Vejle, Denmark

VEJLE, a compact harbour town on the mouth of the Vejle fjord, is home to the Tulip factory, from where 400 million sausages a year begin their journey to British breakfast tables. It's also the best base for exploring the contrasting pleasures of the Viking burial mounds at Jelling and – rather more famously – the Legoland complex at Billund, both within easy reach by bus or train.

The chief attraction in Vejle itself is Skt Nicolai Kirke (Mon– Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 9am– noon) in Kirke Torvet, in which a glass-topped coffin holds the peat-preserved body of a woman found in the Haraldskur bog in 1835. Originally the body was thought to be the corpse of a Viking queen, Gunhilde of Norway, but the claim was disputed and tests carried out in 1977 dated the body to around 490 BC – too old to be a Viking, but nonetheless still the best preserved "bog body" in the country.

Across from the train station on Banegårdspladsen 6, the tourist office (mid-June to Aug Mon– Fri 9.30am–5.30pm, Sat 9.30am–1.30pm; Sept to mid-June Mon– Thurs 10am–5pm, Fri 10am–4.30pm, Sat 10am– noon; Tel:75 82 19 55, Web: www.visitvejle.com ) has a list of accommodation in private rooms but charges a steep booking fee. Otherwise, try for a room at the homely APark (Tel:75 82 24 66, Web: www.park-hotel.dk ; Price: Kr650-900), Orla Lehmannsgade 5, or the pricier Torvehallerne, Kirketorvet 10–16 (Tel:79 42 79 10, Web: www.torvehallerne.com ; Price: Kr900 and above), which has a popular restaurant, a theatre and a restaurant in a greenery-filled conservatory amongst its attractions.

In the Smitskegård courtyard, at Sndergade 14, Conrad Café serves substantial salads and smrrebrd through the afternoon, and drinks until midnight (sometimes with live music). Around the corner, the glass-walled Brasseriet at Hotel Torvehallerne has good, substantial meals (two courses for 159kr). For brunch (Fri– Sun), inexpensive salads, sandwiches and filling burgers, make for Caféen Vejle, inside the former prison at Klostergade 1, which is also a good place for a drink. Of the number of English-style pubs in town, most popular is the Tartan at Dæmningen 40.