June 21, 2015

We arrived in Landskrona and took the bus to the ferry terminal. We sat outside on the sundeck, and shivered in the cool wind. I marvelled at the wind turbines, and my Swedish friends made fun of me. “Don’t you have those in Canada?” they asked. Yes, we do. But something about them is just so majestic! The ferry arrived in Ven! It is a small island in the middle of the Strait between Denmark and Sweden. We walked up the very steep hill towards the bike rental place. It was a hard place to miss because there were a lot of bikes parked out front. I would say about 700 and that doesn’t include the 300 tandem bicycles they had as well. We laughed that half the world’s tandem bicycles were parked on Ven. We collected our bikes are were off! The sun came out almost immediately after we began riding! It was perfect!

We cycled through field after field, past cliffs and sailboats. It was stunning. We found ourselves the perfect lunch spot outside the little church on a hill.

I went in the church and found a little pile of beads. Each colour represented something different. A little note invited me to choose a bead that represented what I needed the most, and at their next service, the congregation would include my prayer bead in their prayers. I chose blue. It represented tranquility, serenity, and trust. These are things I desire right now. I need tranquility and serenity, and to stop worrying about things that haven’t happened yet. I especially need to trust myself. We sat on the cliff’s edge and ate our sandwiches. Our lunch was cut short when a gaggle of geriatrics showed up on their walking tour.

We cycled down to the beach so we could have a swim in the freezing water. I did not swim, instead I took picture after picture after picture. This is one photogenic island! The flowers, the sun, the fields, the cliffs, the beaches. My goodness!

We biked back to the harbour and enjoyed a scoop of ice cream while we waited for the ferry. We originally grabbed seats inside, but very soon after we started our ride, I decided to go upstairs to the sundeck. I was prepared for it to be cold and windy, but it was not! The boat shielded me from the wind and the sun beat down hard. I closed my eyes and could have fallen asleep. But then I remembered I didn’t have sunscreen on! I quickly lathered my face with some SPF 30, closed my eyes, and did fall asleep.