Tag Archives: relaxation

Strandhotel Glucksburg

To relax before the arrival of a small addition to the family in the next few weeks we decided to take a relaxing overnight stay at Strandhotel Glucksburg. The hotel is situated right at the water edge on the German side of Flensburg Fjord, across from the Okseø islands and Annie’s Kiosk in Kollund. This gives the rooms on the water side (called Premier rooms) great views across the Fjord.

The rooms

We stayed in a Premier Room overlooking the water. Our room was located on the fourth floor, which meant that we had to walk up stairs from the 3rd to the 4th floor. This is something to keep in mind if stairs is something you struggle with. However, the views over the water were well worth the climb, even if it was very grey, wet and windy when we were there!

View from Strandhotel Glucksburg

The room itself was quite spacious, with a sitting area on entry, quite a bit of storage if required, and a bed situated to look out over the water. I found the bed very comfortable, though Michael thought it was a bit soft. The linen, however, was some of the nicest I have ever used, particularly the duvet covers! I really need to find where I can buy some of it!

Hotel room at Glucksburg Strandhotel

Going on to the bathroom, again relatively spacious. We had requested a room with a bath and even though we had booked only a few days before for what appeared to be a full hotel, this is what we got. The soaps/shampoos etc provided were also quite nice to use (which is not normal in hotels), though no hair conditioner was offered (body lotion was instead).

Dinner

We had dinner in Restaurant Felix in the hotel itself. For some reason our reservation couldn’t be found, but we were anyways shown to a table (after some time of trying to figure things out). We were offered three 3 or 4 course menus, from which we could then choose individual dishes if preferred, as well as dishes prepared on a lavagrill. Both Michael and I opted for lavagrill dishes, with Michael going for a Husumer rumpsteak and I opted for a lamb fillet. This was then followed by a Valhrona chocolate dessert for Michael and a marzipan mousse dessert for me.

The food was well prepared and the portions were nicely proportioned. The highlights of the meal for me were definitely my lamb… it was very tender and very tasty… and the Christmas ice cream served with the chocolate dessert. This is not to say that the rest was not good, but that these 2 things were exceptionally good!

Throughout the meal the service was also very good… not intrusive but present, and everything done with a smile. All of the servers seemed like they were enjoying what they were doing, which always makes for a pleasant meal out.

Breakfast

Breakfast in the morning is again served in Restaurant Felix. As the previous night, the service was really friendly, and the food was good. There was a wide selection of items, from warm food (3 types of eggs, sausages, bacon and meat balls), good selection of cheeses and hams, toppings, yoghurts, pastries, bread, cereals and juices. There was also a make your own pancakes station!

My absolute favourite thing at breakfast was the home-made muesli porridge offered. To be honest it didn’t look like much and I was going to skip right over it. However, the name intrigued me so I decided to try it out. The home-made muesli is made into a porridge and served with fruit inside (I could distinguish apples and grapes at the very least). It was surprisingly really good… good enough for me to take another portion rather than opt for something else! The pancake station was a hit with Michael, although very few people seemed to be making use of it.

Wellness

Strandhotel Glucksburg is known as a wellness hotel. As such it offers a variety of saunas for use by the guests, as well as treatments. Unfortunately for me it is not recommended that I use saunas at the moment so we didn’t make use of the wellness facilities at the hotel. However, we did go to have a sneak peak and were very graciously offered a tour round by the receptionist there. Definitely something to check out in more depth next time we are there.

Things to do

We took it easy while we were at the hotel, went for a short walk along the water and went for a swim in nearby Forde Therme. Close by is the beautiful water castle Schloss Glücksburg that we have visited on another occasion. If you are into royal matters this is the ancestral home of the House of Glücksburg which includes the current royal Danish family and many of the other royals in Europe like Price Philip of Great Britain.

Glucksburg Castle

Overall Impression

The hotel is not cheap, but if you are looking for a relaxing place it is something to consider. We thought the price was worth it for somewhere close by where we could go to relax. The service was also great all around. What we need now is to have another opportunity to use it (and find what linens they use! They were divine… so if anyone knows, do let me know).

A cycling holiday on the island of Ærø

Denmark has more than a thousand islands but the neighboring island of Ærø in the the South Funen Archipelago is something special. For a long time we have had our eyes on making a trip over here and looking back I don’t know what took us so long to make the short trip to this pocket of charm. We spent two days in Ærø and this is the story of what we did.

Off to the bicycle island

We put our bikes on the back of the car and drove to the ferry in Fynshav, the port of the east coast of Als. We left our car behind and brought our bikes on the ferry.

There is always room for bikes on the ferry to Ærø

If you are not bringing your own you can rent a bicycle so it’s waiting for you when you arrive to Ærø by ferry.

Bike or hike

The island of Ærø is best experienced on foot, by bike or by the free public busses. Bringing a car on the ferry is relatively expensive so a lot of tourists choose to come here by other means. That also means that once you hit the roads in Ærø you meet very few cars on the secondary roads.

The tour operator Tourist Erria organises a package deal similar to what we got – so everything is sorted from home. The one-day package they sell included ferry, bike rental and a picnic for the road. So all you have to do is show up, cycle and enjoy it.

The ferry from Als to Ærø
Skjoldnæs Fyr, Ærø

From the ferry the first sight we got of Ærø was of the the Skjoldnæs lighthouse as we rounded the nothern tip of the island.

When we arrived in Søby on the northern tip of Ærø we walked over to the harbour cafe where Kaj, one of the local men hanging out on the pier, was helping out the cafe’s owner and giving us our packed lunches.

