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!