Ronne, Denmark
Ronne, Denmark Wednesday, June 1, 2022
It’s JUNE! How can that be? The weather here is rainy and in the
mid-50s. Feels like early April on this
side of the world. Emails from you
detail the winds and steep roller coaster temps of late May. We’re missing that. We’re missing YOU!
The Google Earth map will show that we are still island-hopping as we circle back toward Germany, then to the Netherlands, then Belgium, France for 6 days, then a day each in Spain and Portugal on June 14. After this, we have the final segment of the entire cruise—most of which will be in the British Isles before crossing the Atlantic, landing for a day in Newfoundland then arriving in New York City on July 4. We look forward to seeing many of you once we get settled in LeClaire in mid-July.
We’re in Ronne, Denmark for about 12
hours. The ship offers information about each site prior to our landing, so
here’s some of what we learned about this island: many of the older homes are
half-timbered houses, but this town bears more WW2 scars than many because
while the rest of Denmark was celebrating the liberation in 1945, the Germans
still occupied this island—notable German refugees on their way home from the
Eastern front. Therefore, on May 7 &
8, 1945, the Russians bombed the town so badly that every tenth house was
destroyed, now referred to as bomb houses that have been reconstructed.
Jerry and I did not sign up for a formal tour in this island
town because we looked ahead and thought we could walk to most of the sights on
our own. So we boarded the shuttle bus that took us about 5 blocks from the
ship and dropped us off to walk up the hill of steps to the second of about
three levels of this compact city. Cool,
cloudy, and threatening rain, we set out on foot to discover what we
could. It was hinted to us that many
locals allowed peeks into their lives by setting in their eye-level windowsills
the curios of their lives: porcelain figurines, glass vases, flowers, etc.
As is often the case a church was the center of
attention. Not open. We had been told of a small artists
collective so walked a couple of blocks to find it. We found an odd looking back yard with an open
door so found our way in. I think we
were supposed to go in the front door.
No problem. Hand painted fabrics
and clay pottery and jewelry were all on display. The potter showed us the process she uses for
creating the pottery. They found some
really nice clay in the 1800’s creating an industry of ceramics. Our next visit was to one of their old
factories in which they still make the ceramics in the olden way and have done
so for 150 or so years. It is basically
a working museum. Found an older women
who was working in her own station explaining how you had to use plaster molds
to suck the water out of the clay, shrinking the clay and allowing you to
remove it from the mold with ease.
After the museum we walked through the town finding a quaint but not compelling place. We decided to return to the ship and on the way to the shuttle we happened on a couple trying to move a huge wooden frame out of one home and into the next door home. The woman was overmatched so Jerry went to help. Multiple attempts proved to be frustrated by the angles needed to get the oversized platform through the front door and a second door to the side of the entryway. They had recently purchased the old home and we left them with the platform leaning against the outside wall of the home and trying to come up with a new plan. We have no idea what they ended up doing.
We caught the shuttle and returned to the boat. We were back early enough so we went and
played bridge for a couple of hours before the trivia competition that is held
on many of the afternoons.
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