Århus Things to Do

The Moesgård open air and inside museum south to Aahrus is one of the favourite spot for the Danish leaving in the area. A nice trail leads in the fields between a castle and the sea, and let discover outside, some prehistoric curiosities. Inside the museum, the archeological and anthropological exhibition is very nice, not too long to do for a reasonable price. Discover the "domes", prehistoric graves which cover the whole danish territory, and the mummy of a man found in a fossile swamp in the 50s. Great one-day idea, student price, c.a. 8-9 euro for the inside museum.

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It is in Billund. It takes around 1-1.5 hours to go there from Aarhus. Legoland offers more than 50 excitingactivities. I suggest to visit toy museum and see minuature dollhouse.

Prices: Children 0-2 Free
Children3-12 195 DKK
Adults 13-59 225 DKK
From 60 years 195 DKK

For a town the size of Aarhus this is quite an impressive museum. Some of the older Danish stuff you might want to skip through, but a lot of the more contemporary things in there are worth a peek.

The building itself is quite something, all whitewashed walls and broad stairs winding you in wide circles from top to bottom.

The centrepiece is 'Boy', a giant sculpture of a squatting child that was originally produced by the Australian artist Ron Mueck for the Millenium Dome in London. Something kind of creepy about it, in a way that you can't quite put your finger on.

There is a fee to enter the museum but they do offer student discounts.

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There is a great beach some kilometers down the coast. It is called Moesgård Strand. Sadly enough it was not really beach weather when we visited. So it was very quiet here.
But the drive down to the beach alone was worth the effort. The road meandered through a wooded area. And at the end we found the beach.

If you have no transportation you can also just walk south from and the citycentre and soon you will encounter some small piece of sandy beach.

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When the city was originally founded the river Å was important. The Viking merchant ships sailed up the river and in later times the ships used it as a port. The ships grew too large and the river not used anymore. In the 1930's Århus had turned into a large town, and motorised traffic grew. The river was covered over in order to turn it into a wide street.

In the 1990's the idea of car-free city centre was populair and in 1996 and 1998 two parts of the river were re-opened. Today it is a busy centre with outdoor cafés and restaurants. The place to have a drink and a bite to eat in summer.

A bit further upstream there is a nice green area along the river Å, if you like nature do have a walk there. Or ride on your bike along the river up to Braband So there is 18 km route around the lake and back to the city.

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The cityhall is absolutely one of the most striking buildings in Arhus.
Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller won a competition for the best design of of the cityhall and built in between 1938-1942. The stone used is marble from Norway. The 60 m high tower was not in the original design, but it makes the building very special.

There are tours of the cityhall and you can climb the tower, but we only saw the outside.

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In 1661 King Frederik III of Denmark, Had a large debt and had to sell large pieces of land to one of his creditors, the Dutch merchant Gabriel Marselis. Two of his sons came to Denmark and settled in the Århus area. The next 200 years the estate had several owners.

The palace now standing on the lands of the was a wedding gift for Prince Christian and Princess Alexandrine. The palace was completed in 1902.
In 1967, after a large renovation, the present royal couple began using Marselisborg Palace once more as a summer residence.

The Marselisborg Palace grounds are open to the public when the Royal Family is not here. You can't visit the palace, but the rose garden and the sculptures in the rest of the garden are absolutely worth a visit. The garden is open from 9:00 to 16:00 in winter and in summer from 8:00 to 21:00.

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Next to the Marselisborg palace you will find the Memorial Park (Mindepark).
This is a nice green park, with large greens, wooded areas and a flowergarden. But the most important part of this park is ofcourse the monument to commemorate Danes killed in the First World War. The monument is a large circular wall, with more than 4,140 names of Danes killed during the war carved into the limestone together with 4 reliefs portraying “The Departure”, “The Battle”, “Peace” and “Homecoming”. It was inaugurated in 1934.

South Jutland was under German rule from the end of the war in 1864 until after the First World War, and from this area many Danes were forced to enlist in the German army. Along the names are dates and places of birth and death. Needless to say they died all over europe, where ever the german army fought.