Today, we make the last stop of the cruise. I don’t know if
that had anything to do with my beating my alarm and waking at 6:50 or what,
but it happened. We met my daughter J for breakfast at 8, which is about when
the ship docked. The temperature was a cool 62, due to go to 77.
After breakfast, we took some time to go out onto the back
of the Lido deck to take photos of the dock area and the city of Aarhus in the
distance. We washed up and disembarked at 9:28. The area right at the ship was
unexciting, although we did notice a restaurant in one of the buildings right
in front of the ship. We followed the crowd down a short road between the
buildings to a more substantial service road for the port buildings.
Ahead, we could see some festival-type white tents. There,
we found free Wi-Fi, a singer, craftspeople with tables, boards with
information about Denmark, and a guy offering a piece of rye bread with butter,
because that is a thing there. It was delicious! We saw some people with blue
t-shirts that said, “Ask me!” on the front and “Volunteer” on the back. We
would later see them in town, too. What a lovely service. We decided that we
should not buy anything here until we got back.
As we moved toward the street into town, we came across a
series of impressive sculptures saluting Aarhus’ time as a true shipping
center. It was pushing 10 and definitely warming up.
We never saw the red dots on the ground that were to show us
the way into town, as Rick Steves wrote. Instead, we used the cathedral spire
as a landmark and just headed for it. This took us down some interesting back
streets and up behind the theater. We found a good manhole cover with the city
seal, featuring the river, St. Clement and his anchor and St. Paul with his
sword. Coming around to the front of the theater, we could appreciate its fancy
facade and by zooming the camera, we could get a good look at the devil on the
roof. Evidently, when the theater was built around 1900, the bishop was none
too happy to have it facing the cathedral. The builders put the devil up there
to be snarky.
The Aarhus Cathedral (Domkirke) is the biggest church in
Scandinavia at 330 feet long and tall. The church was finished in 1520 with
beautiful frescoes, but incredibly bad timing. Sixteen years later, along comes
the Reformation and the Lutherans whitewashed the interior. They ripped out the
55 side chapels, too. They turned the front pews away from the altar to face
the mid-church pulpit. The one piece of good news is that the whitewash actually
protected the paintings. In the 1920s, it was peeled back, revealing that most
of the paintings are still there and doing fine. One large fresco depicts
purgatory, earth and heaven. You can see angels and devils fighting over souls.
It is rather graphic.
After the church, we went down the Store Torv to go to the
McDonald’s for a pit stop. We earned it after climbing narrow stairs three
floors to reach the restrooms. It was warm up on that floor, but we took a few
minutes to use more free Wi-Fi. We then
cut through an alleyway to look at a shop that supposedly had Birkenstocks on
sale- not so much- before going around the block to the Viking Museum. It is
under a bank, because that’s where they found a bunch of Viking stuff while
excavating. Rick said there was an escalator, but this is definitely not true.
I don’t know how one would have fit.
Anyway, it is dark and cool down there, with exhibits in
Danish and English telling you about Viking life in Aarhus. Actually, it should
be Aros, its old Viking name. Some things are copies of what they found,
including a poor skeleton missing his head.
Using the map from the Rick Steves chapter on Jutland, we
made our way to the Church of Our Lady, another Lutheran church. I noted with
pleasure the crow-stepped facade. Inside, I found a guide paper that was sort
of geared to kids, but still helpful. Rick’s description of the crypt under the
altar, plus the kids’ paper, made me go down the steps to this remnant of an 11th
century church that had stood here. The crucifix is a copy of the Åby Crucifix,
which is Romanesque, but has Christ as a King dressed in the Nordic manner. The
window under His arm has a Celtic-style symbol from the Middle Ages symbolizing
the Trinity. Lovely! We stepped through a short door at the back of the main
church to enter the cloister and its peaceful chapel.
We skipped the Latin Quarter to the east and headed west out
of the church. We passed this very modern fountain just outside the church. We
soon ran into a tour group and worked to stay ahead of them. As we did, I
noticed this terrific art on the side of a building.
Our next destination was Møllestein, about which Rick said,
“Locals call this quiet little cobbled lane the ‘most beautiful street in
Aarhus.’” And are they right! It is totally charming! The roses are gorgeous,
even if they have no scent. The houses are colorful and one had this oddly
slanted door. The tile set into one of the walls tells you they appreciate the
sea. We managed to get out of the lane before the tour totally overwhelmed it.
We followed Rick’s map down past the Mølleparken to the
canal. Then, we turned east to follow the canal. It was quite pleasant along
there. As the canal bent, we could see the Cathedral spire rising above all the
other buildings.
J was looking for a baby gift she had seen in a brochure
we’d picked up. We followed the map to The Strøget. This was a pedestrian shopping
district on a street above where we were, so we had to take an elevator up. It
turned out, that the street forms a ramp over a bridge to become the street
going past the Cathedral. It took some work to find the shop, but the item was
too expensive. We looked in a toy store and I saw a chocolate shop called
Frellsen Chokolade across the street.
They also had ice cream. It was hot and we needed that! I got a
chocolate orange cup for 26 kr and my husband K got a jordbaer or strawberry
one. J got herself a cone.
I checked the brochure for a souvenir shop. It looked like
we’d have to go all the way to city hall. However, as we headed that way, we
found one right on this street. We got a few items. We then started back for
the ship. We took a different street just to make it interesting. It took us
around the other side of the civic center from the one we’d gone past earlier.
We saw a wonderful waterfront for the locals to enjoy. We also passed the old
customs house.
At 2:07, we reached the port and the craftspeople. K went
back to the ship and, en route, ran into a local on a bike, who asked K about
the ship and itinerary, because he was interested in cruising, and they
evidently had a nice chat. J and I had
a very nice time looking over their glass, wire, cloth, and pottery wares. The
singer and the rye bread guy were gone, but there was still free Wi-Fi. Not only did we buy some nice things, but we
also had a way to get rid of some of our excess coins.
It was 2:34, when J and I boarded the ship. We collected K
and went to the Lido for lunch. J got fries from the Dive In by the pool and I
got a Cobb sandwich, both of which we shared. K got a shrimp sandwich and
fruit. J and I also picked up chocolate cheesecakes and cake balls. Nice lunch.
We had some time to relax and sit on the veranda watching
the harbor before and as we sailed at 5.
When we arrived at dinner at 5:20, our
iced tea was sitting there waiting for us as usual and soon the sommelier came
to get J’s card for her Coke. This has been so nice on this trip. For my appetizer,
I had gourmet greens and J had shrimp, mango and citrus aioli. K had cream of
cauliflower soup.
I decided to be fancy and, at the same time, get something I
never had before, Chateaubriand. J chose glazed thyme-mandarin duck and we
split our meals. They were both delicious. K also had the Chateaubriand, but
didn’t split it.
For dessert, I had chocolate croquant, which was delicious.
J decided to continue the trip through the crisps by having the peach crisp. K
went with apple caramel cheesecake.
At 7, we went to the Lincoln Center Stage to hear “Piaf to
Peanuts”. Afterwards, we went to the cabin at 7:40 to look over tomorrow’s
schedule. Then, it was back to Lincoln Center Stage for “Classic Favorites”,
another great performance.
J and I had thought about going to the World Stage for the
One World show, but decided against it. So, K went to it on his own.
We really enjoyed our day in Aarhus. It may be the second
largest city in Denmark, but it has a town feel.
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