Friday Night in Aarhus (28 Nov)

From Denmark II

Gol Jul = Merry Christmas in Danish. Gol = Good, and Jul = Yuletides (my own equivalent). Most of Denmark's xmas holiday was kicked off this weekend. Most of the towns light their xmas tree & have a parade or some carols sung. I passed up the small town stuff for the big city events. Here's my Friday evening:

After an extra long week of work (yes, I worked on Thur Thanksgiving & black Friday since they don't have a Thanksgiving holiday), I took off early on Friday to catch the train South to Aarhus. Aarhus is the 2nd largest Danish city (Copenhagen beats it). Taking public transportation in foreign places is great... didn't have to worry about parking and navigating & driving (at the same time). It seems many kids use the train to travel to/from school, activities, or maybe parent's houses. They treated it as routine.

Upon arriving at the main station, the lady passenger next to me went out of her way to show me town hall. Just next to town hall there was a Julmarkt (Christmas Market) that had it's opening night. I went inside this large single room building that resembled a real nice barn, and there were dozens of merchants with their hand-made items on display. From pottery, wool knits, glass, leather, wood.... you name it and they make something from it. It was fun to meet the artisans and support them directly. The atmosphere included Christmas lights strung across the rafters, xmas music, and a snack station (I can never pass up the aebleskivers). I did a once-through, before revisiting tables for purchases. I almost wish I bought more. Really neat.

Exited the Julmarkt and started walking down whatever streets looked interesting. After buying some street vendor candied almonds (wow, nothing like them... don't think I can bring them back due to custom's though), I decided to sit outside at a restaurant along the waterway. It was good people watching and managed to stay warm w/ tea. As I finished up I heard a band playing and ran up the stairs in the nearest alley to the Stroget (shopping/walking district) just in time for their Christmas parade. It had a few marching bands, kids in xmas costume handing out candy, a tractor, and santa in a convertible. Quite similar to a US parade really.

Once it was over, the overhead lighting display was "on" and underneath it I explored the many, many shops with the many, many people. The shops normally close at 7pm on Fridays, however it was a special xmas event, so they were open through midnight. A few shops were good enough to browse through. The most interesting one operated like Ikea with the forced path through the tiny store w/ nothing but reasonably priced xmas decor, bath stuff, and widgets. After being through the Julmarkt, it's difficult to buy anything from a store.

The 9:15 train ride home was uneventful. Made it to bed before midnight for the big weekend plans.

So, thumbs up for the Aarhus Christmas spectacular. The lighting decorations & Julmarkt were GREAT.