All About Aalborg

 Thursday, August 20, 2026

Today is Jim's birthday!  Another year younger. 

Our day today included a tour into the city of Aalborg, the 4th largest city in Denmark.  It was established over 1000 years ago as a trading post in the Viking days.  We rode the city bus from the campground into town.  I'm sure the bus driver wondered what was going on!

 I was amazed at both the age of the city and the charm it brought with it. 

The city is lined with cobblestone roads.  Buildings are painted in lively colors, and the streets are clean and quiet.

One house has a plaque naming everyone that has lived there since it was built in 1787! 

The oldest building in the city is a former monastery, and today is the birthday of the building, so Jim has a birthday twin (a little older though...it was built in 1431!)

It subsequently housed a hospital, school, sanitarium and mental ward, and today it is apartments.  I guess you can do a lot in 595 years!

There were beautiful murals all around the city (they call it street art). Artists are commissioned from around the world.

The city sits on sand and water and limestone, so is constantly moving.  You can tell from the buildings that maintenance is quite a challenge.

One of the main industries of the area is concrete, made with the limestone and sand in the area.

The Danish language includes two special alphabet characters that may soon be discontinued because they can't be reproduced on a standard keyboard!  Check out the O with a slash and double A which have a special pronunciation. 

There was a huge cruise ship in port.  They get only about 30 ships per year due to the shallow inlet.

We went to the rooftop overlooking the city for a great view.

I think this was one of my favorite cities yet.   There was so much to see, the people were very friendly, it was not crowded, and I got my Starbuck's mug!

And then we returned to the campground.  Jim got to go to the dump station on his birthday!  What a gift!