Exploring Ero Island

We had a delightful breakfast this morning - it is really more like a lunch. There was cold cuts, cheeses, tomatoes wedges, slices of cucumber, orange slices and also juice, breads, rolls, soft boiled eggs, yogurt, and of course, coffee.

We then headed to the Tourist Information office and and got a detailed map of the island - actually, it was the bike map for the island. So we were following some pretty narrow roads today. Most of them were one lane roads. We covered most of the roads on the island. We visited several old churches and roamed around the old attached graveyards. As the guidebooks say, it is pretty hard to find a stone marker with a name that does not end in "sen." Although, I did not find any Johansens, which is my maiden name.

The "U-shaped" farms are fascinating and are pretty typical of Denmark. The 3 sides block the wind and store cows, hay, and people. There are some really neat ones. We are surprised at how many thatched houses there are in Denmark.

This island of Ero is on its way to being a "renewable energy island." There is a solar heating plant that is the largest in the world. (Please note it's renewable mowing equipment.) Also there are 3 large wind turbines along with 5 smaller ones. These are owned by a wind turbine guild consisting of 500 local shareholders. It is just a very interesting island.

The island does have a shrinking population - the children have to go to Svendborg, on the mainland, for boarding school from the 9th grade on. The problem is that most of them don't come back. So....who knows what the future holds for this beautiful island.