Copenhagen & Bornholm

We took the train from Stockholm to Copenhagen, which is quick and efficient (as are all Scandinavian trains). We found our hotel, which is a short distance from the train station. Shortly afterwards, our son James arrived from London. It was good to catch up.

We spent the next day looking around Copenhagen. We made our own way on public transport, which wasn't always free from error. Of course, you have to see the Little Mermaid, but it really is little, and not worth the bother. A nearby statute of the goddess Gudion using four oxen to plough the land that became Zealand is much more impressive.

We saw the Rosenberg Palace and the Crown Jewels, the Ameliaborg Palaces (a royal residence) and various other attractions. Copenhagen is an easy city to stroll around and we did much of this. We enjoyed sitting at outdoor cafes and having a drink, as do much of the population.

Early on Sunday morning, we took a train to Bornholm. Actually it's a train to Ystad in Sweden and then a ferry to Rønne on Bornholm. Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic, which is closer to Sweden. My mother's family are descendents from Didrick Lyngberg, who left Bornholm as an 18 year old in the 1850's, so we wanted to see if there was any sign of the family. We hired bikes and rode about 10km to Vestermarie, a small inland village. The neat church graveyard contains the graves of two of Didrick's brothers. From there, we rode to Nylans, where we found the "ruan kirke". This church is built as a round tower of three stories and is as much a fortification as a church. It dates from 1150 and was built as a refuge for locals against pirates. It is one of four such churches remaining on Bornholm. We found another Lyngberg in the adjacent graveyard.

We rode back to Rønne - Bornholm is a popular holiday island for its white sand beaches and for it's easy cycling through flat country of forests and wheatfields. We couldn't find any Lyngbergs in the Rønne graveyard, but we did find a dozen or so in the Bornholm phone book. The sun was shining and it was easy to have a drink in the town square (Store Torv).

On Monday, we returned to Copenhagen. We completed our tour of the city with a tour of the royal reception rooms in the Christianborg Palace (the palace is used for royal receptions, for the Prime Minister's office, for the Supreme Court and for the Parliament) and then a one hour tour of the canals.