Aalborg, Aarhus, and now Odense

Been here now for a few days now, visited three towns/cities, and still haven't fond any Danish Pastries. Must not be looking very hard, or something. But I have found most of the ice cream stands. By the way, the little town I liked so much is Hirtshals. I think I spelled it wrong. I'm now in Aarhus, or Arhus, depending on what publication I read. Took the train here yesterday. Summer has finally come to Scandinavia, or at least this part. It was so warm yesterday that the train had to slow down. The trip from Aalborg to Aarhus is supposed to take about 1.5 hours. But they announced that they had to run slower and would be 1/2 hour late due to the heat and the possibility of the tracks expanding. And it's still warm and humid today. Not much to say at present, but I figured that since I had time on a computer, I'd start the next e-mail With all the experience I've had loosing e-mails, I've started writing a bit whenever I get the chance, and saving it in the drafts folder. Beats the frustration of typing for an hour, and watching it disappear. How about that! Saving it in Drafts works. Just so I remember to hit Save now and then. Today I wanted to take the town bus tour, but found out they no longer offer one. So I did what I'd planned on doing after the bus tour, which was go to Den Gamle By (Old Town). And now I'm glad the bus tour wasn't available. It gave me two extra hours at DGB. Really nice. They started moving old homes to this area in the early 20Th century, and have 75 historical houses (I read the brochure, didn't count). I really got an eyeful of half-timber construction. Nearly all of them were of that style. Some of them were originally built in the late 1500's. They were taken down at their original location, all over Denmark, and reconstructed here. They provided info on the when and where an nearly all of them. Many had period furnishings and businesses inside them. Normally I pass those up, as they all seem to be ! the same . Somehow these proved to be very interesting, for the most part. One had a clockmaker's shop on the ground floor, a floor full of Grandfather clocks on the second floor, and the workings of some very old town clocks on the third. Some of them even worked. Enough said, I think you get the idea that I had a good time, and am glad I went. It took the entire afternoon, and I could have stayed longer, but closing time approached.Tomorrow I take the train for a day trip to Ribe. It's billed as the oldest Danish town. Said to have a lot of historical buildings and artifacts. We'll see. It will be a challenge, as it's some ways away from here. I'm taking the train, and have to change twice, both ways. That sounds like fun. Trivia for a bit: I'm not a big city boy, so maybe this is already in place in the US, but I haven't seen it. Many of the public parking structures here have big displays on the approach telling how many spaces are available. Good to know, rather than get in line and find out they are full, or nearly so. And if someone could introduce street signs here, it would really be appreciated by tourists such as me. I spend as much time trying to find out what intersection I'm at as I do getting there. Suffice to say they are either well-hidden, or non-existent.The trip to Ribe went well. Nice little town. Had I kept to my original schedule, I would have stayed there two nights. And I think that would have been all right. There was enough to do. But I did see what I wanted to and had an enjoyable day. Lots of old buildings still in use today. Climbed the church tower and got a magnificent view of the town and surrounding area. Remember my comment recently about buildup of residue over the years? Construction started on the church in Ribe in the mid 13Th century. It's base is about 3 feet lower than the streets around it. Interesting, no?

And on the way to Ribe, I had a layover in a town called Bramming. Since I had some time, I walked around a bit. And there I found it! A bakery shop that had the most delicious danish pastry I'd ever eaten!No problem on train connections. But that's because I decided to leave early. When I returned to the train station, I saw on the monitor that the train I was supposed to take seemed to be canceled. Asked a fellow if that was what I though it was, and he said yes. They had canceled it because of the heat. To my good fortune, there was an earlier train, so I was able to take that one. Can't understand why that one wasn't canceled, but I'm not complaining.Talked with the guy on the first part, the trip to Bramming. I had seen numerous power-generating windmills, but only in small numbers, never more than 10 or 12. In some cases only one. I thought perhaps they were for private use, in small communities or such. He said no, that they were privately owned, but sold the power they generate to the utilities. I'm used to wind farms in the 100's, so this seemed strange to me.

The last day in Aarhus was pretty nice, weather wise as well as things accomplished. First went to the Women's Museum, a nice spot with a history of the change in the lives of women over the centuries. The most informative part was a room with a brief history of Women's suffrage in Europe. They had a summary of related activity and major players from most countries. Finland was the first country to give women the right to vote. Surprisingly, at least to me, Switzerland was one of the last. Spain had it early, then lost it during the Franco regime. There was also had an exhibition, accompanied by an audio description of children's lives in Denmark, covering the last 100 years or so.

Also went, briefly, to a WWII museum, primarily on the Danish resistance, and to an archaeological site uncovered while building a bank. The usual exhibits. One thing I've noticed in Scandinavia that I can't recall in museums elsewhere: combs were a common item in all the sites, as well as the usual pottery, tools, etc. The Vikings must have taken pretty good care of those beards.

The highlight of the day was a visit to the Steno Museum. No, not stenography. I assume it's the name of some famous Danish scientist, as it was a museum on medicine and science. Wish I'd allotted more time to it, as they had to chase me out at closing time. Easy to see I really enjoyed it, and even learned a few things. And here's a question. Why are the majority of telescopes and related instruments made of brass? I can't believe it's because it looks pretty.

I'm in Odense now, arrived this afternoon. Think I'll send this now, to make sure I don't loose it. The copy in the drafts wasn't quite what I'd left there, so I'm really gun shy.