Aalborg—A Salty Old Dame

Aalborg is a charming little city. It reminds me of Durham, North Carolina. The central part of the downtown area is lovely, with half-timbered medieval buildings and large brick edifices surviving from the nineteenth century. All have been restored to their original pristine elegance. There is a wonderful university here, but much of the town is devoted to industry. The riverbank is dotted with concrete factories, boat builders, coal-fired electric power plants, and other manufacturing concerns.

We spent an hour meandering through the beautiful old building that houses the city’s museum of history. The upper floors tell the story of medieval Aalborg with clothing and paintings from this area. Of special interest is a complete room lifted from an ancient palace, now destroyed, and dropped it its entirely into the third floor of the museum building. The trail traces the city’s history up through the modern period with Aalborg’s many industrial plants. A separate exhibit details the town’s vigorous opposition to the German invasion in World War II, along with subsequent protests. Most of these later militant movements revolved around the town’s opposition to fracking by the oil industry.

Aalborg is like Durham. Her beauty is more than skin deep. She has had her time in the limelight and her seasons of obscurity. Though she will never make it onto the pages of Denmark’s glamor magazines, the nation would be poorer without her. Aalborg, like Durham is a salty old dame as real as they come.Read more