21 May

Today was a sad day as I had to leave a family I had never met until two days ago but have become very close to in a short time.
I rose just after 7, prepared, had breakfast with Gitte and then finished packing and was ready to leave. I said my goodbyes and very reluctantly was back on the road again.
I set course for Ribe, the oldest town in Denmark, and was there not long after 11. I parked, found the main street (I cheated – I already had the brochure and map of the town) and then walked along to the church. This is notable for at least two reasons – the sight from the tower, over the whole town and surrounding countryside and the controversial mosaics in the nave. Both were spectacular, but in different ways. I very slowly returned to the car, soaking in the atmosphere on the way back.
I had to refuel along the way, which slowed me down a few minutes, but I arrived in my next target town, Friedrichstadt, by 2. Again I parked (but not being in Denmark, I had to pay for the parking), then walked down along a busy (pedestrian) street until I found the Tourist Bureau. I got a list of B&Bs for the town and the surrounding region, then walked around the inner part of the town. My walk was interrupted by a drake being very amorous with a duck, oblivious to the people around. I found a nice bakery and had some bread rolls, but none of the other bread matches the French.
I selected what I thought would be a reasonable B&B, supposed to be on the outskirts of the town. The SatNav couldn’t find it, so I put in another town name and it did. Off I went, found the place, and yes, it was only a few hundred metres from the centre of Friedrichstadt – but on the other side of the river. I booked in, even though the cost was a little higher than I wanted (and I had to pay extra for Internet, which I didn’t find out until AFTER I had agreed to take the room) but it was made up by wonderful surroundings.
I drove back to the city via Aldi, getting some fruit to have for tea today and lunch tomorrow. Then I did a more extensive walk around the town and was amazed at what I saw.
Even in very old cities, the (old) centre is not very large because, until medical advances and good sanitation, populations didn’t increase very fast. Once those two problems had been overcome, but people still had the mindset of have as many children as possible because most would die, the population did literally explode until people’s ideas changed. So towns have a large, newer (but still to me old) area surrounding the central ancient area.
The number of parks was large in such a small place, there were concessions to modern life and people still have to live normal lives. All of these are shown up because I took a series of photos as I walked around.
I returned to the B&B, took some more photos (there was a very young foal at the end of the lawn), unpacked the car (and took the opportunity to dry the laundry, which was still damp), did the normal processing work and then uploaded everything, checked email, and eventually went to sleep.