Even though Germany is only a stone's throw away, the Danish island of Aeroe feels a world apart

The Danish Island if Aeroe is like something out of a picture book. The sea is never far away and the countryside has been blessed by gently rolling hills.

The island is a quiet place without room for fast paced life. In the summer elderberry blossoms cover the countryside and, if you're lucky, you might see a fire salamander scrambling up the deep cliffs at Voderup Klint.

The journey by ferry from Faaborg, on the neighbouring island of Funen, gives visitors a first taste of island life. As the boat travels across Denmark's Southern Sea (the name for this particular corner of the Baltic) , Danes with healthy suntans sit on deck and chat to one another. The boat slides past tiny islands with names most people are unable to pronounce.

Five minutes after docking in Soeby everyone has vanished from the boat, but only a small number of those who have come to the island are tourists.

The islanders of Aeroe are dependent on the ferry for most things and a trip to neighbouring Funen is often necessary. Many are forced to leave Aeroe to look for work or further education meaning that in the last 25 years the permanent population has dropped from 10,000 to round 7,000.

The size of the island means that young people are required to take apprenticeships on the mainland. Even a trip to secondary school is a boat journey for the islanders. As a consequence of the youthful exodus, Aaroe has been left with a more elderly population than the rest of the country.

The demographic trend may be alarming for residents, but coupled with the steep cliffs, sandy beaches and rolling fields of blooming rapeseed, the island already has a slightly otherworldly feel. Surrounding it all is the quietly shimmering paradise of the Baltic sea.

Aeroe was not always a such a Danish idyll. Until 1864 it was part of the German duchy of Schleswig and is only thirty miles distant form the German mainland. That said, little remains to tell the story of the island's former rulers. The local rules extol their own particular brand of Danishness. Everywhere across the island the yellow, red and green Aeroe flag is hoisted alongside its Danish counterpart

From the German coast the lighthouse at Skjodnaes can be seen on a clear day, also the site of the island's first 18 hole golf course, covering a mammoth 76 acres.

"It is quite large of a Danish golf course," says Frederik Badino of the local club. Three years ago the island instituted a 9 hole course for good measure.

Aeroskobing is the island's main urban centre. It has earned the name 'fairytale town' thanks to its winding streets and historic wooden houses, most of which are between 200 and 300 years old, sporting colourful painted facades of red and yellow, with gardens of roses and hollyhocks.

Five minutes from town is the gorgeous Vaesterstrand beach, flanked by wooden bathing huts in bright colours. Visitors can use the huts to change and store clothes before a trip into the water, or simply sit and gaze out over the serene Baltic. Denmark may be a small country, but the plethora of islands around it means that it never feels crowded. A few days on Aeroe in summer is paradise. DPA