Fantasy Islands

1   |   2   |   Itinerary   |   Home

On their own, these renewable-energy island projects are significant achievements – the very models of the eco-friendly future. What’s truly striking, though, is the way this next-generation thinking has been so seamlessly blended with the islands’ natural old-world charms.

Case in point: my arrival on Ærø. Tired and hungry after a long day’s journey from Copenhagen by train, bus, ferry and then bus again, I’d booked the Hotel Ærøhus in Ærøskøbing (the island’s ridiculously charming tourist hub) because it was right next door to the renewable-energy association’s office. I sat down to dinner in the cozy dining room expecting little more than a hot meal. The famous spuds arrived in due course – delectable new potatoes roasted to perfection – but they were a marginal sidebar to the main attraction: an impossibly tender veal filet flanked by slow-roasted veal shank and a lentil and black bean ratatouille. The next evening’s appetizer was cod done in four artful ways. The folksy Hotel Ærøhus, I discovered, had a French-trained genius in its kitchen turning out meals worthy of the kind of bistro that would charge more for a single entree than I was paying for room and board. And each night after my meal, I went back to my room to use the (unadvertised) free in-room Internet.

The Danish renewable-energy islands are full of such comfortable juxtapositions. Marstal, Ærø’s largest town, draws all its heat from the world’s biggest solar district-heating plant; on the outskirts of town, a flock of ornery sheep wanders between the rows of giant solar panels, keeping the grass short. At the Brundby “Rock” Hotel on Samsø, a sprawling old inn run by a friendly Norwegian expat who asks you to call her by her nickname (Guf), a statue of Buddha and a half-dozen photos of Jimi Hendrix keep watch over the second-floor landing. Down on the ground floor, the hotel’s kitchen turns out hearty old-school Danish fare (meatballs, venison, more melt-in-your-mouth new potatoes), while the spacious bar is Samsø’s hippest live-music venue. It’s an intoxicating mix summed up by Ringo Starr on a signed photo hanging in the lobby. “Wow!” exclaims the former Beatle.

During my stay on Samsø, I rented a bicycle one day to see a bit of the countryside. I rode past fields dotted with hay bales and Shetland ponies and gleaming white wind turbines, past old farmhouses with thatched roofs and others half-tiled in solar panels before coming upon a place with a small 1970s-vintage windmill out front. Compared to the brand new turbines elsewhere on the island, the homely old thing looked almost quaint. A decoration, I figured. Later that day, I drove by the same place with the head of Samsø’s renewable-energy office. He casually noted that the owner was planning on turning his farmhouse into a hostel, so he’d had the old turbine refurbished to compensate for the anticipated increase in energy usage. I should have known. On an island obsessed with sustainability, nothing gets wasted – yes, yes? – especially not an old windmill. 

>> Where to Stay, Where to Eat, What to Do

Write to us: letters@enroutemag.net

1   |   2   |   Itinerary   |   Home