Aarhus - No Aardvark's but a pleasant queen! (Aarhus)

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Aarhus
Date:	17/06/08 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's a very pleasant little town!

Disadvantages: None, except perhaps Danish prices!

History
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Aarhus is known as the oldest big city in Scandanavia, it's central location giving it trading possibilities in the old times with Germany, the Baltics and the nearby Danish islands to Jutland. It dates back some 1300 years to the Viking times but was generally a fairly small settlement until the 1920's when it finally replaced Alborg as the biggest town on Jutland. The town was taxed extortionatally by the Swedes in the 17th century and suffered the plague as well as attacks from the Germans, it has generally stood reasonably strongly though.

My Experience
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Having heard a lot of good things about Copenhagen, I was a bit disappointed when I found it to be nothing special and just generally an expensive tourist trap. Aarhus though, impressed me. I expected very little from Jutland's capital.

Aarhus turned out to be a pleasant little place, with a lot to offer, a nice city centre, some nice parks, clean streets and a more relaxed feeling than the capital.

We stayed at Aarhus Camping (reviewed), arrived by train from Copenhagen which cost a bomb taking into account the distance (we'd previously tried to hitchhike the route unsuccesfully) and left by plane to London (airport reviewed).

We had a day to kill before our flight home and that's the only reason we had come to Aarhus, we did a fair bit of sightseeing on a tight budget to make up for the previous days expensive train journey. What I would recommend you to do is the following:

Start off by heading passed the University and down to the Botanical gardens by the impressive windmill and to the Open Air Museum which takes you back to how Aarhus used to look like hundreds of years ago. It contains buildings made from between 1500 and 1800's and they have been collected throughout Denmark, despite being a museum it has a somewhat authentic feel to it because people are acting out daily routines of the time and there is a blacksmith, baker etc and it's really very nice.

Then head to the Church of Our Lady, an enormous structure which is really impressive despite me not being interested in churches in any way or form, inside the church lies the crypt church which was first built in 1060 and is the oldest church in Scandanavia.

From here you can go through the Tivoli Gardens to the NRGI and surrounding park past the fairly impressive Atletion (sports venue) until you get to Marselisborg Palace which is a truly gorgeous building and the summer residence of the Queen of Denmark - Margarethe II, who is really quite a modest woman in comparison with ours, no security at all and she let vistor's dogs run around happily on her lawn! After resting by this mammoth of a palace, walk across the grass until you get to the sea front and then walk along the slightly pongy coastline until getting back into the centre of Aarhus where you can mull around the center admiring the waterways and pleasant mixture of modern and old buildings.

Should you be staying longer and require further entertainment there is a Viking Museum, a Woman's museum, Tivoli Friheden (amusement park), Aarhus Theatre, a large Telecommunication pole, Arkus Domkirke (a huge church) and various farms and museums in the near by vicinity.

I didn't taste the nightlife but I suspect it's pretty lively considering that a quarter of the population almost are students. The population of the city is generally Danish with small minorities of Somalians, Iraqis, Lebanese and Turks.

Summary: I'd take Aarhus over Copenhagen!