Isle of Møn

Isle of Møn. Find your own time again

Secret refuge of the Danes, the island of Møn offers ancient woods, chalk cliffs, Viking beers. and amazing journeys through history and prehistory.

Only 125 kilometers separate Copenhagen from the island of Møn. It takes just under an hour and a half from the airport, heading south. But just take the Regina Alexandrine bridge, 746 meters suspended over the sea, from Kalvehave to find yourself in another Denmark, very far from the lights of the capital. Quiet with all the colors and smells of the Baltic, Møn was even elected the first Danish Dark Sky Park, a title that the International Dark Sky Association, committed against light pollution, assigns to the places with the darkest and cleanest nights.

The main center, and the first one you meet, is Stege, where the House of Møn collects maps and information at the tourist office. Then we start towards a perpetually green landscape, with slightly undulating reliefs, on deserted roads and bordered with woods that slope towards the sea. In this monochromatic scenery are a sudden surprise the Klint Møns, 12 kilometers of white and sinuous cliffs overlooking the blue.

ANCIENT PLASTER

Over 120 meters high, formed by layers of plaster overflowing with tiny fossils, the Klint Møns can be reached along a road that cuts through a dense forest. The last stretch, unpaved, leads to the modern GeoCenter, a scientific dissemination center that reconstructs the island’s habitat 70 million years ago, up to the time of the glaciations that devastated the landscape.

To get under the cliff you go down over 500 wooden steps, interspersed with rest platforms where in the morning, when the sun beats directly, you get lost in the violent whiteness of the plaster. From the GeoCenter, a series of easy equipped trails start, from two to three and a half kilometers, to discover the Unesco biosphere natural park of Møns Klimt.

DENMARK ON PEDALS

The exploration of the rest of the island is simple, also thanks to the fact that the roads are well signposted. Armed with a map, the advice is to proceed slowly, so as not to miss the possible close encounters with deer, rabbits, foxes. Among the numerous sea birds, swans are happy to park on the beaches; seals are often spotted in the stretch of sea called Bogestrom, between the northern coast and the rest of Denmark.

Wherever the backdrop of white chalk gives the sea Caribbean tones and invites to the bathroom – the temperature is not ideal, but if you are brave you can try some diving – while the pebble beaches, in the shade of large beech trees, Danish national tree, invite to walk!

The mild undulations of the island are also perfect for bicycle tours, Møn has over a hundred kilometers of magnificent slopes.

EXCURSION TO THE HOLY STONES

While pedaling you can notice small hills that rise in the middle of the fields. They are funeral mounds that tell the long history of the island, from 13 thousand years ago to the Viking period, around the year 1000. A map of the tourism office brings together the archaeological sites of Møn in a single itinerary. At least a dozen are worth seeing, if only for the hieratic atmosphere of the sleeping rocks looking at the sea. They are dolmens, small constructions of monoliths, menhirs, single vertical stones placed in large alignments.

This is why Møn is considered a refuge for designers, creatives, artisans, attracted by history and peace, anonymity and art galleries scattered in the few inhabited centers.

Here the Villages maintain the traditional style, red with tiles and with blinding white plasters.

Today some of the most beautiful houses in Møn, including a lighthouse, are rented with Møns Klint Resort, which also owns a campsite with comfortable bungalows. They are all historic cottages in a panoramic position overlooking the sea or at the edge of the woods, in the greenery, with period furniture and lots of wood.

On the patios facing the sea you can have lunch or sip a beer, such as those, only with local raw materials, by Byghuset Møn, or try the Isle of Møn, an island gin that reaches 44 degrees. Among the producers are Sara and Uffe Skanning, a couple of former advertising graphic designers … “We love this place,” says Sara. “The greenery and silence of the island had bewitched us”. “We only use local herbs and water to distil,” adds Uffe enthusiastically. Møns Klint Resort also organizes bike and boat tours, fishing trips and the famous horse rides loved by the very royal sportsmen of Denmark.

After so much wandering, the village of Stege welcomes with its traditional houses, museums, galleries, craft shops that often offer art workshops. At Pankebord 4U, for example, there are massive furnishings, boxes and lamps, all with industrial design and with a suggestive old age and saltiness patina. To conclude with a flourish, there is nothing better than a barbecue of a dozen meats, marinated with flowers and local juices, in the Slagster Stig restaurant, where the large central room is obtained from the old barn … Among wood, beers and penombre Boreal, it feels like Vikings for real.