Denmark day 4

After a brightish start (and a chance to dry out everything that got soaked yesterday), it's been drizzling on and off all day. Danish drizzle, it turns out, is pretty much the same as Gateshead drizzle, only warmer.

But, undeterred, your intrepid crew got in the car and headed half an hour west to the Dansk Landbrugsmuseum at Gammel Estrup - the Danish national agricultural museum. Odd choice, you might think, for a bunch of townies, but maybe we're going soft on the countryside in our old age. And anyway, I grew up in the depths of East Anglian Fenland, which isn't so far removed from the Danish countryside round here.

The museum turned out to be an excellent choice. Our other alternative was going to see the rainforest biodomes in nearby Randers, but as we'd been to the Eden Project recently, we thought that agriculture would be more fun - and we were right. The museum has several indoor sections, full of exhibitions about farming and life in the countryside. We particularly liked the one about farm life from the bronze age onwards - especially how the farm kitchen had changed over the centuries, which takes you through four different mock ups of a kitchen. But there's also an entire hall full of combine harvesters and old agricultural implements, a fascinating exhibition about beekeeping (including some live hives), lots about butchery, and a current temporary exhibition about country fairs, including this rather natty chap:


Outside, if the weather had been better, are a whole host of animals, a smithy, orchards, kitchen gardens and a playground. There is inside play stuff too, including a remarkable children's farm complete with tractors and small cars.


We also found time to have a tea party in the garden:


This time, the museum was much cheaper, at 85 DKK (£9.50) for an adult, and with kids under 18 free. You also get admission to the Gammel Estrup manor house, but we spent so long at the agriculture museum that we didn't get round to looking at anything there - it really is a full day out, especially with smallish kids. Be warned - if you're there in Danish school holidays, there seem to be lots of free events on - but now the kids are back at school, it's pretty quiet.

Foodwise, we took along a picnic - and there were lots of picnic tables both inside and out which you could use. We felt we had to try out the museum cafe - for research purposes, natch - and can report back that the coffee and cake option (48 DKK) is pricey, but definitely worth it. Homemade cake, warm from the oven, and the largest jug of proper coffee you've ever seen rounded off a lovely day out. Recommended.

In other news, we popped into Aldi on the way home, and can report that it's definitely a cheaper alternative for basic supermarket stuff. Cheaper, in that it's more comparable to Sainsbury's prices at home, rather than the Fortnum & Mason price of a standard Danish supermarket. However, they only accept Danish credit cards.

Tomorrow it's time to pack up the foldy beast (hopefully not in the pouring rain), and trek north to the tip of Denmark - North Jutland.