Wendy and Jim's Travel Blog
Scandinavia Day 9, - Ålborg Walking Tour and Pampering
Our early morning tour of the city of Ålborg was lovely. It was history oriented, of course, but our guide, a young Mom who was somewhat recently graduated gave us a nice background of what it is like to live here.
Ålborg is the 4th largest city in Denmark with a population of about 140,000.
Our tour started on a quiet Saturday morning before the tourists and townspeople were out and about. We saw the fountains, sans water in front of an old building currently used as offices. Supposedly, they (the fountains) play music three times each day 
Crisscrossing streets and paths, we made our way to the Christian IV fortress, Aalborghus Castle. 
Spread out because he also liked to build, it once held stables, and stored the livestock, grains and agricultural goods that people paid in lieu of taxes. There
was even a dungeon. 
Christian loved to party and we heard a long story about his wife and his mistress, a maid who was of royal birth, who was convicted of being a witch. Sounds like a TV script in the making!
There is much street art in Ålborg, we were told. This is a piece of a plastic bottle that represents non- friendly environmentalism. 
Making our way through one of its many squares, we looked around at New Square. One one side is the oldest house, belonging to a wealthy man who strived unsuccessfully for even more control, and on the other end are McDonald’s and Burger King Stores! 
Right down the street from the New Square is the Old Square. This houses the yellow City Hall where many marriages take place. 
The newer city hall, much less attractive, is next door. 
And up a level on the old square, it houses Christmas Markets, public festivals and even demonstrations , and has s an old white church, named after Budolfi, a wealthy merchant. 
The third level of this square, off to the side is flooded in the winter and made into a huge ice rink. No wonder Ålborg was named the happiest town in Denmark, which is itself considered the happiest country! 
We finished our tour in a Viking Cruise-sponsored little Viking Village
where we had a mead toast, enjoyed a few nibbles of salmon, and looked at horns, and a beautiful hammered dulcimer. 
We got back on the ship for a quick lunch, then had wonderful massages this afternoon. After, we spent some time in the spa hot and cold rooms. This was Jim’s first time. He loved it - even the snow grotto! 
We even had time to go to the Wintergarden, an area in the front of the
ship with lounge areas where we had high tea, complete with 3 tiered trays of sandwiches, pastries and scones. 
We had late reservations at one of the reservation- only restaurants called the Chef’s Table for 7:30. They have a rotating menu, tonight was Korean. Each of the courses came with a wine pairing. It was an uneven dinner, but with excellent service. 
Unfortunately, there was also a huge barbecue food party on board so the restaurant was half empty. But we had quite a wonderful day and felt more than
adequately pampered!
#published #evernote
Still recovering from our 15,000 step day in Berlin, we lined up to take our Copenhagen on Foot tour at 
We saw a bit of the Old Copenhagen and several memorials to previous Kings ( all named either Frederick or Wilhelm). Every building has the initials and number. Here is Frederick 3rd stamped on the entrance to the Citadel or Østervold, a fortress that was the closest thing Copenhagen had to a royal palace at the time. He was a much beloved king who defended the city well and created a monarchy in 1649 that lasted over 200 years. 
There is a newer section that pays tribute to the fallen soldiers since 
We went through Churchillparken/ Churchill park. 
Weaving through paths by a river brought us out to a nice upscale section of the city called Old King’s street. 
We made our way to the Frederikskirke, the marble church. Frederick V loved to build and expanded the city, but tended to get carried away. This lovely church took many decades to build because he kept diverting money to other projects. It was finally finished in 1880. 
The Amalienborg Palace, home to the Danish Royal family has several very large buildings around a huge square with a large statue of Frederick the Fifth. It is the centerpiece of a planned town he envisioned in 1750 named after himself— Frederikstaden. 
The harbor beckons, meandering down paths that lead us out to the ships, houseboats, Royal Yacht, and past the headquarters of the large container company, Maersk who built the opera house and other large industrial complexes. 
Of course, the most famous sight in 
After a quick lunch onboard, we took the shuttle bus back into the center of town to just walk around. Stefanie and Bob walked a good way over to Tivoli Gardens, but we opted to investigate the largest Danish department store, buy some touristy t-shirts and take a quick pic of Nyhaven, the quaint, picture- postcard touristy area by the waterfront. 
Back to the ship, just to turn around for our last jaunt of the day, a relaxing and wonderful jazz cruise through the canals. The four jazz players played a variety of instruments including a bass sax. They focused on the Dixieland music of the early 20th century with authentic and skilled performances. 
The best part was being able to be part of the 
A delightful way to spend the evening! And we still had just enough energy left to see the comedian at the theater tonight. He was pretty good🤗🤗