My journey as a journalist began in January 2025. Inspired by my son’s passion for train travel, I embarked on a mission to explore Danish towns, one station at a time, and to write about each destination with the intention of encouraging readers to explore hidden Denmark. Along the way, I’ve detoured as much as possible. I wrote about some of Denmark’s most famous cities. I focused one article on a vehicle that could be seen as the opposite of a train. I even diverted my attention to a random subplot based on a local misunderstanding.
The driver of this journey – through all its switches and turns – has remained my son, and his energetic enthusiasm. He still loves trains, but he recently noticed another form of transportation, which captured his heart, and therefore mine.
Image credit: John Dixon
Have you ever owned a campervan? Driven one? Been a passenger in one?
Have you noticed one – or several – drifting down a two-lane highway as you chugged along the tracks in a DSB coach from Herning to Horsens? If you start looking, you will notice them everywhere.
In Denmark, the campervan isn’t new. They have been picking up speed and kilometers here since the 1970s, perhaps boosted by COVID adventurers determined to carry on with their holiday ambitions. Today, it is an increasingly common way to vacation. So common, and so hip, in fact, that it has inspired a not-yet-viral portmanteau: the “Coolcation.”
Once you start noticing campervans everywhere, you might start to consider buying one. After looking at the price of buying a campervan, you may steer your ambition toward a rental. Then, if you’re lucky, you will end up renting a campervan from Ahorn Camp in Viborg, and spending a magical Week 42 potato holiday traversing Northern Jylland.
My family joined the creeping herd of national and international hermit crabs, all seeking the sacred respite of waning in the last shared holiday before impending darkness.
Image credit: John Dixon
The name Viborg – from a Nordic historic perspective – translates roughly to “sacred fortress.” In Viking times, it was a gathering place for trade, worship and government. It was a “thingstead” – literally, a place where things come together. You may encounter streets, bars, or shops called Tingstedet.
A more modern translator app may lead you towards a reliably Danish language equation: “We + Castle.” Both translations – as well as my new word, “thingstead” – aligned serendipitously with our family’s use of Viborg as a starting base for our fall pilgrimage.
We drove our castle on wheels – like the chess piece – forwards, backwards, and across all sides of Denmark’s largest peninsula. Inside the campervan, we made a royal suite, complete with a nearly queen-sized bed and a snack cabinet fit for a king. We sought coastal refuge wherever we could find it, and never took for granted the good fortune of our clear skies.
Highlights included:
- Discovering on our first stop that the only place to get food within a reasonable number of kilometers included delicious food, a pool table, and an old boat as its bar.
- Speaking of boats, Fregatten Jylland is an exceptional ship museum; surprisingly interactive and featuring daily cannon firings.
- Our overnight stay in Ebeltoft was unintentionally timed with the Ebeltoft Æbelfest, where we discovered a local treat that we will not soon forget.
- Bowling in not one but two charmingly vintage bowling alleys, where our son developed a new hobby to potentially rival his train enthusiasm.
Image Credit: John Dixon
After seven days of castling the surroundings of our beloved Jylland, we provided the thorough cleaning of our agreement, and returned our rental campervan, hoping for a full return of deposit. 🤞
We steered our suddenly small-seeming Mitsubishi into Viborg’s city center. The Viborg vibe combines ancestral appreciation with modern momentum. It’s a notably sacred focal point, both geographically and historically. We fulfilled this column’s promise by riding a train, and ending our holiday week with a remarkable lunch at For Enden at Gaden.
Image credit: John Dixon
Fittingly, we reached the end of the road, and the end of this column’s route.
Next month, I will disembark my coach and settle into the driver’s seat, just in time to cruise the Christmas markets for my final ride of the year. The title is a lot clunkier, but treasure is not often discovered by taking the quickest path. Join me, if you can:
Jeg tog den bedste transport for at finde de bedste julemarkeder.
