When I entered the EU in Copenhagen, the customs agent seemed amused that I might go to Aarhus. "Aarhus!", she remarked, lifting her head and looking at me with the hint of a smile, "well I guess it's not too far by train". Aarhus is Denmark's second largest city, and for a city its size, I was blown away by how much there was to do, and how entertaining and pretty it was. Aarhusians (also called Aarhusianers - hard to pick because I love both) are building themselves up a lovely town, and preserving the best bits from the past. Denmark's tallest building? One of the most entertaining artworks I've ever been inside? A historical village with a section devoted to the 1970's? An actual good meal with lovely service? You did it Aarhus! Now for my confession. One of my motivations for visiting Aarhus has to do with Abbotsford, British Columbia. I want to visit all of Canada's Census Metropolitan Areas and have them represented on my travel site, and in 2025 I am getting close to completing that. But if I succeeded, the first city on my alphabetical list, forever, would have been Abbotsford (edging out Abu Dhabi). That, I could not allow to happen. So, Aarhus was also the solution to my "Abbotsford Dilemma". Did I sit on a train for three hours because Aarhus starts with two As? I might have. Whatever the reason, so glad that I went.
Photo List (Total 315 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
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Central Aarhus (168 photos) - This gallery is everything around the central city, and south a little bit as well. It starts at the Rådhus, or City Hall, and continues to the nearby train station and a few buildings in the surrounding area. The AROS art museum was one of the more entertaining that I was in on this trip, with the remarkable Your Rainbow Panorama perched on top. (into the old city and cathedral). It then dekes into the area around the Domkirke, the oldest part of Aarhus, and it circles around with no particular plan, though sort of south to north. In here are shopping streets, commercial buildings, and the very fun Domkirke. In the north it comes to the waterfront, and follows that down, past historical buildings again and to the Dokk1 library and cultural centre. It continues south, through the financial district with a number of modest towers, and ends at the Havreballe Skov park, well south of the central city.
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Aarhus Ø (46 photos) - One of the former piers of the port, just north of the central city, is well along the way to being transformed into an urban community. It's called Aarhus Ø, sometimes the Dockland or Aarhus East. It has the tallest building in Denmark, and a large variety of interesting residential buildings and amenities.
- Den Gamle By (101 photos) - I had somehow imagined that "historical villages" were a North American thing, because we have less depth in our history. Apparently, though, there are historical villages in Europe, or at least in Aarhus. Den Gamle By is quite a large village, with sections given over to 1864 and earlier, 1927, and 1974 and earlier. Yes, they have a historical village from the 1970's, which I think is just the coolest thing. This gallery is almost entirely photos of Den Gamle By, but there are a few from my walk there, and in the botanical garden which I visited before the village.
