Last month, I wrote about an encounter with a friend that involved me forgetting where he said he had moved, and feeling too embarrassed to ask him to remind me. The silver lining of my mishap was the genesis of a mini-series called “Jeg Tog To Tog til en Borg.”
Fortunately, we are sometimes given second chances; opportunities to redeem our failures and inadequacies. Such was the case when I encountered this friend again, just days after anonymously referencing him in the column which he unknowingly influenced.
“Silkeborg!” he beamed.
“That’s what I thought!” I blushed.
“You should visit!” he declared.
Later that week, my wife invited me to spend an afternoon with her on her day off.
“May I make a suggestion?” I wheedled.
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This column was originally inspired by my family’s experiences traveling by train to discover unique parts of Denmark with our train-obsessed kid. In nine months of writing, I have already broken all of the guidelines I attempted to place in my first issue. For this month’s adventure, Mom & Dad went child-free, and we didn’t even take the train.
You can, of course, take the train to Silkeborg. The train station has a 7-Eleven (stocked with greeting cards and magazines), and a spacious waiting area with plenty of cozy seating options. For the sake of integrity, we parked our car next to the train station, then strolled through an underground passageway to get to the city center.
Our friend who moved to Silkeborg shared that his motivation was to have a quieter, more peaceful life with his wife. They wanted a city that was decent-sized but not overwhelming, with access to both art and nature.
They chose the right place.
Immediately, we were treated to massive works of colorful street art, which coat the outer walls of both modern and historic buildings throughout Silkeborg. We stopped in the library, which is one of the most spacious and welcoming I’ve seen in a country with no shortage of spacious and welcoming libraries. Like most of the ones I’ve visited in Denmark, this one had a user-friendly Maker Space, several well-designed children’s play areas, and a gallery of site-specific found-object sculptures. Two things I hadn’t seen before were a frøbibliotek – seed library for guests to take and donate seeds with instructions for planting – and a densely populated “Fars gruppe” – a gathering of dads hanging out on the floor with their toddlers.
Just outside the library, a characteristically elaborate playground sprawled into the edge of the city center. Hundreds of children gathered on various hills, mounds, and climbing nets, enjoying an outdoor lunch with a safe and civilized proportion of pedagogues. We hopscotched our way around the obstacles of young people chomping peacefully on rugbrød with leverpostej, and were just as instantly transported into an idyllic European shopping village.
My wife scored some dazzling clothes from Min Gaia, and we would have emptied our bank accounts at its sister store, Studio Fast, which carries designer home goods and furniture. Both shops are exquisitely curated; the shops’ owner is clearly an artist. We also had a hard time leaving t.i.n.g. empty-handed; they sell unique lighting and decor, along with other enticing items that you never knew you needed and probably can’t afford.
For lunch, we thoroughly enjoyed our meals at Woody’s. What we were served was much more haute couture than the smørrebrød we have come to expect from a Danish café. The brød was delicate and hearty, and the smørre was fresh and uniquely flavorful. They also serve a variety of refreshing homemade lemonade – sparkling or still – with bespoke flavors such as rhubarb, elderflower. and lemon-ginger.
After wandering through the lively streets of Silkeborg’s city center, we reached the town’s centerpiece: its sparkling lakes. While locals and historians debate the origin of the name, many agree it evokes the calm, silky waters, or the willow trees that once graced the area, giving the town its quietly enchanting character. In any case, the city gets its name from Silkeborg castle (hence the –borg suffix), which we did not visit during our couple’s adventure. We also missed several Silkeborg standouts which might appear on a “Danish city Bingo” card:
- Former WWII bunker converted into a museum
- History museum containing one or more bog persons
- Giant hidden troll designed by Thomas Danbo
Rest assured, we will be returning to Silkeborg. It’s easy to see why our friend chose to relocate for a more relaxed and romantic setting. Although it was wonderful to spend the time alone together, we will bring our train kid with us next time. We have marked it as one of the destinations on our Week 42 holiday: we will be renting a camper van and making a circuit across northern Jylland.
We are planning to visit no fewer than four -borgs, including the rental shop where we will be starting our adventure: Ahorn Camp in Viborg, the next stop on our tour de borgs.
