Denmark , August '06 ....mmmm..Danish chicks.....

Well, it had been a bit since we'd gone anywhere interesting, so we thought we'd take a jaunt over to Denmark for the long weekend...

Bloody good choice as it turns out :)

The usuall shenanigans getting from work to the airport (in this case Stanstead, which is the biggest pain in the ass)...luckilly this time all went smoothly..arriving 5 mins before teh express left the station...getting to the aiport in time to be very close to the front of checkin (which in budget airlines like ryanair is a major thing), and on the flight with no hassles!!...even taking into account all the stupidity in London at the mo' about bombs on planes / snakes on planes / whatever..

So, we flew to a place called Aarhus which is the second biggest city in Denmark (after Copenhaagen of course)...about a 50 minute flight I think.

Landed a little after 11PM local time, and caught the airport bus into town




Took this snap as we were walking down the road looking for our hotel...
Aaruhus is about 300000 people strong, and is primarily a University town...it's been there since 534AD (I think) and was, of course, originally a Viking trading post.

..it also happens to be a damn nice place! ...

In thinking about how to describe it, it is effectively EXACTLY the same as Wellington in NZ, except flatter and with more Vikings.
Has a very healthy Cafe / restaurant culture going in the CBD, but is also nice in suburbia, as we discovered...perhaps a little pricey in comparison with a lot of (what we've seen) of Europe, but justfiably so in my opinion.


(Aarhus's main street )

So, we'd flown in Friday night, sorted our selves out, and had 3 days to have a snoop around...good stuff.

Next morning we had to get a bit of a wiggle on, as Caren had researched us into a Bus tour of Aaruhus (which included a free bus pass for the day aswell)...
So we did that, which was pretty cool...learned a bit about the place, saw the university and the art gallery (both very very nice modern places), as well as a big cathedral, and learned a bit about the original Viking heritage.....folks in Denmark have a very stong affinity with their Viking past, allthough I personally think they have a lot to answer for, especially for introducing the ginger gene...bad stuff that....

Anyway, after that tour we had some lunch at a Cafe, and then hopped on a Bus out to a place called Moesgard (about 40 mins on a bus), wehre there is a museum with all sorts of interesting pre-history stuff + viking stuff..
Of those interesting things, the most famous is the bogman of Moesgard, which is a fully preserved Iron age man who had his throat cut and was thrown in the bog..the bog has a weird preserving effect, and so he still has all his skin and hair and fingernails etc...pretty creepy, but good stuff!



After that we went on a big bush walk around which was cool...did quite a few KM's and were quite buggered to be honest, but got to see some nice stuff (old viking buildings, rune stones etc...)...

(Caren in a Forest of all places!)

So, was back to Aarhus (Actually it's Århus , but who can be bothered drawing on the little circle's every time??) for a nice dinner and off to bed, as we had an early rise the next morning.....

.....the reason beeing, we were off for 2 days of Canoeing!

So, up we got, and scurried off to the Train station with our gear to catch a train up to Silkeborg (about 50 mins?) which was where we were going to start our Canoeing from..

We were running a bit late, as it took us a while to find the Tourist centre (what with us not speaking Danish and all), but find it we did and then set off to find the Canoe hire place.

The Canoe folk didnt speak any english, but that was ok, 'coz we didnt speak danish, so no body got offended...we managed ,using hand signals and bits of paper, to organise our Canoe (well, ok, so we'd allready arranged it from the Tourist center where they did speak english), and they handed us our life jackets, some plastic bags to keep our gear dry and a couple of paddles + a map.

The plan was to Canoe fro 4 hours or so down river and stop at a Hotel on the river called Svostrup Kro.

So off we set.

We havent really done a a "serious" canoe before, having more experience in Kayak's, but both found it very easy going......addmitedly helped by the fact we were paddling with the current the whole way!

Our first stop was only 10 mins down the river at Silkeborg town itself, and that was just briefly for Caren to run to the local River Lock place (?) to pay a small fee to get them to operate the lock for us to get us to river level...5 mins or so spent in the Lock lowering down slowly, and then we were off again...

Had a really nice paddle for 3 or 4 hours and just when we were thingking about stopping for a rest, we saw the place we were meant to stop for the night...perfect!



(Svostrup Kro)


Svostrup Kro was a great 19 century Inn which still had the original (style) roofing, and rooms, which meant they were very cosy, and had these great antiques all over the place...we checked in (feeling a tad under dressed, but since we were the only guests to have turned up on a river boat, I figure we were ok), and ordered up a jug of hot chocolate..

(The view of the river and our Canoe from the deck of Svostrup Kro)

We had a nice night there and a great Dinner of some local pork stew stuff (was very very nice actually)...

Next day we were off down the river again..another 4 hours or so of paddling would take us to our eventual destination, Ans.

Another lovely day too, not too hot, not too cold ...

We swept down the river at a very respectful pace thanks to the current, and pretty much just enjoyed the view...only the occasional house on the side of the river breaking up the swampland and farmland on either side..


(Us floating down the river)

The day didn't end quite so pleasantly however, as for the last hour or so on the water we had to fight a sudden squall that was blowing against us and stiring up the river/lake we were on....tough work, but thats ok, we got to Ans safe and sound, hauled our Canoe up and went looking for some lunch :)

After that, it was just a question of finding a bus/train combo that would take us back to Aarhus (not too hard..about 2 hours on a Bus), mill around Aarhus for a bit, get some duinner in us, and then off to the Airport and back to sunny London (yay....)

Finally walked in the door at 3:30 AM (bloody Standstead!!!) ready to catch a few hours sleep before heading to work.

please excuse any spelling mistakes...I cant be bothered running a spell check :)