Aalborg, Denmark

Hugging the south bank of the Limfjorden, AALBORG is the obvious place to spend a night or two before venturing into the wilder countryside further on. The country's fourth largest city and the main transport terminus for northern Jutland, it boasts a notable modern art museum, a well-preserved old section, and the brightest nightlife for miles around.

The profits from the seventeenth-century herring boom briefly made Aalborg the biggest and wealthiest Danish town outside Copenhagen, and much of what remains of old Aalborg – chiefly the area within sterågade (commonly abbreviated to sterå), Bispensgade, Gravensgade and Algade – dates from that era, standing in stark contrast to the new roads that slice through it to accommodate the traffic using the Limfjorden bridge.