Viking Moot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark

~ Viking lore lives on in the Danish town of Aarhus (on the east coast of Jutland – Denmark’s western peninsula), where on the last weekend in July, Scandinavians pay tribute to their forebears.

This weekend festival is about a three hour drive from Copenhagen, and offers a historical market with traders, craftsmen and performers clothed in traditional garb.

The most anticipated event is the warrior fights held at nearby Moesgaard Beach, in which participants train for a week in the woods.

Besides 25,000 visitors, this annual event attracts countless performers from Denmark, the other Scandinavian countries, and even the British Isles. The Viking Moot festival is free, so you will not need tickets. It is hosted by the Moesgård Museum in Aarhus, a major attraction in Aarhus (see below).

Other Attractions & Things to Do in Aarhus

As well as the Viking Moot Festival, there are numerous other attractions in Aarhus to enjoy during your visit, and these are detailed below.

Moesgård Museum in Aarhus

Apart from hosting the Viking Moot Festival, the Moesgaard Museum is great for anyone interested in history and archaeology dating back to the Vikings and the Stone Age. The building housing the museum is over 200 years old. Guided tours of the museum are available.

Old Town Aarhus

A visit to the old town of Aarhus is a must when you're nearby. There are beautiful old houses, little shops, and food and drink on offer.

Aarhus Tivoli Friheden

Yes, Aarhus has its own Tivoli amusement park, called Tivoli Friheden. There are lots of carnival-style rides, a big water park as well as an indoor play land and other activities for all ages.

Marselisborg Castle & Park in Aarhus

Marselisborg Castle is the Danish Royal family's summer seat in Aarhus. When the royals are present, you can witness the Changing of the Guard daily at noon. However, most of the time the Royal Family is not there which means visitors are allowed to enter the grounds and even visit the Queen's rose garden.

The Botanical Garden of Aarhus

This attraction is open year-round and you can visit the greenhouses and the Tropical House (open Mon-Sat 1-3pm, Sun 11-3pm) free of charge. The Botanical Garden is easy to find in the old town of Aarhus, near the Urban Museum. Just look for the windmill.

RaceHall Near Aarhus

In Viby at Hasselager Centervej 30, you'll find a major attraction of the Aarhus area - RaceHall, the largest indoor race track in all of Europe!

Aarhus Occupation Museum

The Occupation Museum (Besaettelsesmuseet) of Aarhus is dedicated to showing both peaceful and dramatic events in Århus during the German occupation. Everyday life during the occupation, military equipment, war propaganda and Nazi terror are displayed in this museum.

The Aarhus Deer Park (Dyrehaven)

A nature-style attraction in Aarhus is the Deer Park (Dyrehaven), found 2 miles south of downtown Aarhus. Among many other species, the deer park is housing Sika deer, fallow deer and wild boar in their natural habitat.

ARoS Art Museum of Aarhus

The ARoS is the largest art museum in and around Aarhus and an attraction that's both interesting and great for bad weather days. The museum shows art from the last 3 centuries and teaches about local art and design in a very compelling way.

Click here for more information…

IMAGE: Vikings by Jonathan Hart

All Aboard the World’s Largest Zeppelin!

~ Now this sounds like a real buzz – watching fireworks light the Fourth of July night sky in Los Angeles, while soaring 1000 feet above the Pacific Coast aboard the Airship Ventures Zeppelin Eureka.

Returning to the Southern California skies after a sold-out engagement in May, Eureka will offer flight-seeing tours above L.A. from July 3-7, 2009.

The highlight of Eureka’s return trip to the L.A. skies will be a special two-hour Independence Day fireworks flight that takes advantage of the Zeppelin’s 360-degree panoramas to offer passengers stunning views of fireworks shows up and down the L.A. coastline. The fireworks flight is one of many tours offered during the Zeppelin’s six-day excursion to Los Angeles, which also include one- and two-hour flightseeing tours and private charters.

Flightseeing experiences offer magnificent views of Southern California landmarks, such as the historic Queen Mary, Long Beach Harbor, the Sunset Strip, the Hollywood sign, as well as sweeping vistas of the Pacific Coast from Huntington Beach to Santa Monica.

For those seeking the ultimate Zeppelin experience, tours are available on the transit flights between Long Beach and the San Francisco Bay Area. Soaring above the California Coastline and Central Valley, these 8-hour cruises follow Highway 1 on July 1st (southbound), and July 8 (northbound) as the Zeppelin travels to and from Long Beach from her home base at Moffett Field near San Francisco.

