Aarhus, Denmark

July 30

We didn't get to Aarhus until about 11:00 this morning.  We were going to have a formal breakfast but got there too late and the dining room was closed.  So we went back to the Horizon Court.  Lots of food, but the same choices as yesterday.  Fresh fruit (and of course Danish pastries) are the best.  I went to a sale and bought a watch for $10 so I don't have to keep asking someone else what time it was.

We docked at the container dock instead of the regular cruise ship dock (I think because our ship is too big) so we had to take a shuttle bus to get to the main part of town.  At least it was provided free by the cruise line and there was an all girl marching band to greet us as we walked to the bus.

They knew we were coming!

We explored on our own today.  One of Bob's goals was to find some free wifi.  Everywhere else we had been with free wifi wouldn't let him connect on his tablet.  A local suggested the public library which was on the way to Den Gamle By (The Old Town) which I wanted to see, so we headed off that direction.  We walked along the canal which seemed to be the main shopping street.  Along the way it started to rain, so we took shelter in the doorway of a store.  When it let up, we kept going.  Found the bibliotek (library) and Bob had to sign up for a guest library account.  He finally got connected and was able to send off the first few of his "Where's Spongebob?" pictures to his co-workers. They have to try to guess where in Europe he is.

Bob hard at work at the library in Aarhus.  

When we were done there, we kept walking to Den Gamle By.  We paid our entrance fee and then it started pouring again.  We dodged into a couple of the buildings there.  In the first one we were greeted by an older woman dressed in Danish dress of long ago, telling a story by Hans Christian Andersen of "great travelers".  He wrote it hundreds of years ago but it talked about travelers coming by air over the sea (just like we had done).  In another house, 3 men were playing cards and asked Bob to remove his hat.  "This is a nice house, and we remove our hats in a nice house."  There was a young girl trying to grind coffee in an old coffee grinder.  We walked through the rain and through a few more buildings.  Went into the "mint masters" house which was a very rich house for the times.  Lots of fancy things in there.  Too bad it rained most of the time we were at Den Gamle By because I think we missed a lot of the live actors portraying scenes of life in the 1500-1700's.

A street in Den Gamle By

Square in front of the Mint Masters house (the big one on the left)

We walked the long walk back to town.  As we were walking by the open air cafes we heard our names being yelled.  Found some of our group having a beer, so sat down and joined them for awhile.  I wanted to see the Domkirke (church) so we didn't stay long.  Got to the church just as it was closing, though, so only saw a peek inside as someone else was coming out.  Walked back to the shuttle bus stop and it rained once more as we walked back to the ship.  That was the last we saw of any rain for the whole rest of the trip.

Aarhus Domkirke

We tried to go to dinner in the Michelangelo room again with Pim, but we were told we had a table waiting for us in the Botticelli room.  We went there and they only had a table for 8.  They squished all 11 of us around it and then rushed us through our meal so we'd be done by the 8:15 setting.  We were not happy.  I watched a jazz saxophonist after dinner and Bob held his own in the casino.  Each night I watch the travel tips for the next port done by John Lawrence, a travel expert on our cruise.  He has good tips on what to see and how to get around.