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Aarhus is only a
3-hour train ride from Copenhagen, so we went really slowly by ship in order to
arrive first thing in the morning.
Aarhus is the second largest city in Denmark, with a very old section
quite close to the harbor. We ate early
and then got off the ship at 7:30am. 
We
spent a couple of hours walking through the older areas of the town. There we saw (from the outside only, because
it was too early) one of the oldest churches in Europe, Cathedral of St. Clements, built in the
1200's. The age of things around here is
so different than what we are used to in the U.S.
We so enjoyed walking around the old narrow
streets with such great buildings and winding cobblestones beneath our
feet. We saw many places that we hoped
to have time to get back to, including the Women's Museum. However, not this trip.
We enjoyed
peeking into a fire station, and thought about how Dick's brother John had a
long career in fitting firefighters with their turnout gear. We saw some great there, ready to go. What a cool old fire station.
It seemed that along every block there were beautiful flowers. People had them growing next to their homes as well as in various types of flower boxes. The roses were especially beautiful.
As we walked
along, we realized that even though we would have only a half day here, there
would be enough time to get to Den Gamle By (the old town open-air museum). So
we started walking towards that. Soon, we were following a school group and
thought that they were likely on a walking field trip for the last week of
school, headed right where we were going.
Right next to the
open-air museum, we stopped at a botanical garden. Here in the third week of
June, the flowers (again, especially the roses) were in full bloom. We enjoyed walking around taking photos, both
of flowers and plants that we recognized, and also some that we had never seen
before. We had a nice chat with a local
guy, who at first mistook Dick for a Dane.
We also had the chance to walk around inside a huge green house. A highlight of this was a kind of treehouse
platform that Patti climbed which allowed her to see throughout the enormous
greenhouse. On a winter's day, we bet this was a sanctuary of green. On a sunshiny summer day, it was pretty hot
inside and we were glad to get back out into the fresh air.
We had a quick
picnic sitting at a picnic table outside of the old town. Sometimes these small breaks are just so
sweet. The birds were singing,
volunteers were working plants, and all was right with the world.
There was quite a
line to get in to the open-air museum.
This place consisted of three main areas: one set in the 1880's, one in 1927, and one
in 1974. Open-air museums generally
find, dismantle and move buildings from the past that would otherwise be
demolished and that was exactly what had happened here. Buildings had been brought from all over the
country.
The very first reenactor
that we encountered was a woman playing a Bishop's widow who had befriended
Hans Christian Andersen when he was young, and in fact, taught him to read and
to love poetry. Patti was thrilled to be
able to hear from her stories about H.C. (pronounced similar to how we would
say “Jose”). This house had been moved
about 100 kilometers away from Odense where Andersen was born and grew up. We visited Odense five years ago when we were
first together in Denmark. What
fun! And, we assume fun for her to have
someone who was actually interested in hearing the cool parts of her character.
They had gardens
and greenhouses on the site, and everything was so green and fresh!
We spend some
time going in and out of cool old buildings, sometimes talking with reenactors,
sometimes reading and watching little movies about old-time life in
Denmark. Youngsters were thoroughly enjoying themselves, what a nice break from the end-of-the-school-year doldrums.
A highlight was
listening to a man play an accordion (which is known as a harmonica here.) The
music was so joyful and made the day so happy.
Everywhere you
looked was a picture-worthy spot.
Stores, houses, barns.
Once we got to
the 1927 area, we were delighted to find an Old Model T Ford dealership owned
by Carl Christensen, spelled the right way.
Seeing what an early car dealerships looked like, including an old town
truck and a car that you could sit inside, was great.
In the 1974 area
we really enjoyed being able to go into several apartments from the time that
had been reconstructed: a typical
nuclear family for four, a single woman who had inherited furniture from her
parents, a woman gynecologist's office, and a hippie commune. All very different from one another you can
bet. Fun to get glimpses into lives from
that era.
With much more of
interest around, we were watching our time and needed to head back to the
ship. We had a great walk back,
including getting a look from the outside of an iconic art museum with a
rainbow observation tower on top. Wish
we had had the tine to go up there.
We walked
alongside a restored canal which had been covered over, but now was a greenway
filled with people soaking in the sun and enjoying the lovely day. Lots of statues and cute kids playing and
great spots of nature in the city. Too
soon we could see our ship and were back onboard again.
We went directly
up to the Lido restaurant for lunch. We
had had a very satisfying time on the first full day of our cruise.
Time in the
afternoon to nap and then dinner. After dinner we joined many people gathered on the bow of the ship to watch us approach and pass under the Great Belt Bridge, a very high bridge connecting the two largest of the Danish islands. We had crossed this bridge five years earlier on the train from Amsterdam to Copenhagen.
Then we were able to catch an after-dinner concert of a quintet from the
Lincoln Center in New York. On our
Alaskan cruise last year, we had discovered this venue and totally enjoyed
hearing some excellent music by talented young people. Hearing a variety of different concerts by
them during this cruise will be a highlight.
This first one we heard was American music which included Aaron
Copland's Appalachian Spring, as well as Rhapsody in Blue. Delicious music. What a treat.
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