I am in Aarhus, Denmark

I have been staying in Aarhus, Denmark, for the last couple of days. I really like it here. It is the second largest town in Denmark (Copenhagen is the largest), and it is on the East coast of Jutland, the peninsula that sticks up above Germany. But first, I want to back up to two days ago when I was camping on the West coast of Jutland. It was farmland there, and it was beautiful with small country lanes, deer to jump out of the hedgerows and run across in front of me, just make sure I was awake and alert I guess, and lots of farm houses. Here is one of them. I think the farmer who lives here must be rich.                                                                                                                                                   
                         

Some of the farm houses had thatched roofs. Thatched roofs last every bit as long as shingled roofs (about 20 years) and then they have to be rethatched. Knowing how to do that must be a dying art, because there seems to be fewer and fewer houses with thatched roofs these days.

                                        

And sometimes there will be windmills left over from long ago days. They never seem to be working these days.

                               

As I was packing the motorcycle, getting ready to leave, early on a beautiful morning two days ago, a man from Norway stopped by for a chat. He is very much into archeology; it is his hobby. He said he was spending this summer as an unpaid volunteer at a “Stone Age” museum just down the road from the campground.  He did something like this every summer, and brought his family with him. His wife liked doing it too. I don’t know if his kids were that enthusiastic or not. At think, at that age, they would prefer to be hanging out in a swimming pool with their friends.

                                    

 This is their daughter, all dressed up in her museum role as a stone age girl. She was making a necklace to wear.                               

The museum had some interesting things to see.  For example, here is a prehistoric grave.                                        

And if you have any doubts, here is a skeleton inside the grave

The people at the museum, I never did catch their names, said I should definitely go to Aarhus on the East coast of Jutland and check out the “Living Museum” there.  I like living museums, where you can see how people lived back in long ago days.

Here is the name of the museum. I dare you to say its name five times real fast. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

                                 

Couldn’t do it could you? I bet you don’t know how to pronounce the words correctly. I don’t either. I did like the museum though. I was right in the heart of the city, but it was a quiet place, and there was a lot to see. There were a lot of school age boys and girls dressed up in period costumes, and retired men and women as well. I don’t know how much they made playing these roles, but they were having a good time doing it.

                       

This boy was in charge of the 1905 amusement park rides. He tried to get me to take a ride on an old swinging contraption. He said it is possible to swing so high in it you almost are upside down. He assured me it was perfectly safe, but I wouldn’t ride the thing. I am too old for monkey shines like that.

 It was a cool village. I could have stayed there all day taking pictures and exploring the buildings. In fact, I think I almost did, because I was there about 7 hours.

              

Here was one of the numerous streets in the place.                          

 This man was being the village shop keeper.                 

A lot of the people doing the various roles really did those jobs in real life. The telegraph operator, for example, really did know Morse code and really did operate a telegraph back in World War II.      

Not all the buildings were old. There was one section from the 1950’s and 1060’s. They took me back to my own childhood – kind of. And what do you think of this kiosk. I have no idea what it was there for, but I thought it was pretty neat.

                                 

I wanted to go to a second museum; the one where they have the famous 2,000 year old man who was found in a peat bog several years ago. I remember reading about him in a magazine several years ago, and I really wanted to see him, but I left the “Living” museum too late. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

On my way back through town, I stopped at the walkway where all the shopping activities were taking place. There were a bunch of Hari Krishna people there, dancing and trying to sell pamphlets.  It has been a long time since I have seen people like that. I guess everyone has a right to their own beliefs, but I guess they could tell I would not be a good candidate for their religion because they did not try to talk to me about it.

               

I am looking forward to seeing several new things tomorrow. I will tell you about it later.

Ron