Upon his return from Copenhagen, Host suggested I’d like to visit Venø, a small island located in Limfjorden in the north of Jutland, about 25 kilometres from where Host lives.
I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting from this trip because I’d been told we were going on the ferry so worriedly togged myself up with hat, coat, and MITTENS only to discover on arrival that the ferry crossing wasn’t actually long enough to warrant getting out of the car.
204 people live within the 6.5 square kilometres that is Venø but only 50 of them can fit in the church, which is Denmark’s smallest – perhaps following in the theme of “smallest things“, something that may need exploration in future adventures.
There is only one village on the island, Venø By. It is in the centre of the island and has the church as well as a small fishing harbour and a restaurant. Ferries to and from Venø run every half hour during the day and finish at eleven at night. It’s not clear if there’s a hotel.
Venø church has 55 pews. It was built in the 16th century and the surface area of the building is about 50m². There is a dinky little organ next to an original mural from the 17th century and a blackboard which contains the names of previous priests going back to the 1700s. The island priest would also work as the island teacher, until the local school closed in 2004. There’s an organ recital tomorrow which I shall miss for I will be in Göteborg (again).
We took the ferry back, did a quick supermarket dash for my on-train leftovers extravaganza tomorrow and then consumed risotto, some of which I have for lunch tomorrow. I packed.
It was the perfect conclusion to a little diversion to a more remote part of Denmark.
