good alternative, though, and initially, it looked like we’d have smooth sailing, since our train to Rostock was running on time. But then, just before Rostock, that train came to a stop and all of a sudden the 10 minutes we had to change trains to go to Bergen shrunk to 5, then to 3 minutes, and from there to “you will miss that connection.” But hallelujah, the conductor came on the intercom and told the panicking passengers that our connecting train to Bergen and Sassnitz would wait for everyone. And that meant we caught what turned out to be the most adorable little one-wagon train to the ferry at 10:30 am–it is basically a bus on tracks–and would be two hours early for the ferry we’d booked. Except that as another incredible bit of good luck, we were able to rebook our trip for an earlier ferry that was about to leave, at no extra cost.
The ferry runs primarily for Germans in cars and RVs who spend their summer vacation on Bornholm, and I suppose a few extra pedestrians really didn’t make that much of a difference. We spent a lovely 3 1/2 hours on this comfy boat, watching the many families on board (there was a resting area with bunk beds and a play area for little kids, and everyone had brought board games, blankets, and also in quite a lot of cases their dogs), getting coffee and tea in the lavish cafeteria, resting in our very comfy seats, and wandering around in a rather unpleasant drizzle on deck to stretch our legs. It was still drizzling when we got to the harbor in Bornholm, the Danish island where we will spend the next week. We got bus tickets for the week from the tourist information, got cash from an ATM and also some basic groceries, and then took a bus across the island (another 1 hour 15 minutes, but the LAST leg of our trip), taking in the views under gray and stormy skies, to the small town of Guthjem on the northern coast of the island. We got there about 5 pm, and found our vacation rental, half of a tiny duplex that is just PERFECT and has a view of the ocean from the deck and the living room.
We had just enough energy left to go have burgers and fish and chips at a nearby restaurant, and to go down to the absolutely gorgeous granite cliffs along the coast. By this time, the sun had come out and we clambered along the hiking path that lines the coast for a half an hour, just to get our bearings. It was just SO beautiful! Then we grabbed a few more groceries for the next day and called it a night. I don’t think it was 9 pm by the time we all crawled into bed.
