29 August - 2 September, 2014

I'd been meaning to go and visit Wolfgang in Switzerland. But he went and finished an entire PhD before I got there, so eventually, I got around to visiting him in Aarhus, Denmark, where he had taken up a Post Doc position.

I would probably never had put Aarhus on my list as a tourist destination, but it was a heap of fun. The weather was (mostly) excellent, the food was realllly good, and the beer was diverse and excellent. It was often expensive though. I had much more fun in Aarhus and the rest of the trip than in Köben, which I've always found a bit forced, and pretty generic big town.

I got to visit Wolfgang's lab at the university, where he's doing research with NMRs on properties of cement, and then we took a road trip up to the northern tip, Skagen, and around to Klitmöller where Wolfgang goes surfing regularly. We visited some old viking ruins, friends in the countryside, and toured all the sights.

In Skagen, while shopping on their (really quite unpleasant) main street, it came up that I was from Iceland. I was then asked whether I was here in Skagen to buy a boat! Sure, it was no longer high season, but really? I wonder how often that happens. The harbour area of Skagen was really nice however, totally unlike the main street. Iceland could learn a lot from properly using an old harbour area. There were good fish shops selling both fresh fish, but also a small range of ready to eat food to eat by the harbour. It was exactly what I think is missing in most small cute harbours in Iceland. A flock of fake log cabin tourist trip booking offices and restaraunts that face inland instead of over the water is not the way to use a harbour area.

In Hantsholm, we got the best evening meal I've seen for a while too. Another great usage of an industrial area, with a combined fresh fish shop, plus seafood grill. Simple menu, high quality, low on drama and tableclothes. You should go!

On the way home to Aarhus again, we visited Silkeborg, which looked like a nice area for canoing, and we enjoyed a nice beer in the evening sun on the riverbank, but we had gone there for a different reason. The Tollund Man! Nothing like a dead body to make a tourist attraction. It was really neat, such wonderfully well preserved.

Then it was just more good food and music and tasty beer, then home again home again! Nice to get a holiday and finally see Wolfgang again.