Ribe

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We arrived in Ribe not knowing quite what to expect. We were very pleasantly surprised. Ribe is Denmarks oldest town dating back to 700AD or earlier with it's current oldest building being the Cathedral, which is still maintained and 900 years old. The old part of Ribe consists of dozens of streets filled with charming fixer-uppers... full of character, and not a straight wall between them. The cathedral itself is right in the centre and visitors are treated to a long and fascinating climb to the top of the tallest of it's four spires (all in different architectural styles too). On the way up the spire you have the unique opportunity to be deafened by either of its two massive bells as you find yourself right inside the belltower with them as it striked twelve. The view from the top is fantastic. Denmark is astoundingly flat so any opportunity to gain some height is welcomed. Almost every house in Denmark seems to be made of red-brick and have terracota tiled roofs, so looking down on Ribe is just like something out of Carcasonne the board game.

Ribes other offering is the Museum of the Viking Age, which although not huge, is fascinating in itself and houses many historically important artifacts. We spent hours wandering through the gift-shop afterwards too. No, not to buy loads of tacky trinkets for you all, sorry... we were eyeing up the jewelery and other viking wares on offer trying to decide if we could justify the pack space.

This town even still has a night-watchman who roams the streets at night in his authentic costume carrying a nasty looking pole-arm and a lantern and singing the same songs that the night-watchmen of Ribe have been singing for 400 years. If you follow him on his rounds he will tell you many tales of Ribes colourful history.

Next-stop is Odense.

- Nigel

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Comments

[Andy]

Very nice
Hey guys, sounds like a great place fOR a kiwi re-enactor. I hope you are getting lots of lovely reference photos to make up for the lack of tacky trinkits ;-)