Ribe

A short drive south of Ringkobing is the historic town of Ribe. It is reputed to be the 'oldest' town in Denmark. It is small, quaint, but beutiful and full of interesting history (for example, there is a plaque on a house dedicated to the last 'witch' burned in the town during the great witch hunts! For you trivia buffs, it was Maren Spliid, in 1641.)

Ribe lays in the lowlands, and is prone to flooding. The highest flood in 1634 was about 6 meters. There is a flood market by the canal which shows what this would have looked like - Everything would have been underwater. the canals now have a series of dykes, so I doubt this will happen again.

The town is small enough that you can easily walk around it (which we did between morning tea and lunch). We had great weather, and the intersting colors and designs of the houses, the cobbled lanes and the history made this a fun place for us all to explore.

We saw the oldest house in the town (1576), the old school, the cathedral that dominates the town and ended up in a cosy (read squishy!) cafe for lunch.

Here is the oldest house, and this is the lady who lives in it!

This is a 16th century manor house, called Taarnborg, where no corner is 90 degrees!!

In front of Taarnborg is a half timbered house dating from 1550!

Ribe is known as the Stork Town. The storks build build their nest at the top of the buildings.. A pair of storks usually arrive in late March and early April, which for the locals means the beginning of Spring. Sadly the last 2 years they didn't show up....and the locals wonder if they will ever come back?

We saw quite a few of these posters up in Denmark...