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Photo: RhinoMind, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A large Viking event held every summer in July at Moesgård beach, with reenactments, markets, workshops, and living-history presentations. Interesting activities for all age groups. The event has drawn about 12,000 attendees, both Vikings and audience. A ticket also gives you access to the Moesgaard Museum (MOMU) close by. Because of the event's popularity, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to find a place to park a car nearby. Take a bus, bike or hike through the Marselisborg Forests to get there. Biking from the centre of Aarhus should take you less than an hour.
Moesgård Viking Moot is an annual historical reenactment event in Aarhus, Denmark with a week-long viking market and mock battles. It is the largest Viking Age reenactment event in Denmark and is held on and near the beaches at Moesgård Museum. There are no permanent structures in the area so a temporary tent camp with markets, blacksmiths and kitchens is erected, modelled after the Great Heathen Army. On the last two days of the event, tiding tournaments, single combat contests and mock battles are performed, featuring up to a 1000 participants and an Icelandic horse cavalry.
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Moesgaard Strand
12 km south from the city centre, beyond the Marselisborg Forests, Moesgaard Beach is the cleanest of the beach sites and a popular destination in the summer months. In the peak season it is patrolled by lifeguards. There are large green areas here, a car park, toilet facilities, and a kiosk with fast food, beverages, candy and ice cream for sale in the summer. You can reach the area by road (bicycle, car or bus) through the forests, on foot by the Prehistoric Trail from the Moesgaard Museum or from the beachside. If you go by bus, one option is to take Bus 31 from the Aarhus Bus Station.
The Moesgaard landscape in the southern part of the Marselisborg Forests contains a marked history trail, The Prehistoric Trail, running from the Moesgaard Museum (q.v.) right down to the beach, with reconstructed Stone, Iron, and Viking Age houses and tombs, runestones, etc. If history isn't your thing, just enjoy the beautiful and varied nature of this place; in the spring and summer, it is worth a visit just for that. If you want to eat or drink, start your tour with a meal at the museum, at the nearby Aarhus Golf Club restaurant, or drop in later at the old watermill of Skovmøllen in the woods. You can also bring your own supplies and have a picnic lunch at any spot of your choice; the grassy fields at the Moesgaard Beach is popular for that.
Stupendous architecture: a vast prism of a building half-buried in a grassy hill. The central staircase provides an innovative route into human evolution and prehistory. The museum hosts large changing themed exhibitions from cultures around the world, but is also a fantastic place to study Danish prehistory in particular. The main permanent attractions in this regard are an artificial reconstruction of a large Bronze Age roundbarrow that you can walk inside and two finds from the Nordic Iron Age: Grauballe Man, the only completely preserved bog body, and the impressive sacrifice of weapons from Illerup Ådal. The museum re-opened in the new building in October 2014. Good museum restaurant and café, but a bit expensive. The large historical landscape below the museum is also worth a visit, and is free and accessible year round.
Boasting a great view of the Bay of Aarhus and the excellent bistro and restaurant UNICO (which you can visit even if you're not a golfer), the Aarhus Golf Club has 35 years of experience and more than 1,000 members. 18 holes.
Horseback riding on Icelandic horses in the beautiful forests and countryside south of Aarhus. All tours are with guides. Only helmets are for rent here, remember to bring your own boots and long trousers. Minimum age is 12 years. Please book and arrange everything a few days in advance.
Marselisborgskovene
A relatively large expanse of woodland stretching along the coast of the Aarhus Bay south of town. Marselisborg is one of the most frequented forests in Denmark and is criss-crossed by trails. A car road pass through with a separate bicycle road all along. Aside from Ballehage Beach, Tivoli Friheden amusement park, and Varna Palace described elsewhere in this article, other noteworthy amenities that can all be reached by road include: