Like wandering through a picture book

SOEBY, Denmark: The Danish island of Aeroe is like something out of a picture book. The sea is never far away and the countryside has been blessed by gently rolling hills.

Aeroe is a relaxing place without room for fast paced modern life. In the summer, elderberry blossoms decorate the countryside and with a bit of luck you might spot a Fire Salamander ascending the steep cliffs at Voderup Klint.

The journey by ferry from Faaborg, on the neighboring island of Funen, through Denmark's Southern Seas gives visitors a first taste of island life.

Danes sporting healthy suntans sit on the open deck, chat with each other as they look across the Baltic at numerous small islands whose names all sound like Smoerebroed. Five minutes after docking in Soeby, all passengers have disembarked but only a portion of those passengers are tourists.

Aeroe residents are dependent on the ferry and life here often means traveling to the larger island of Funen.

Many islanders have left Aeroe to seek work elsewhere - 25 years ago, the island had a population of 10,000 which has dropped to 7,000 today.

Young people are often forced to leave and take up an apprenticeship in Svendborg or to complete secondary schooling on Funen. Those developments have led to a drop in Aeroe's population and a higher proportion of elderly people living on the island.

The demographic trend may be alarming for residents, but coupled with the island's beaches, steep cliffs, rapeseed fields, windblown trees and narrow roads, Aeroe does have an "other world" feel.

And surrounding this is the quietly shimmering paradise of the Baltic Sea. But Aeroe was not always Danish. Until 1864, the island was part of the Duchy of Schleswig in what is now Germany.

Little remains of the island's connection to its neighbor to the south and residents are very proud of their local brand of Danishness. Everywhere you go, the yellow, red and green Aeroe flag is hoisted alongside the national colors.

The German mainland is just 30 kilometers distant and the lighthouse in Skjodnaes can be seen as far away as Kiel. The lighthouse is also the location of the island's 18-hole golf course that opened in 2006.

"It's quite large for its size of 76 hectares for a Danish golf course," says Frederik Badino from the club. A nine-hole course was opened in 2005.

Aeroskobing is the island's main urban center and is known as the "Fairytale Town" because it appears that time has stopped here.

The town's center with its cobblestone streets is a protected historic site and is considered one of the best preserved in Scandinavia.

Many of the town's houses were built 200 or 300 years ago and sport colorful facades of yellow, ochre or red and gardens with roses and hollyhocks.

The trip to Vesterstrand beach takes just five minutes and dozens of colorfully painted bathing huts line the sand. Visitors can use the huts to change and store their clothes or just sit and gaze out across the Baltic Sea.

DPA

(China Daily 07/19/2007 page19)