Rømø

Unfortunately, the time in Hainich passed quickly. On Saturday, we continued our journey to Rømø in Denmark. The drive took almost eight hours. We were on the road from half-past seven until around six in the evening! During this time, we ran into two traffic jams.

The little house we are currently staying in has three living rooms, so luckily there's plenty of space to spread out. However, our bedrooms are quite small, but each has its own. The wardrobes are almost useless as they are crammed with unnecessary junk. The people who rented us the house seemingly like chairs, as they can be found everywhere - along with their accompanying cushions. A great advantage is that the beach is only a hundred meters away from our house.

Rømø is the largest island on the Danish North Sea coast. The beach is extremely wide, and it takes a while to get to the sea. There are beautiful dunes with paths winding through them. Everything is very flat. We have also been to the highest point of the island. The hill, actually more of a bump, is only 19 m above sea level. The view was correspondingly unremarkable.

One evening we wanted to eat out at a restaurant. I ordered a pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms. But then, when the food arrived, there was suddenly a kind of salami on my pizza instead of pepperoni. It turned out that “pepperoni” means salami in Denmark! The chef then made me a new pizza since I am a vegetarian.

A wonderful experience was the mudflat walk. Together with our guide Ole and other participants, we waded barefoot through the mud and discovered interesting creatures together, like crabs, mudworms, snails, small fish, and shrimp. We even found two rather rare worms in the mud. One was the large, colorful bristle worm (see photo) that was surely thirty centimeters long! Meanwhile, we learned about the Wadden Sea and the relationship between the sun and the moon, and about a dike; this is a special dam that protects people from the water. In the end, we looked at herbs on the beach that we could eat! One herb called saltmarsh was cucumber-flavored.

Today we visited Ribe, the oldest city in Scandinavia. There is a huge cathedral there, and we climbed its tower. The view was very nice.

Ribe is very charming with its over one hundred listed buildings. Some of them are so crooked that you wonder how they are still standing. The pedestrian street is also lovely; there are numerous small shops and cafés, and everywhere is very green. My mother and I went shopping a bit since I absolutely needed a long-sleeved top because I forgot to pack one for the trip.

We will use the remaining time on Rømø to go swimming again and further explore the island. On Saturday, we will then continue to Lønstrup.

(from Matilda)