Europe a la Carte Blog

If you’d like to try out a harbourside boutique hotel, soak up some opera and culture, explore an open air museum of historic buildings, and see a little mermaid, all at someone else’s expense then read on.

Visit Denmark, Denmark’s official tourism website, is looking for guests to be part of the Guinea Pig Guest Programme. In return for free flights from the UK and accomodation, you need to be prepared to document your holiday in writing, photography and video and publish it on the Visit Denmark website. It should be a breeze for all you seasoned bloggers and aspiring travel writers out there.

As well as Copenhagen you can visit some other interesting cities in Denmark such as Aalborg, Arhus, Odense – here are the highlights;

Århus
Århus is the second largest city in Denmark, on the East Coast of Jutland. It has a lively music scene and hosts major cultural events such as the Århus festival in the first week of September. I like the sound of Den Gamle By, the Old Town where 75 traditional houses make up an open-air living Museum, and you can experience what life was like in the past in a Danish Market town. Bringing you bang up to date is the Museum of Modern Art and after all the sightseeing you can relax in the riverside cafés at Vadestedet.

Aalborg
Aalborg in North Jutland is connected by bridge and tunnel to it’s twin city of Nørresundby. The North Jutland Art Museum is designed by the well known Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and a showcase for the modern Danish art from 1900 to the present day. The side streets and courtyards of the centre are home to excellent small speciality shops where you can find anything from handblown glass to homemade blueberry jam and Samsø cheese. Aalborg’s most famous building is the Jens Bangs Stenhus built in 1624 as a fine example of Renaissance architecture.

Odense
If you’re a reader of the magical fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, then you’ll fall under the spell of his birthblace, Odense. His childhood home is open to the public where you can see exhibitions on the author’s life and work. Odense is also Denmark’s no. 1 cycle town with numerous cycle paths beside rivers and along disused railway lines to enable you to explore the town and surrounding area. You can also enjoy the boat trip along the river Odense Å or visit the several outdoor markets.

If you’d like to be a guinea pig guest to Visit Denmark, get your application in on-line by the end of March, specifying when and where you would like to go. If you read more articles by me about the things I’ve seen in Denmark, you’ll know why!

Thanks to Julienpons, stoicviking, seier and marjk for their photos on Flickr