Adventures in Aarhus

Welcome back! After having a tough time finding both spare time away from sightseeing, and a great internet connection, I’m finally able to finish this post, which dates back to 3 weeks ago when Ian and I spent two nights in Aarhus, Denmark’s “second city”.

While only a city of 325,000, or 845,000 metro, it is rather compact and as a result has the feel of a cosmopolitan city, with multiple central districts and many cafes and shopping districts. Furthermore. Aarhus has a number of wonderful cultural attractions. These are the ones I visited.

Old Town

Ian told me we were going to an open air museum, which was highly recommended to him by locals. I was game but neither of us had researched it before we walked over. We arrived to find out there was an admission cost, which we paid because we were there so figured we might as well.

We wandered in to the first building to discover it was an actual house from the 1500s relocated to this site, and had a museum actress playing a housewife working away in the kitchen. We thought this was a little odd and then read the signage to realize that Old Town represents a compilation of Danish buildings from 3 eras: 1550-1800s, 1927, and 1974. In essence, the carefully curated buildings create towns as they were in each era. It was actually the neatest museum I have ever been to in terms of layout and content. Here are some pictures from the 1927 and 1974 towns:

Homeware storefront circa 1927.

Fuel up. Roadside gas pump circa 1927.

Ian window shopping for a TV and radio. Storefront circa 1974, including actual product prices from the time (in DKK).

Cassette selection circa 1974.

Preserved actual former convenience store, physically relocated here with products circa 1974.

Moesgaard Museum (MOMU)

I’d heard that MOMU was a must see museum,having just recently opened outside the city of Aarhus in a purpose-built structure designed specifically to house this museum. It’s what’s you could call the future of museums – high ceilings, lots of open space, thematic decor, and a great mix of interactive exhibits for all senses – touch, audio, audio-visual, visual, etc.

The feature exhibit was a selection of artefacts from the Terracotta Army. It topped my list of favourite exhibits seen on this trip thus far. I marvelled at what Chinese society was able to accomplish and build in the 200s BCE. Mind you, there was significant exploitation of labour, but nevertheless the grandiose scale and attention to detail was extremely stunning.

Here are a few photos of the exhibit and rest of the museum:

Grauballe Man. Kinda creepy but super cool.

The museum is built into a hill, with a slanted rooftop that descends down the hill to the ground. Beautiful lookout spot from the top.

Aarhus City

While not a thorough list of all the neat things we stumbled upon,here are a few:

1. Stroøget, Latin Quarter, and Canal
These largely pedestrian areas were full of activity while we were in Aarhus, even mid-day during a weekday. I spent some time meandering through the streets, popping into a few stores and admiring all the beautiful, minimalist Danish decor items.

Narrow streets in the Latin Quarter.

Walk along the canal.

This photo doesn’t do it justice, but the fountain to the left is beautiful.

I fell in love with these chrome light fixtures but unfortunately they aren’t configured for North American outlets.

2. Dokk1 (Public Library and civic space)

The Aarhus public library and civic complex is brand new and should be regarded as an example of what’s possible in urban design, architecture, and space-making. It is designed to invite and encourage users to sit and spend time within the facility, whether it be to work, read, play or discuss – there’s something for everyone, and conversation is welcomed, not discouraged.

Isn’t this an inviting space?

Backlit bookshelves. Beautiful and spacious!

Board games. Yes, visitors are allowed and encouraged to play games here!

One of the best slides ever!

3. More Climbing Structures

Like Copenhagen, Aarhus is a very active city. Cycling is also extremely common, despite the fact that it has many more hills than Copenhagen. We stumbled upon this random climbing structure in a city park:

It was great to have the chance to meander out of Copenhagen to see Denmark outside of the capital. It’s a beautiful country, with many cute cities and towns situated along the train route between Copenhagen and Aarhus. We left Aarhus for a quick return to Copenhagen before heading to country #2/3 of our trip: England.