World Cruise Day 159/163 Scenic Scandinavia - Rønne, Bornholm, Denmark - we're Born(holm) again tourists

Cruise day: 159/163

Ports days: 87
Sea days: 72
Countries: 28
Continents: 5
Ports: 62

We're back in Rønne on the Danish island of Bornholm again today.  

This morning's activity was the two-hour included bus tour around the island.  There aren't a ton of photos as I posted a bunch in the May 20th post.

We had an interesting bus today - a double-decker tour bus.  We liked it as the view from the upper deck was terrific.  Walking inside the upper deck was another matter as you had to be less than perhaps 5'4" tall to be able to stand upright.  They also had this interesting button overhead in each pair of seats.

It appeared that if you pressed it, you would receive both martinis and coffee - we thought that was an odd combo so we passed on the opportunity

We saw this bus - I'm not sure how this bus is powered, but if it has anything to do with the name, I do not want to ride in it - I'm guessing that every 200 miles it makes a mandatory stop at Taco Bell

Like last time, the only stop this tour makes is in Hammeren at the Hammershus Castle Ruins.  Follow the post I linked above for more details.  The weather was certainly better today than the last visit with mostly clear skies and a temp in the mid-50s.

If you look closely toward the lower left, you can see some goats

I didn't get a chance to see this side on my last visit

More on Hammershus.

We drove around the island, driving through quaint villages and watching along the coastline.

The Peoples Meeting Dome - a deconstructed geodesic dome

We returned to our ship after the two-hour tour, hungry for lunch.  We grabbed salads and then caught the shuttle into Rønne.  We wandered the streets doing some window shopping, and enjoying the sights and architecture.

St. Nicolas' Church

Some local art on display.

Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society

Baptist Church

Post office

A bee was working these flowers

Get in there, little buddy!

Even when you've got nothing but a rock wall, nature still finds a way

After about an hour, we caught the shuttle for the return ride to the ship.  After the last couple of days of lousy weather, it was nice to enjoy blue skies and sunshine.

 It was evident that Arlona is still feeling COVID impacts as shortly after we returned to the room, she was out cold for a nap.  The fatigue seems to keep hanging on as well as a, let's call it mental fog, as she describes it.  The cough seems to have mostly disappeared, except first thing in the morning.

As we started sailing out, we got one last great look at Rønne with its lighthouse on the left, St. Nicolas' Church, all the red roofs, and the wind turbines in the background

The channel in and out of the port is quite narrow - you can see how close we were to the marker

The inner marker

The outer marker

A couple of swans did not seem interested at all that the Viking Star was sailing by

We also got a good look at the massive crane in port that handles the wind turbine columns

One of the columns was hoisted into a specialty machine

You can see the rusted end of the column - that's the part that is inserted into the sea bed, anchoring the turbine offshore

I have no idea what this machine does, but it is an amazing piece of specialized machinery

The seagulls seemed to appreciate the Star churning up something delicious

It was quite a convention of seagulls behind us

The shuttle bus driver talked about Bornholm's commitment to green energy - 52% of their electricity is already being produced by renewable methods - he said that an offshore wind farm was in progress about 50 miles south of Bornholm - I'm pretty sure this was it

Once fully operational, it will significantly overproduce for Bornholm's needs, creating the opportunity to export energy to Sweden as a new way to bolster Bornholm's economy

We are on the way back to Warnemünde, Germany - our gateway to Berlin.  Tomorrow, we have a 12-hour day planned.  We will take a chartered train into Berlin along with about 250 other passengers.  We all then split into our specific excursions.  Ours combines a bus and boat tour of the city, hitting many of the highlights before our train takes us all back to the ship.  It will be a long day, especially for Arlona, but we're looking forward to it.  I'll be hauling the laptop so I can work on tomorrow's blog entry during the two-hour train trip back to Warnemünde. That way I will get to sleep tomorrow night. :-)