AeroSkobing

A bright warm calm  morning, and we resolved to do as little as possible. We have an interesting chat with the young chap who is working as a waiter here. He is a bright young man, who came to the island as a social worker working with young refugees. He had lots of insights into the rivalries between East and West Aero, and into the local way of life.

After sitting around for a while soaking up the view we went for a slow shuffle round the village, had a coffee in the town square, then visited the AeroSkobing museum. It wasn't as engaging as the Marstal maritime museum. The maritime museum seemed more connected and engaged with something ongoing, while the AeroSkobing museum had various bits and pieces of old stuff, and some interesting stories around objects that illuminated some aspect of the village's past, but all a bit fragmented and remote. AeroSkobing's heyday was sometime in the past, and its main business now seems to be tourism. Which has its own energy - it is great to see people like the proprietors of this hotel rescuing a decaying place and building a vibrant business.

We wandered down to the waterfront and had freshly smoked mackerel, potato salad and a glass of Aero ale for lunch, while watching the engaging spectacle of people manoeuvring their boats in the confined space of the inner harbour. We saw a French motor cruiser have a close encounter with the ferry - which looks like it doesn't stop for anything.

Anne wanted to see if she could find out more about Rasmussen, the painter whose work we first encountered yesterday. After consultation with the local Tourist information, she decided to catch the bus back to Marstal to try the museum there.

While she was gone I walked a bit of the Archipelago Trail. I was hoping to get as far a mediaeval castle mound around the coast, but I miscalculated the timing and had to turn back before I got to it. It was a nice walk though, along the side of fields of young wheat, interspersed with poppies, Queen Anne's lace and corn flowers, with views over the rolling hills out over the sea. I have a theory that Danish horses are more reserved than Australian horses - I could not break through the reserve of these two.

Late afternoon the weather turned chilly. We hadn't booked and the restaurant was full, so we had a glass of wine and an excellent pizza on the terrace, getting only mildly frozen.

We have to pack up again and leave tomorrow. I think I could happily spend quite a bit of time here. There is plenty more to see and do, and, even better, it is a great place to do not much.