Vikings and Stilts

Well, Robert's and my last two days in Aalborg were exciting, to say the least! After finishing up the draft of the paper Friday morning, we took the bus out to a Viking cemetery, now also the home of a really good museum detailing Danish history from prehistory up to medieval times. It's called Lindholm Høje, and has an older part showcasing objects retrieved from the gravesites, while the new part has a very accessible introduction (in both Danish and English) to the history of the area.


After satisfying our yen for knowledge, we headed back toward the old center of the city, and discovered, to our delight, a parade about to start! Turns out that this is the weekend of the Karnival Aalborg, and we were witnessing the "Battle of the Bands", where carnival groups from around the world have been invited to compete for a prize. Before their competition, they have a 40 minute or so parade so that everyone can see what they've got to flaunt. The tallest were the stiltwalkers from Belgium, but my favorite were the animals--giraffes mobile enough to interact with the crowd, and a beautiful diaphanous elephant.

We finished the day at an authentic Danish Chinese Buffet. Yummy!