Heading for Aarhus

When I was in Denmark I spent a few days in Aarhus. Denmark has a total population of only 5,700,000 and a fair amount of them live in or near Copenhagen. The rest of the country is rather scarcely populated, especially compared to Belgium where I’m from. So with 330,000 inhabitants of which 264,000 live in the inner city center, Aarhus is Denmark’s second largest city.

Aarhus is also the European Capital of Culture 2017, so if you want to go, now you have the perfect excuse!

It’s a cozy but vibrant city on the east coast of Jutland, the big part of Denmark. When I first arrived in Denmark and picked up my rental car I drove straight towards Aarhus. But before I got there I took a quick detour to see Marselisborg, just south of the city. In the middle of a beautiful park with lots of trees, ponds and even a rose garden there’s Marselisborg Slot, a royal summer residence of the Danish Royal Family and more particular of Queen Margrethe II. When the Queen is not there, the gates are wide open and you can walk right up to the Palace! That’s so typically Danish. Marselisborg and the nearby located Mindepark is a great place to go for a walk. You can go straight to the sea and continue your leisurely stroll along the beach or walk in the residential borough nearby.

After I took some autumn pics I moved on because I was meeting up with a friend in the city. What I noticed immediately is they really succeeded in keeping cars out of the city centre. There are pedestrian areas and streets where cyclists are king. Just like the Dutch, the Danes really love biking, and if you don’t have to worry about being run over each minute, why wouldn’t you, am I right? I parked my car in the car park of Dokk1, near the harbour. It’s an automatic car park so I thought it’s worth mentioning. You drive your car into one of the boxes, step out, follow the instructions on screen and insert your credit card to link it to your vehicle. That’s it, the gate of the garage box closes and your car disappears into the ground! There are only 20 boxes but the underground car park can hold up to 1.000 vehicles! You can watch a video of how it works here. First time I saw and used it and I was absolutely amazed. I never thought parking your car would be so cool! So if you need to leave your car in Aarhus, leave it there 😉

In my next post I’ll be discussing the best bites in town!

Ben