Ven

Between Denmark and Sweden there is a Swedish island Ven.  A coworker had told me it was a lovely island where everyone biked around.  To get there, we took a bus to Lund, a train to Landskrona, a bus to the ferry station, and a ferry to the island.  We had considered taking our bikes with us, but the research showed that it was as much in ferry fees to take the bikes, as it was to just rent bikes there.  It seemed less hassle to just rent when we got there.  So we packed lunch and headed it out.

 Landskrona was a new station for us, but it was easy enough to figure out.  The bus stop we needed to get to the ferry was right off the platform.

It was a beautiful day, and lots of people had decided it was a good day to go to Ven.  The bus from the train to the ferry was so packed.  I have never been on a bus with so many people.  There were as many standing as there were sitting.

When you buy tickets for the ferry you have to purchase specific times for over and back.  Since there were so many people, a lot of the afternoon times were already full, but we were still able to have plenty of time to ride around get back for Charlie's dinner.  Here's the ferry and the queue.  I'm pretty sure most all of these people were on the bus with us.

It was a chilly ride over, but well worth standing outside, since the views were so pretty.

Coming up to the island, we could see lazy little seaside houses and a harbor.  There are people who live on the island year round, but also people who just stay here for the summer.  It is very common in Sweden and Denmark to have summer houses, most everyone does.  In July, when everyone is off work (for the whole month), they head to the summer house.

Once we got to the island we raced it up the hill to beat everyone else to the bike rental window, well Chris did most of the racing.  Good thing too, we were the last people to get bikes.  The others in line would just have to wait till some were returned.

Once we had our bikes, Chris made a plan.  Not that the island was huge or hard to figure out, but we didn't want to miss our ferry back home.

The island was really very pretty.  There were a lot of wheat fields and cottages.  The sun was bright and the wind was warm.  Unlike my bike at home, I could adjust the seat on this one, and I actually enjoyed riding around!

The bike path takes you along the edge of a cliff that borders the sea.  In parts it is very narrow, and the traffic is two way.  Since my biking skills aren't great often I would just stop and let others by, but it allowed for some great views.

After a couple of hours of biking it was lunch time.  There were plenty of places along the way to picnic.  We were lucky enough to find this table in the shade.

After lunch we rode through the "main" part of town, which was a couple of cafes and a museum dedicated to 1500's astronomer Tycho Brahe.  Pictures are lacking here, so I'll just end with some of the seaside cottages.  We will definitely go back to Ven with a few lessons learned, including reserving bikes online.