Aarhus, on the Jutland Peninsula, is Denmark’s second largest city.  It’s a university town where one in every four locals is a student, and it has that vibe.  It’s very pleasant, clean and green, with lots of pedestrianised areas, recycling facilities, and a mix of cool new buildings and nice historic ones.  As is often the case with second cities, it doesn’t really have any show stopping attractions, but it’s an enjoyable place to stroll around – especially on the sunniest day of the cruise.  Why do they always save the best weather for the end??  It’s a plot to make you want to come back.

In 2017, Aarhus was named European Capital of Culture.  It has a very well regarded contemporary art museum, with a rainbow coloured ring around the top.  It has an outdoor folk museum.  It has a funky looking library built right next to the water – a la Oslo and Copenhagen.  It has street art. Best of all, it has Vikings on the traffic lights, and for this reason (along with others), I liked Aarhus.  It has a sense of humour.

Our first stop was the very cool rooftop garden and terrace on top of the main department store.  Ian went there via the Lego store, while I went there via the canalside path.  The terrace is free to visit, and you get a 360 degree view.  There’s a sticky outy bit with a glass floor to look through – those things make me shudder – and a cantilevered set of stairs, along with lots of nice places to sit or stand, enjoy the views, have a coffee, and generally relax. That’s after you’ve scared yourself to death with the glass floor.  There are also free toilets.

From there we stopped off at a gluten free bakery, but Danish prices are high and we are not exactly hungry after almost 2 weeks aboard ship.  So we continued on to Molliestien, a very small cobbled street with picturesque cottages.  Some of them have clearly been done up to look old, but others are the genuine article, with sloping roofs, walls, windows and door frames.

Next door is Mollenpark, where we saw lots of students with luggage, presumably arriving for the start of term.  We also watched a kinetic sculpture, and admired the aforementioned art museum from below.  Bob later said that the varying colours of the ring, which you can walk around the inside of, made him feel queasy.

Another canalside path brought us to Bishops Square.  I went inside the Cathedral, which reminded me of the one in Hamburg where my great great (cant remember how many greats) grandparents were married. This one had some interesting frescoes with themes of dragon slaying. Also on Bishops Square is the lovely Theatre, complete with giant bronze bat perched menacingly on the roof.  It has some very nice art nouveau embellishments.

We were carrying a few stray Danish kroner with us from previous trips, and were on a mission to rid ourselves of them one way or the other.  We managed to find a supermarket, where a pastry and a banana came to exactly the amount that we had in coins – except that the 1 kroner coins are no longer legal tender, so we were stuck with them.  The pastry and banana were both very tasty though.

Crossing to the new waterfront area, we began making our way back towards the ship.  We stopped at the Dome, a community project that was supposed to create a green space with market gardens and a cafe.  Unusually it hasn’t worked out, and the area looks quite unkempt, despite being the location for the ubiquitous city sign (which we only saw later during sailaway).

Ian splashed around in a fountain, whose jets surrounded him in an increasingly tight circle.  We passed the ivy clad Customs House, and stopped for a quick rest before boarding the ship for the final time (insert sad face).  The last sailaway was a good one, giving us a chance to admire the new “O” district with its modernist architecture.  We watched the pilot transferring from our massive ship to his small red boat, then we were sailing past Danish dunes and heading around the northern end of the Jutland Peninsula.

Last night, the ship exploded in orange.  People wore orange clothes – we shared a table with a guy wearing a hi-vis jacket.  Everywhere was decorated with orange flags. The crew wore orange wigs, and put on a performance for us.  The Orange party is famous, but we were too tired to dance.

This morning we emerged onto the pool deck to see it almost completely covered in towel animals.  Some crew members must have stayed up very late last night.  They completely surrounded the pool. There were monkeys hanging in the air, and elephants in pot plants.  Slightly surreal but good fun.

We spent much of the day talking with Carla and Bob, as this may be the last time we see them for quite some time. Conversation flowed like it always has.  We’ve talked to a a lot of other people too – it’s probably been our most sociable cruise to date, which we’ve enjoyed.

So now all that’s left to do is arrive in Rotterdam, take the train to Schipol, raid the duty free shops, and endure the long long flight home.  See you all soon.