Ærø Island

After two lazy days on anchor, our destination was the harbour town of Marstal on the south end of the island of Ærø. We had no real expectations, but it was a good transit location after a fabulous sail.

What a discovery. It was a real gem. The marina is inside a large shallow lagoon, and in the sunshine all sorts of water sports were underway – kayaks, paddle boards, dinghies, windsurfing, children fishing and swimming in depths of no more than a metre.

We rode our bikes past fields of wild flowers, the short distance round the lagoon to Eriks Hale, where on a long isthmus, there were old beach huts, carefully preserved, giving access to the sea and the lagoon on either side of the sand dunes. One of these is thatched and the oldest in Denmark.

The pretty old town is still a major maritime centre, with a naval college and traditional boat building centre. There are narrow cobbled streets, with rickety old wooden painted houses, hollyhocks growing outside their windows. It is just charming.