So far we have done all our Door County exploration on the peninsula, but there is an island off the tip of the peninsula that is part of Door County as well. On Wednesday we took the ferry there and spent the day exploring the island. It took me all that evening to download, edit and export the pictures we had taken, so today I can finally write about it.
We went on Mark’s Harley. The weather was beautiful and it only cost $15 to take a motorcycle on the ferry rather than $26 for a vehicle. The water was smooth as glass so Mark had no nausea. In fact, he spent the whole trip (half an hour) just watching everything before us.
Mark enjoying the view from the main deck. I was up on the third deck.
By the time we got to the island, it was lunch time, so we stopped in at a cute restaurant called the Danish Mill. They also had a gift shop that had all sorts of Scandinavian things.
The Danish Mill
While we were eating lunch we studied the map we had of the tourist stops on the island. The first place I wanted to stop was at the Stavkirke. That’s an ancient Christian church structure found in Norway. Here is the information I gleaned from a pamphlet in the church:
…The island Stavkirke is patterned from this ancient style of church construction common in Norway during medieval times — at a time when paganism was giving way to Christianity — and is both a replica and a tribute to Washington Island’s Scandinavian heritage. This particular stavkirke is patterned after the Borgund, Norway, church built in 1150 A.D. Of the more than 1,000 old stave churches that once existed, some thirty-three now remain.
The term ‘Stav’ means pole or support, and there are 12 center staves, or masts, as well as heavy beamed, ship-like construction throughout the structure… Carvings and adornments blend both pagan and Christian symbols.
Front view of the Stavkirke
Side view that shows some of the carvings.
The words HAN ER OPPSTANDEN just above the altar table mean “He is standing above us” or “He is Risen”.
The altar piece
There is a Bible on the stand that was illustrated by Salvador Dali:
The Jerusalem Bible with an illustration for the book of Wisdom, one of the apocrypha.
I had first heard about stavkirkes when I was in my early 20s and working for a woman named Mrs Stave. She and her husband went to Norway to see some of the stavkirkes because that was where his family name came from. I never thought I’d get to see one!
Our next stop was at a place called the Historic Dairy that was also supposed to be a lavender farm. There are at least two lavender farms on the island and we found out later that we went to the wrong one. The one we went to was kind of a disappointment, but we’ll try to see the other one next chance we have to go over.
This is the one we should have stopped at. The one we actually stopped at had a lot of black plastic and weeds, not worth showing.
Next on the agenda was to stop at a tower in the center of the island where you could climb up and see out across the island.
Lots of steps up before we even got to the tower.
Even more steps up the tower.
But what a view!
Mark liked the view he had too!
Looking straight down
Then it was time to go down all those steps again!
The final plan on the agenda was to go to the Maritime museum. I don’t know what I was expecting of a maritime museum, but this wasn’t it. We weren’t sure exactly which building it was in, but after an ice cream, we finally found it.
Mark had Door County Cherry and Vanilla. I had Death’s Door chocolate. More on that later…
This nice man was standing outside the museum and told us that, yes, this was the museum. He asked if we wanted a guided tour or just wanted to walk through ourselves. We opted to have him show us around and tell us what we were looking at.
This was probably the most interesting thing to me; an old Ford that the owner had made into a sort of snow mobile.
While we were at the museum, the weather looked like it was about to change so we decided to head back to the ferry. On our way, however, I saw something that I asked Mark to turn around and go back to. There is a place called Sievers that is a fiber arts school. They also sell things made by their instructors and students. This was my kind of place!
This was what first caught my eye from the back seat of the motorcycle. This is the school.
Across the street from the school is the gift shop. Being a librarian, I appreciated this corner!
Oh, man, I’d like to take classes there and produce things like this!
A loom with a work in progress.
Just look at all those colors!
I know it’s kind of outlandish, but this hat is me! 🙂
Mark finally dragged me out of there and we headed back to the ferry.
We had a bit of a wait to get on the ferry, so I took some pictures of things I’d seen when we first landed.
Now about Death’s Door. I believe the water we crossed from the peninsula to the island is called Death’s Door because there have been so many shipwrecks there. In fact you can take tours around the peninsula and see some of the shipwrecks. Door County actually got it’s name from Death’s Door according to the man at the maritime museum. The water was a little choppy on our way back, but we made it safely to the other shore.
I KNOW there were more than 23 adults on the ferry. I spent a fair amount of time wondering what the rest of us would do if the ferry sank.
There wasn’t a whole lot of danger of the ferry sinking though. It was warm and the breeze felt really good.
Someone inside this car lifted this adorable baby out the sun roof several times to have a look around!
Once we got to land we weren’t quite ready to go home yet.
There’s a road from Northport to Gills Rock that Mark loves to ride his Harley on. The person who created this road made it just for fun. It’s very curvy.
Then we stopped for dinner at the Viking Grill in Ellison Bay. It’s a diner like from the old days before they had music and TV in every restaurant.
They have some little artsy things from local artists.
And it’s a place where you can actually sit and have a conversation, like “Look at the size of this mug!”
I was looking for any information regarding Salvador Dali illustrated bible on Washington island and I found you. My husband and I visited Washington island in 2004. It was a very curious place but also very beautiful. Thank you for sharing.