Café Alrø - a funny Café upon a small Island...........

Café with Menu, Museum, Galleri and Summerflowers.

Upon the small island Alrø is a quite special café and restaurant. The island lies in Horsens fjord with two other islands Hjarnø and Vorsø nearby, Hjarnø has a ferry to the nearby little harbour Snaptun and Vorsø is a protected island with no public access.

Alrø has a dam to the northern coast of Horsens fjord at Sondrup. There is one trafifc road through the island and the café lies in the western end near the ferry place with a little ferry to Snaptun, only meant for  hikers and bikers.

The Café Alrø has been established by some very creative people. It's an entertaining place to visit with various funny and interesting things The café is also known for its good menu. One special dish is extremely popular, it's and old Danish dish, tartlet with chicken in asparagus sauce. Sold portions are counted each year. Upon the island is another restaurant, a gourmet restaurant by the traffic road, "Møllegården". Café Alrø and Møllegården open in the summer season. See the links.  


Café Alrø 

Restaurant Møllegården

The owners love cows - here is the red -white..... actually  Dannebrog

the café seen from entrance

seven young artists have decorated the island and the café.

 - and here's the old black-white race.........

a Highland cow made by paper bags.

singing rock

people playing krolf!

old couple on the bench are models of a married couple from Alrø

keys in small museum

old weight -  in Denmark's smallest museum

old washing roll

rusty bike with scenting lathyrus

artificial swallowtail kept flying (not tethered) with solar energy.

singing rock etc. at the yard

summerflowers were everywhere.

voliere with canaries.

girl playing with ring game.

photo August 2013: grethe bachmann

Randers Fjord and a little Ferry on a December day.

 

Now is the season where the buzzard is sitting along the road in the top of a tree waiting for a prey to catch. The fields are not entirely covered with snow on the road from Århus and to Randers, but from Randers and all the way north the whole Jutland peninsula is covered with a thick layer of snow. I talked to my cousin this morning who lives close to Skagen, and she could not get out of her front door because of snow. 

Vilhelm Kyhn, painting

Now is also the seaon where you'll have to  examine the traffic service before taking a drive, and the season  for visiting some museums in the local area! There's no time for this in the summer season where Nature calls. 

It was a very cold day and it was good to sit inside a warm car enjoying a short panorama trip. There is only 38 km from Århus to Randers, it takes no time. 

Randers Art Museum had an exhibition I wanted to see before the finish in January, of a painter from the Danish golden age, Vilhelm Kyhn, who often described the Danish landscape in his paintings. He lived  before the time of the Skagen painters.  

The town Randers is known for its Christmas decorations in the streets, but I'm sure they have been forced to use the "saving ax" this year. Finansial crisis? It was not at all as pretty as it used to be. Some sweet Jule-children were singing Christmas songs on the town square.

We continued the trip along the northern coast of Randers fjord. Along the fjord lies a long piece of flat land, raised ancient seabed with cultivated and grazed fields, the soil is very fertile and many four- winged farms lie almost wall to wall along the fjord, especially at the village Vestrup. Some meadows are preserved, they have large bird migrations, especially in autumn. In the outernest section near Mellerup is a birds' sanctuary with a rich bird life.

The little ferry sailing between the villages Mellerup and Voer is one of the smallest ferry routes in Denmark. The 470 m long sailing across the fjord takes four minutes. There is place for three-four cars, depending on the size, and for 29 passengers. It is also one of the oldest ferry routes in Denmark's history, it can be traced back to 1610, where the tour was carried out by a barge (also called a kåg) - and it was being rowed across the fjord. The barge carried both passengers, cattle and horse waggons. The ferry traffic between Mellerup and Voer has a complicated history, but it got a royal license in 1740 (Kgl Priviligeret- see the image)

 





I have just found out today that a café opens in the ferry house from Easter. That sounds good. While we stayed there the other day, we took our usual thermo-coffee and a pecan-Danish in the car. I really must remember to put on some warmer boots. And thick socks, My feets were freezing after having stayed down by the water.  



Notice the ice-crystals in my photos. They were so beautiful in the sun. 



When the ferry was sailing over the first time, a dog stood on the deck, no one else, and the dog did not come back with the ferry. Maybe it was visiting someone! The little sweet ferry called "Ragna" took another trip a little later with a red car. Suddenly a big freight ship, loaded with wood, turned up, it seemed so big in the narrow fjord. The name indicated that it came from Estonia.

The ferry traffic in summer is more heavy, especially in good weather, when people from the northside of the fjord take the ferry to get over to the southside to a special good bathing beach near Voer. And since there now is a café in the ferry house in the summer season, there'll be more lively here - in this picturesque little spot at Randers fjord.




See you soon! Before Christmas! 
photo: 8 december 2012: grethe bachmann