Kaj bid us a safe journey and off we went on the road following the marked bike route.

Route 90 Østersøruten on Ærø

There are three signed bike routes on Ærø that are easy to follow. Route 90 (16km) goes from Søby to Ærøskøbing, route 92 from Ærøskøbing to Marstal (13km) and route 91 from Marstal back to Søby (31km). There is no online version available of these routes but a paper map can be bought on the island.

route_90-91-92_aeroeskoebing-soeby-marstal

You can buy also buy a PDF version of a cycle guide books with turn by turn descriptions of five bike loops of various lengths here. (In Danish there are two books available)

Enjoying the view

On our trip from Søby to Ærøskøbing we had varied scenery. There was almost always the view of the sea to one side. On the other side there were cute houses, an old water mill, art galleries and a valley with cows grazing.

The road was mostly paved but there were a few sections with gravel road. There was some hills and dents in the landscape that meant that a few times we had to get off the bikes to walk them up the hill. But none of the hills are long and once you are on the top it has to go downhill again – weee!

After about 45 mins of cycling we got too curious about the content of the packed lunches and we settled down in the grass outside a small gallery with view over the fields and the water.

The packed lunch from Cafe Arthur was two delicious sandwiches that really hit the spot.

Onwards and upwards we went and after another stretch of about 45 min we reached Ærøskøbing.

Going back in time

Many of the houses in central Ærøskøbing date back to the Middle Ages. The small one-story houses in a wide variety of colours ooze character. If walls could speak I bet this town would tell you many tales.

We cycled into the center of Ærøskøbing and settled down on the town square outside a cozy cafe called “På Torvet” for a well deserved break and a beer from the island’s brewery.

Cozy cafe "På Torvet"

We met Gunnar the owner of the cafe who told us about how him and his wife had fallen in love with the island and recently started the cafe/apartment rental business. Just behind the cafe they have a number of newly remodeled apartments and one of these was going to be our home for the night. The apartment was bright and spacious with a big bathroom and a fully equipped kitchen so we could cater for ourselves. Here’s a wobbly 360 of our room:

paatorvet 360

We dropped off our luggage in the apartment and went down to get lunch. The lunch for me was a delicious assorted plate which had some interesting things like garlic-herring, broccoli muffins and brie with fig jam – nomnom!

Frokost platte fra "På Torvet" i Ærøskøbing

After lunch we were ready to go out and explore more of Ærøskøbing – and there are many nooks and crannies, quirky shops and museums to explore.



Hammerichs Hus, Ærøskøbing


For the evening Gunnar had given us a hint. Go to the beach outside of town, bring a bottle of wine and some snacks, take a seat next to the beautiful boat houses and watch the sunset. It sounded like a great idea so that was how we ended the day, watching the sun sink into the South Funen sea.

Maritime Memories

Next day we cycled over to the next town, Marstal, the biggest on the island. We came across signs for a “Jættestue” and decided to check out what it was.

Around the island there are a number of ancient burial mounds, some of them dates back to the stone ages. The one we came across – “Kragnæs jættestue” is from around 3200 B.C. and was a chamber built in stone covered in a mound. It was used as a burial site used for many generations by the upper layers of society.

If you are like me and interested in sail boats and their history the Maritime Museum in Marstal is the place to see. Marstal was for a long time a big player on the worlds oceans as the artifacts and stories can tell in this museum. There are dozens if not hundreds of model ships of different ages and proportions, all either built on Ærø or sailed by Ærø people.

On the pier of Marstal the maritime theme continues in the cozy fish restaurant Fru Berg.

We felt we had cycled enough so after lunch we grabbed a free bus back up to Søby harbour, even though it was still a while till the ferry was meant to leave.

You can bring your bicycle on the bus – also for free. However do take note that there is only room for two bikes on each bus, so if you are on the island in a busy time you need some luck to get this to work out.

From Søby we cycled up to Skjoldnæs Lighthouse, which is around a 5 km trip. This was the first thing we saw on the ferry when approaching Ærø from Als, so is was fitting way to finish our trip.

You can go to the top of the lighthouse and see the grand views all around. The lighthouse is in a golf club and, if lucky, you may be able to buy an ice-cream or coffee from the club house.

Udsigt Skjoldnæs Fyr

We set our wheels in direction of Søby for the last strech. However, we had to make one more stop as in the middle of nowhere stood a shiny golden cow in a field. We stopped to check it out and we came across a beautiful sculpture garden on the other side of the road belonging to a skilled stone mason.


Back at the harbour in Søby we had time for a last ice cream. Our little island adventure was about to come to an end. Soon the ferry arrived, opened it’s mouth and swallowed us with our bikes. It dropped us off back in reality on Als – refreshed but with slightly sore behinds.

Learn more

The American travel journalist and tour operator Rick Steves that hosts travel shows on public TV and radio in USA has a tour of the best in Scandinavia and the Danish section visits Copenhagen, Roskilde – and tiny Ærø. Read or see more of Rick on Ærø.

If you want to get some of the island history before you go to Ærø do pick up Carsten Jensen’s novel We, The Drowned.

If you can read Danish there is an excellent book by Allan Harsbo called Ærø Bogen which in great detail and with humour tells about the geology, nature, history and culture of Ærø and its inhabitants.

The island is a bit challenged by its name with the Danish characters. Which means there are several ways to write Ærø in English. The official website calls it “Visit Aeroe“. But you can also find people refer to it as Aero or Erria.

Disclaimer: Our trip to Ærø was sponsored by Ærø turist (ferry ticket), turist-erria (picnic pack and books on Ærø) and På Torvet (accommodation and lunch).