Ribe, Southern Denmark - Saturday, 23 July

Geoff
The cockerel started crowing next to us at 8am but I'd been up for a while and it didn't seem to bother Amanda and she didn't wake. Another lovely morning but not quite so hot. We had a leisurely breakfast and got away around 11.30. We were planning to go to Ribe, a small mediaeval town not too far away but, first, I wanted to go up the coast road and over a causeway road to the island of Rømø, which is very much a tourist haven. By the way, we are in Jutland, the main part of Denmark, north of the German border.

It being Saturday, we thought we should find somewhere to overnight. We headed for a massive beach area where vehicles were parked maybe half a mile away, looking out to sea. It wasn't clear if overnight parking was allowed so we went back to the road. Near the more or less only town on the island (although still small), were two adjacent camper parks, both arranged around a lake. From a distance, they looked like rough parking areas but when we got close, it was clear they were something more. They were purpose built with posh bathroom facilities. The areas were grassed but with a gravelled road around the lakes with gravelled  bays for each camper van. Each bay had a marker post with a numbered badge. If the badge was green the place was free, if red then it was occupied. Unfortunately, they were all red so we drove on. In the end, we decided that, it being weekend, we might fare better on the mainland so aimed for Ribe.

In our Camperstop book was a public car park just 500m from the town centre. There were twenty five places in all and we found one free. There are loos just a few yards away, open from 6am to 10pm.

We're tucked away beyond the van on the right

We took a walk into Ribe, which is very attractive, the centre being Torvet, where the cathedral is situated and there as various eateries. Radiating out from Torvet are cobbled streets lined with old houses and shops, restaurants and so on. There was a lovely little waterway or dyke coming into the town, lined with small river craft. I walked down it, past a little restaurant. A couple was eating outside and their meal looked so good (seafood and charcuterie), I was tempted to ask if I could photograph it.

We are now back at our car park. We ate our supper sitting out behind the camper in the early evening sunshine. Others were doing the same. We are all nationalities here - Swedish, Danish, German, French, Belgian, Italian, and us. Just before 10pm, I walked back to Torvet for one of the main tourist attractions of Ribe, the Night Watchman Tour, joining some fifty or so others to hear a costumed night watchman making the rounds of Torvet and nearby, telling the history and stories (and the odd song) of the town, its buildings and characters. It was in Danish and English. There has been a night watchman since the 14th century. The post was abolished in 1902 but reinstated in 1935 as a tourist attraction.

Amanda

Today from rural idyll to semi-urban stop. We have secured a place in a Campervanstop for 25 vans within walking distance of the town centre of Ribe, having driven up the west coast of Jutland and done a detour around the island of Romo accessed via a causeway. Romo is clearly THE place to head to on a hot summer Saturday, with massive sands, and a large Butlinesque campsite. It also has woods and cycle tracks, and a large, new and very impressive Camperstop, where all 50+ places were taken. But our urban facility is free, and even has a loo and camper service station, with water, etc. We plan to head into town to explore before supper, to plan what to see there tomorrow.

I was just congratulating myself on a first - having washed my hair in the camper- when I realised that the tap from the waste water tank was not fully turned off and the water had shot all over the tarmac just where the next door campers would step in and out of their door. A big breach of campervanning etiquette I fear. I managed to apologise in their native German and was told it was not a problem!

I am very much enjoying reading "The year of living Danishly" recommended by Bristol friends. I guess it would be as well received here as "A year in Provence" was there, but it is very informative as well as entertaining, even if the author is a bit irritating. Would you really set off to live in another country without even a few very basic words and phrases? She and her husband move to Jutland when he is offered a job with Lego. Billund, the Lego Kingdom, is not very far from where were now.