Aarhus Moesgaard Museum

I am sorry to say we drank rather too much wine last night. It was fun at the time, but we didn't feel quite so good this morning. Jeppe came by about 10.30 and while Anne had a rest, we went for a walk around our neighbourhood. It was Latin Festival here today, Latin as in the Latin quarter of Paris, and the winding cobbled streets were decked out with tricolour flags, washing strung across between buildings, pots of lavender, and other french themed sort of decoration. There was a group of girls in French maid outfits dusting anyone who came too close. There were chaps from the local cycling club, dresses like Tour de France France riders from the sixties. There was even a baguette with a stuck on moustache and a tricolour scarf, cable tied to a drain pipe. It was all very festive on a lovely clear sunny morning.

We visited the Domkirke, with its whitewashed bright interior and candle stick holders on the end of the pews - even the church is hygge. Except perhaps for the alarmingly graphic and violent paintings on some of the arches, that have been uncovered by removing the whitewash layers.

We collected Anne, then drove along the coast and through the thick forest that lies only a couple of kilometres from the centre of the city, to the Moesgaard Museum. For a city about the size of Geelong,  this is extraordinarily good. They have focused on a few main themes - the evolution of humans, the bronze and iron age people's whose artifacts and remains have been preserved in the bogs of Jutland, and the Vikings.

The presentation was almost too good - after an hour pondering the confronting evidence of hapless animals and humans sacrificed and thrown into the bog, we retreated up to the cafe for a cup of tea and some sunlight before heading back down to the Viking exhibition. We now have a much better idea of Viking Aarhus. The location of our hotel is well within the fortified walls of the Viking settlement. The evolution of humans is very immediately represented by a series of life sized figures on the main stairway - VR viewers around the stop of the stairs give a representation of the environment that each human ancestor might have experienced.

We climbed up the steeply sloping external roof to enjoy the views across to the nearby islands, then drove back into town, stopping for an icecream at the yacht marina, a busy place filled with Danish people enjoying a sunny Saturday. A bumble bee joined us as we sat in the sun.

Jeppe dropped us back at the hotel and we had a much needed rest for a couple of hours, then walked up to the train station to collect our tickets for our return to Copenhagen on Tuesday, and a low key dinner in a Thai restaurant round the corner.

We like Aarhus a lot, much easier on the nerves than Copenhagen. Maybe we should stick to smaller places in future.