europe 2013: day nine

We were afraid that the weather was going to turn on us for our last day in Bornholm because the forecast predicted rain (but it ended up being another beautiful day - we were so lucky!) so we changed our plans from riding bikes in the morning to sight-seeing some of the best sites on Bornholm.

Our first stop was the Østerlars Church (which is the largest round church on Bornholm - built in the 1100s). The round churches are thought to be connected to the Knight's Templar which is really fascinating to imagine (and maybe my imaginings involve Nicolas Cage and Tom Hanks). It was a fascinating building that was so beautiful and the gardens were beautiful too. I also got some pretty watercolor paintings there of the four round churches on Bornholm that I want to frame in our next house.

Along the way, we stopped in Gudhjem and had lunch and browsed the cute, little shops. We went to a caramel shop and watched them make black licorice caramels and tasted their lavender blossom caramels too, which were delightful.

enjoying hot chocolate in Gudhjem by Stephen.

Then we kept going towards the tip of the island to Hammershus (northern Europe's largest medieval fortress).

taken by Stephen.

Of course, we had to recreate this picture taken in 2006 from the last time I was in Europe with my brothers, Stephen and Marcus. I am very embarrassed at my pathetic jumping skills (it's considered a jump as long as you can slip a dime under there, so I think I barely made the cut). We were trying to do the exact same jumping pose as the last time so that's my excuse . . . and I'm sticking to it.

And another awesome jumping picture in front of the ruins because it's really fun.

And here's a great shot of David bear hugging Jay as they looked at the view of the ocean from the ruins. No, but really, he was cracking his back. Why do guys love to do that, or is it just my family? Then we had a picture taken of my parents and most of our siblings (missing a couple who had already gone on ahead of us).

Most of us still wanted to rent bikes and ride around the island for a while but our hotel only had 7 bikes so three couples went and the rest of us took a rest before dinner. It was nice to just relax for an hour or so since we had been on the go for several days. We had raved about our dinner at Poul P to everyone else so we decided to go back there for dinner.

The braised pork cheeks with red onion and apricot saute, baked root vegetables and red wine glace was delicious. And this was my roasted cockerel on stewed apples and celery, roasted mushrooms and tarragon sauce.

We also convinced everyone to get the bleeding heart molten chocolate cake with apple ice cream because it really did make both our eyes cry, it was so good! :)