Samsø: Denmark's dream island

Samsø - the island for eco holiday with fun factor

Two horse farms are on the island Samsø to the road picture - and one must never to the TÜV

Only Dick and Dalli are missing. The two girls from the Immenhof would fit perfectly into this horse-drawn carriage ride, which is just past me. Two horsepower. This is almost a slowdown! The five small families sitting on the sleds look contented as they jostle over the island. Tonight they will be warming themselves at the camp fire. "Into the water falls a stone" on the guitar, then squeeze themselves on the hard wooden planks of the wagons, four on two square meters, before the mosquito alarm hardly an eye. And wake up with the worst witches shot of her life. I am mean. But this way of making holidays is too sustainable for me.

Until now, I was on vacation especially egoist: How can I be the fastest brown (and who creams me before the back)? Do I really have to move?

Then came the day when I first read too many climate change horror messages in the newspaper, secondly as always tried to calm me that I was fortunately not an environmental pig - and the third, suddenly no longer believe me. Because I was sitting in a plane to New York, a five-day city trip.

A few flying hours later the idea was born, to make everything right on the next holiday: to travel ecologically correctly, to sleep and to dine. However, the fun factor should not be left behind. And: What does "right" really mean?

Wrong: Just start driving. Correct: Inform yourself thoroughly.

Please keep out of the way: this eco-Lummerland can only be reached by ferry

There was no shortage of offers for so-called "eco-travels". In Namibia I could have seen cheetahs in the Low Tatras. Thousands of flight kilometers should suddenly be ecological, just because animals can be seen? I did not want to free myself because of compensation payments. I'd rather click through sustainability portals, learn eco-labels, memorize my travel companions, and laugh at my friends: "What, are not you still gone?" Then finally the thin prospect in the middle of my considerable catalog stack: "Samsø - the natural and energy island". Really sexy did not sound like that. But exciting. The approximately 4000 inhabitants of this small Danish island have ventured an energy experiment: Instead of investing in power and fossil fuels, they rely on sun and wind - and Samsø is more than enough - and now produce so much inseparable electricity that Samsø can not only supply itself, but is also an energy exporter! In addition: clean beaches, pretty villages, even more handsome Danes, impressive nature and good food.

False: Trust in bus and train. That's right .

While waiting for the bus, you sometimes hear grass grow

"The departure of the train is delayed indefinitely." This announcement is particularly popular when you know you have to change trains - from the train to another train, to the bus, to another bus and to the ferry.

No wonder most of Denmark's holidaymakers prefer to pack their cars , drive off and get twice as fast as I do. However, their eco-balance is miserable, and they miss the feeling of really traveling. Slow, deliberate and lost in thought. Groups of trees and cow herds per se. To dream in one of the many pretty farms. Consider whether the romantic milkmaker Mike or the industrious Rinderwirt Dieter lives in it and whether they are still in "Bauer sucht Frau" still the stuff. Notice, As the landscape after the Danish border is gaining more and more. Later, on the ferry, a few gold-yellow dots appear before me in front of a juicy green background. Soon they mutate into handsome, wind-swept surfaces. In front of them an endless wide sand line winds along the west coast. Samsø's peasants must be happy people.

False: Take half the household with you. Correct: reduce travel luggage.

House in Nordby, flowered: Is there an eco-sleeping beauty?

The ferry lays down, I go ashore - and have a serious problem of movement. Buses are known on Samsø, they are obviously left only in the cozy hour-and-night mode and not everywhere. I can not move my heavy suitcase for half a kilometer. Why did I have to take my rubber boots with me? Not a single cloud can be seen in the bright blue sky! To the four gummy bear bags I am still standing, but no one can feed on vegetables alone.

The only solution: the island taxi. This consumes at least 150 milligrams of CO2 per kilometer, but this is clearly an emergency situation.

False: There is no hotel pool. Correct: Enjoy the large garden.

Whether I should now just drink green organic tea? Should I check whether this egg really comes from happy Danish chickens? The first breakfast on the meadow of my "Summerpension", a lovingly renovated half-timbered farmhouse in the small village of Vadstrup, which consists of a collection of very many very old trees, I am still somewhat overwhelmed by my new Ökotest role. And the decision, which sort of homemade jam I should now on which self-baked bread rolls.

Fortunately, I had discovered this little paradise on the Internet. Here I can logically, without the trace of a bad conscience. In the "Vadstrup 1770" even the hair dryer seems to be on the eco-trip: It only sporadically jumps on and is otherwise in the permanent energy saving mode.

