A short train ride and we were in Roskilde to visit the Viking Ship Museum to bone up on our Viking history. It was a bit complicated to get to our next stop - Aero Island, a small, beautiful Fairytale Island in Denmark. We were on the move, so we had our bags with us and we found out there are no storage lockers in Roskilde, what to do? - go to the museum and hope for the best! The manager took pity on us and let us store our bags in her office - thank you. We had them call a cab for us when we had learned as much as we could - at the train station we barely figured out which train was ours, but we made it - then we got booted out of our seats a couple of times because people had reserved them ahead of time - we are learning. We followed all the running people going to the busses, found ours, but we had no ticket - no worries, pay the driver (I’m glad we decided to make an ATM withdrawal this morning). 45 minutes on the bus and we were in the town that has the ferry - google maps directed us - there are no postings letting us know - anything - so we asked around. Hey, we are in the right place - just pay on the ferry - and yes, they do take plastic - small victories. 90 minute ferry ride and we are on Aero Island - google directs us to our hotel apartment - Gunnar is delightful, suggests we take a bottle of wine to the beach and watch the sunset - so that’s what we did.
Denmark's Viking roots are on display in this museum. Five boats of different types were scuttled in the harbor to make it impossible for anyone other than local sailors to enter the harbor. They were discovered in Roskilde fjord, brought up and like a puzzle reassembled in the 60's. You really get a sense of the amazing ship building skills needed to build these large vessels.
Another nice sunny day and a couple of beers and the ferry arrives at Aero. The passengers come out the side and the nose of the boat opens to allow the many cars to exit onto the island.
The fairy tale island is just as you would expect. Cramped, cozy houses each unique and living in perfect harmony holding each other up like good friends. The cobblestones are rock, not brick - meant to stand the test of time. You can't help but smile a little wider.
Jackpot