Aalborg is Denmark's fourth city, a university and industrial town of over a hundred and twenty thousand on the south bank of the Limfjord, the broad, shallow waterway that slices North Jutland nearly in two. The old harbour has been turned from shipyards and warehouses into a promenade, with the Utzon Center, designed by Jørn Utzon of Sydney Opera House fame, standing at the water's edge. Aalborg is also home to a well-known caraway-flavoured akvavit, which has been distilled here since the nineteenth century, and a May carnival that fills the streets with costumed students in what is often described as the largest in Northern Europe.
History goes deeper than the carnival. Across the fjord at Nørresundby, just over a kilometre away, the Lindholm Høje site holds a large Viking and Iron Age burial ground on a hillside, with graves marked by stones set in boat shapes. A short stop there gives you a much clearer picture of why this crossing mattered a thousand years ago. Today, the old ferry has been replaced by a bridge and a tunnel, and the traffic funnels through them on weekday mornings, so time your crossing.
Riding in North Jutland is gentle and wide, not dramatic. The land is low, rolling and farmed, with big skies, white churches, red-brick farmsteads and woodland that suddenly opens onto dunes. Roads are in excellent condition, and the bends are mild. Wind is the main character. A westerly off the North Sea can lean on you hard along the coast, and in autumn, rain squalls move through quickly. Speed cameras and police checks are routine here, and limits are taken seriously by locals, so keep to them. Summer is lovely with long evenings, when light lingers until nearly eleven.
Aalborg is easy for everything practical. There is fuel at many stations on the ring roads and on both sides of the fjord, plenty of cafes and bakeries in the centre, and ample parking near the harbour. The Marguerite Route, a signed tourist drive named for the white flower, passes through the area and links villages and coast. For a break, the harbour front is a pleasant place to sit with a pastry, watching the ferries and the grey-blue fjord.