Living in an Epic Literary Tale

Møn (pronounced Mhern) island is breathtaking. From the expansive fields of mustard plants, to the quaint little villages that dot the landscape, everything about this place is perfect. The bed and breakfast we're staying at is an old farm house that was built in the 16th century. It's simply furnished but cozy and has everything we could want. Jacques and Siff Hansen, who keep the B&B, are wonderful! They have bent over backwards to ensure that we have what we need. They even did some of our laundry! The farm is surrounded by fields and forests and while there are other houses in the area, they are spread out enough that you have pleanty of privacy. It's the picturesque European countryside you've seen in the movies and read about in books. I kept hoping to come up over a hill and see Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley on their way to the Bennet's home (wrong country, but a girl can dream). No wonder I love most of the European classics. Right now I feel like I'm living in one! When looking at the itinerary several months ago I was very excited for the walk through the forest and the afternoon on the beach. But I had no idea how much I would enjoy it! When we took off after breakfast, there was still a fog sitting over the island. We took a chartered bus to Cliff National Park and started our trek along the ridgeline. Walking through the forest steeped in fog was magical! At any moment I could imagine that a princess from a fairy tale might come walking along. The more than 500 stairs that would take us down to the water were daunting but the Baltic kept revealing itselfto us as we descended and the views made the workout worth it! When you reach the bottom of the stairs, depending on the tide, you step down on 15-30 feet of "beach" that isn't like any beach I've ever seen before. Instead of sand there are large stones (the sizes of baseballs and golf balls) covering the ground. The stones get smaller as the beach meets the water but there's no sand to be seen. Its definitely not a beach to walk barefoot on. Large amounts of seaweed wash up over the rocks during high tide and form soft carpets that stretch over the rocks and make them easier to walk on. We had a nice time enjoying the sound of the waves and the views. Cody was skipping stones over the water, Tulli was wading out and the rest of us found spots on the beach to search for treasures. We spent an hour or so down on the beach looking for amber and rattle rocks. A rattle rock has a semi hollow center and there's a smaller rock on the inside that rattles around when you shake it. They take hours to find and none of us had any luck. After a traditional Danish open face sandwich for our lunch picnic, we walked to a second set of stairs to take us back up to the ridgeline. There were fewer steps on the way up than on the way down but I sure got my work out for the day! When you get to the top the water isn't visible through the forest or over the cliffs. You really don't get a sense of how high up you are until you've done the climb.