Los Angeles-area flights will depart from the AirFlite FBO terminal, adjacent to the main terminal at Long Beach Airport (3250 Airflite Way, Long Beach, CA 90807, at the corner of Cherry and Wardlow). One-hour flights are $495, plus tax, per person; two-hour flights are $990, plus tax, per person; and the spectacular Fourth of July fireworks flight is $1,200, plus tax, per person.

One- and two-hour flightseeing tours booked before June 30, 2009, will be eligible for the company’s “buy one flightseeing ticket, save 50% on the second,” promotional pricing (excluding the Fourth of July Fireworks Flight). Passengers on every flight will receive a certificate redeemable for a buy-one-get-one free general admission to the Queen Mary, good through September 30, 2009.

At 246 feet in length, Airship Ventures’ Eureka is the world’s largest airship—15 feet longer than a Boeing 747, and dwarfing the largest blimp by more than 50 feet. One of only three Zeppelins currently operating in the world, Eureka offers passengers spectacular 360-degree views of the sights on flight-seeing tours above the San Francisco Bay, Silicon Valley, Monterey and Los Angeles.

About Airship Ventures, Inc.

Founded in 2007 in California, Airship Ventures, Inc., operates the only passenger airship operation in the United States, featuring “Eureka,” the world’s largest airship. The Zeppelin’s spacious cabin comfortably accommodates one pilot, one flight attendant, and 12 passengers with luxury features including oversized panoramic windows, an onboard restroom with window, and a 180-degree rear observation window and “love seat” that wraps the entire aft of the cabin. Using the inert gas helium for lift, and vectored thrust engines for flight, Zeppelin NTs have been flying in Germany and Japan since 1997 with an unparalleled safety record.

For more information the visit Airship Ventures website...

Or call 650-969-8100 x111

IMAGE: Courtesy of Airship Ventures

Photographer: Achim Mende

The Week That Was #1

~ Here for your browsing please I offer a roundup of the some of the more interesting travel related stories that have come to my attention over the past week.

America’s Top Summer Music Festivals

Though the economy may have hit a low note, it seems that people are still willing to pay for a music high. In fact, most music festivals may not be feeling the fiscal pinch; festival producers across the country say ticket sales are just as high as last year, if not better.

Ken Weinstein, who represents Bonnaroo, one of the largest and most famous summer festivals, says, "Bonnaroo offers fans four of the best days of their lives, during which they are not only allowed but required to forget the recession and all the unfortunate things going on in the world.” Click here to view a slide show of the some of the top summer festivals…

Eight great trips that give back

You don't have to wear a hair shirt and dig a well to give back when you travel. Here are eight great trips that connect you with the world, and each time you frequent these locations you support the self-sufficiency and the economy of the local people. Click here to read more…

Book your own cruise? One do-it-yourselfer tells his secrets

by Ron Saia writing for Tripso.Com

Ron Saia has been on over 45 cruises, written articles about cruising and helped many people who have never cruised before prepare and experience a great cruise vacation. He’s not a travel agent. He’s a do-it-yourself serial cruiser. This post focuses on getting a great deal.

The key is to start by getting a great price for your cruise vacation. Book way in advance — anywhere from eight months to a year — or select from special discounted cruises. Click here to read more…

WikiTravel: How did this slip under my radar?

Wikitravel (similar to the open source Wikipedia) is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide. So far there are 21,648 destination guides and other articles written and edited by Wikitravellers from around the globe. You can check out the Help page to see how you can edit any page right now, or the Project page for more information about Wikitravel and getting involved.

Author Shelley Seale on children living in the slums of India

Very few people haven’t heard of the Oscar-winning movie, Slumdog Millionaire. The story follows two young brothers as they grow up in and survive the slums of Mumbai, India. In order to show the reality of life for poverty-stricken Indian children, many scenes in the movie were actually filmed in the Mumbai slums. But in true Hollywood fashion, the ending was heartwarming goodness. The ending for the real children of these slums is not so pretty. Click here to read more…

Hotel bedbug horror degenerates into a war of words

by Christopher Elliott writing on Tripso.Com

The Stanley Hotel is an historic resort in Estes Park, Colo., perhaps best known for inspiring Stephen King to write his horror masterpiece The Shining. And also, bedbugs — if Julie Kobayashi has her way. Get those images of Jack Nicholson typing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” out of your head. This spat reminded me more of the recent exchange between Elizabeth Becton and McBee Strategic. In other words, it degenerated into a needless but not uninteresting war of words.

IMAGE: View of the River Murray

Photographer: Jim Lesses