Correct: Nature-oriented activities prefer. False: Wondering if you are going to take a bath.

Blue instead of green: with the kayak to the sea

The waters around Samsø are among the most beautiful in the world. "Danish South Sea" they are also called by some travel guide authors. When I leave my kayak in the Stauns fjord, I know this is not exaggerated. The water is knee-deep and crystal-clear, the landscape as original as a true ice age moraine could form it: stones, bushes, shrubs, a blessing for overstretched big-city eyes.

I chat with kayak instructor Niels, as we advance to the open sea - and so close to all the mini islands in the fjord, as otherwise would not be possible. Effortlessly we reach the small port of Langør at the northern tip of Samsø, our intermediate stop. No man far and wide, only a few sailbows rock slowly on the long wooden bridge. We secure the kayaks in the bay to the right and take the siesta of the boat shed Siesta.

"Not once capsized!", Niels praises me. "But the Samsø wind is moody." On land, I still surrender this sentence. Later, back on the water, he falls for me, because the weather suddenly changes. "Here in the fjord you can feel the elements directly," Niels cries, but I barely hear him. To me are suddenly only water and wind. And a lot of it. Niels is right: For a long time I have not felt so close to nature. Or have I ever touched her so close to me?

No time to think about it: I paddle and paddle, drive off again and again. Niels? Niels! He hastened to help me with his kayak, Rode me and dragged me off routinely. A few minutes later, a tired, but still happy wave-killer reaches the sheltered bay with a new realization: The Samsø wind can be quite a macho - sometimes he wants to show just what he has on it.

False: Believe that wind energy is always good. Correct: Accepting that it can make life very difficult for you.

I did not drive as much bike as I did this week. Fortunately, short distances to Samsø are the rule and gradients the exception. This is how I get quite round - and I am very much in love with this little island: in Nordby, the picture book village with its old half-timbered houses, in the sprawling castle park of Brattingsborg, in the gentle hills of Issehoved, in the white lighthouse in Vesborg and even in The Samsø wind, which robbs me on my purple rental bike but also pushes all negative thoughts away. Only one kilometer to the windmill at Kolby Kås. With its grid-like windmills and its gray-brown slate roof, it is the ancestor of the eleven modern specimens, the "offshore" Is called in the Öko-English - and in the fields Samsøs. You may find these asparagus in the landscape aesthetic or not. What is crucial is that each of them produces so much electricity every year that it is enough for 45 million minutes of hair drier. If the hair dryer works.

False: Eco-interested islanders wear worn dungarees and swivel jute bags. Correct: You look enviously good.

Cuddly packaged: the delicious local organic milk

When I ask for a bicycle map at the tourist office of the island capital Tranebjerg, because I have once again departed, Gitte smiles at me. Everything about her is in a good mood. And where did she get this chic summer dress? This woman would rather be expected in the Copenhagen pedestrian zone than on this small island. In fact, she says, she is not so long ago that she has left Aarhus, the quirky student city, in the direction of Samsø. "Our children should not think the milk comes out of the fridge," says Gitte. "We wanted to offer them a better and more relaxed, a more intimate life, and of course we did."

With them, many other young big cities have recently come to the island, mostly to find a hotel, A restaurant or a café. To bring such a small eco-start-up into the black figures is very difficult, but hardly one of the mainland refugees wants to return to the city. Would I also emigrate? I could open a car rental, which is missing on Samsø unambiguously. Hybrid cars, of course.

Correct: Drink organic beer. False: Think it makes less drunk.

On the last evening, I sit on the terrace of the harbor restaurant in Ballen and order the famous "Samsø Potato". These very real potatoes from the very real fields, which I noticed already from the ferry, are coveted in all of Denmark, because particularly schmuckintensiv. Here on Samsø you can find it on every corner - on mini-sales stands along the roadside next to apples, onions or carrots, always freshly harvested and directly from the field next door. If you want to access, just throw a couple of crowns into the cash box provided.

My food is still waiting for a while, so I sip at my sundowner drink: "Hyldeblomst", an evening red elderberry lemonade. It is - at least temporarily - my new favorite beverage. Well, strictly speaking my second love. Right after the "Renewable Energy Beer". This is really on the light green label. It is brewed with organic malt, organic hops and organic barley in the "Samsø Bryghus", the small eco-island brewery, and it has nevertheless 5.8 revolutions. Fortunately, there are no red traffic lights on Samsø where I could be stopped on the way back. There I could still one thing ...