Feeling the Vibe in Ribe.

Day 38 - July 1^st

We awoke early in the sleepy town of Tonder to the sounds of wind.  Denmark seems to be very windy probably because the land is very flat and there are no wind breaks from the ocean. 

It was a Sunday and not much was happening when we road our bikes into town.  Nonetheless we had a good look around the quaint town.

Tonder Town Centre

10am Sunday Morning Tonder.
Nobody in sight. 

See if you can spot anyone here. It was like walking
through a wild west town before a showdown.

We drove up north to the lovely town of Ribe.  Lonely planet had raved about this place and I believe it lived up to the expectations. 

Ribe is another charming town with crooked, cobblestone streets and a chocolate-box confection of half timbered 16^th century houses.  There is a lovely stream that flows through town and a huge Romanesque cathedral that dominates the town square.  In fact Ribe is the oldest town in Denmark. 

We had parked up at our first aire.  Aires are basically car parks with a facility block (toilets, sluice, fresh water) sometimes they cost and other times they are free.  At the entrance to this Aire was a big ‘no camping sign’ so I’m not sure why they made it so easy for everyone to live their comfortably. With 20 or so other campers already parked up we were not concerned about getting told off or asked to move.

We hit up the local bakery where we bought lunch and our first real Danish.  We ate by the river and rated it the best lunch spot so far. 

The highest rating lunch spot so far.

That afternoon we made strawberry jam in the van. That's not a roundabout way of saying we had sex either - we actually made jam! How old are we getting?

We had bought 1kg of fresh strawberries the day before and found them to be rotting.  Together with ‘The three Hungry Boys’ book recipe, we made jam.  It turned out to be quite easy and it tastes delicious!

Yep....making strawberry jam.

The finished product, which actually tastes really good.
Look out IXL.

Late afternoon we had another walk circling around the lovely town mainly to look for a pub that was televising the Euro Cup final Spain vs Italy.  We found a pub and then made our way up the cathedral tower to get a view over the town and surrounding areas.  We wandered back to the van via their immaculate cemetery and the site of a ruined castle.

On top of the Ribe Cathedral and very windy.

Looking out over Ribe from the top of the cathedral tower.

A typical Ribe backstreet. It's so safe that they don't lock their bikes up! The van is now full of bikes.....hehe....

After dinner we rode our bike to the pub to watch the football or as I like say ‘soccer.’  We grabbed some pints and found seats; the pre game entertainment had already begun.  I lost interest within 5 minutes and opted to get some more Blog up.  Luke enjoyed the game and then joined me at the laptop until closing.