Monday 26th June 2017 – Aalborg, Denmark

Today we wanted to have a good look at Aalborg so we took the bus into the city centre and walked to the tourist information centre. They were very helpful and when I asked for a city walking tour, they handed me one of the last paper copies of a comprehensive historic tour guide with two separate walks that could be combined if wanted. Apparently they have had two such guides in the past but both are no longer being printed. Only a few copies of our guide, designed for cruise ship visitors, were left. The idea is that all such guides in the future will be internet or app based although the walking guide does not seem to be available online yet. We also asked about the large number of youth marching bands that we had passed on the bus. It turned out that Aalborg is hosting a Sport & Cultural Festival this weekend. The festival is held every four years and travels all around Denmark – this time it is Aalborg’s turn. All around Aalborg we saw outside stands being constructed for public performances.

We followed one of the walks that took us from the castle (built 1539 to 1555 by Christian III) through modern parts of the town and past historic buildings, most of which were timber-framed and dated from the 16^th to the 18^th centuries.

We selected a place for lunch ad sat on an outside table, only to be told that they were not serving food to the public as they had a group of 800 people inside – the youth walking bands. We chose another lovely café with tables set in a pretty square and sat to eat our first Danish meal. We had no idea what we were ordering but everything that we saw on the tables looked very good. It worked out well – Jane’s was an omelette served with crispy bacon and tomato and mine was an open hamburger served with lots of capers, pickles, salad, cheese and a little bowl of raw egg yoke which, we were told by a friendly Dane (living in Spain and back on a visit), was to be poured over the hamburger. It was all very good and the cold Danish beers also went down very well in the heat of the day.

Duly refreshed, we set off on the second of the walks which included the cathedral, more timber-framed buildings and some very impressive, stone buildings from the 18^th century in the centre of the town. One interesting bit of Aalborg history is represented by one of these houses, the Jens Bang’s House (see photos). Jens Bang was a very wealthy merchant who, as well as being a talented businessman, was also arrogant and cantankerous. He didn’t make many friends and the town council would not have him in their number. He therefore built his ostentatious house opposite the Town Hall and decorated the building with grotesque faces, supposedly caricatures of his enemies. On the wall looking onto the Town Hall is his face poking a tongue out at the councillors.

When we were in the Ribe Museum there was a parade outside and we asked the receptionist what was going on. She was somewhat overzealous and gave us a long, detailed description which meant that we had missed the parade by the time that we could get out. All of the young people in the parade were 18 year olds from the local high school wearing white, flat sailor-type hats and they had just graduated. This is the excuse for “feasting that goes on for weeks”. We suspected that ‘feasting’ involved lots of drinking and this was to be proven correct. From then to now we have seen many groups of graduates, always wearing their hats, often in vintage, ex-military lorries festooned with Danish flags and banners. The Danish public are very supportive of the graduates and we often saw them waving to the graduates as they passed in the lorries.

Photos: This modern bear and cub sculpture on one of the shopping streets was fun although the bears look a little grumpy; Aalborg Castle exterior and the courtyard; A typical graduate outing although with many less Danish flags that usual – the banner says something about drinking, which may explain the mooning; The Jens Bang House; Jens Bang poking out his tongue – at least he is not mooning, much more subtle!