In this episode of the How to Live in Denmark podcast, host Kay Xander Mellish shares a personal travel narrative about spending a few days in Esbjerg, Denmark’s fifth‑largest and youngest city. She contrasts the city’s industrial, oil‑ and wind‑energy‑driven modernity with the outdated perception of it as a smelly fishing town, noting its masculine vibe and lack of typical tourist merch. Mellish highlights two standout attractions: the Esbjerg Art Museum, which blends art with cutting‑edge science, and the Esbjerg City Museum, featuring a reconstructed early‑1900s street. She positions Esbjerg as an excellent base for day trips to the historic Viking city of Ribe—Denmark’s oldest town with medieval architecture, a cathedral, a Viking museum, and notable shopping and dining—and to the island of Fanø (referred to as Fehmarn in the transcript), accessible via a ferry from the working port, offering picturesque fishing‑town aesthetics, a pancake house, and seal‑watching opportunities. Practical advice covers the region’s cold, windy climate, recommending raincoats and sweaters even in summer, and notes the necessity of dressing like a fisherman. The episode concludes with calls to action for the podcast’s website and social media, and an invitation to book Mellish for speaking engagements.
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Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Xander Mellish. When I mentioned going to Esbjerg for a few days off this spring, Many of my friends in Copenhagen said, why? Esbjerg doesn't have a reputation as a vacation spot, even though it is the 5th largest city in Denmark and the youngest big city. My daughter, who is more clever than I am, told her Copenhagen friends that we were going to the west coast of Denmark, making it sound like we would be relaxing on one of the west coast beaches. For Copenhagen snobs, Esbjerg is a fishing town. They say it smells like fish. Maybe that was true 50 years ago, but it isn't true anymore. Esbjerg is an oil and wind energy town, industrial but very modern. Still, I think the city has a bit of an inferiority complex. Unlike Aalborg, Odense, Aarhus, Copenhagen, the Danish cities right above it in terms of size, Esbjerg doesn't have merch. I didn't see a single t-shirt or hoodie for sale that said Esbjerg, not even in the Esbjerg City Museum, which I visited. There wasn't even a fridge magnet that said Esbjerg. But I like Esbjerg, perhaps because it is a very masculine town. If you're a woman who likes men, if you're a guy who likes men, really rough-and-ready type men, Esbjerg is your town because it is the home base for the oil workers and windmill mechanics who work on the North Sea coast of Denmark. On a previous work visit, I ate breakfast at the hotel, and in the crowded dining room, I was the only woman. It's also the only city I've ever seen anywhere with more men's clothing shops than women's clothing shops. There are 2 more really good things about Esbjerg that make it worth visiting. One is that all that energy money makes for great museums. The intersection of art and science is the focus of the Esbjerg Art Museum, and when I was there, I saw a great exhibit in which artists interpreted the latest advances in DNA. Great mix— video, photography, painting, installations. Very thought-provoking. Esbjerg Art Museum also has a good permanent exhibit with small statues hidden in cabinets, and you stick your hand in the cabinet and feel the shape of the statue to figure out what it is. Is it a human face? Is it a horse? Very fun. You could open the cabinet door afterwards to see if you were right. The Esbjerg City Museum is great, too. It has one of those reconstructed city streets from the early 1900s, which was when Esbjerg first really blossomed. You can walk along the cobblestones and look into the windows of the old shops— the barber, the dentist, the hatmaker. I'm a sucker for those reconstructed cities. The second reason is that Esbjerg is a great base for exploring local tourist spots. There's the wetlands where you can harvest your own oysters, plus the Viking city of Ribe and the island of Fanø. Now, Ribe is the oldest city in Denmark, a Viking town. It's the place where Christianity first took hold in Scandinavia. The pagan locals used to complain about the church bells scaring away their land sprites. Ribe is about 30 minutes away from Esbjerg by train, and it's a great day trip. You can see lots of old medieval buildings, plus Ribe Cathedral, the Viking Museum, And the pretty cascading waterfalls beside the main street, the remnants of a medieval water system. There's lots of good shopping here. My favorite women's clothing store in Denmark, Frøken Ribe, is here. Fabulous selection, ladies, and really good service. You can eat lunch in the Vejs Stue, which has been serving food since 1704. Unlike most tourist spots, the food here is excellent. I can recommend the traditional fried fish with homemade remoulade and the iced tea with sea buckthorn and cranberries. Another good day trip from Esbjerg is the island of Fehmarn. Now, you have to take a ferry to Fehmarn, and to get to that ferry, you have to take a long walk through Esbjerg's working port. This is heavy industry— big industrial boats— which I think is kind of fun when ports in Copenhagen and Aarhus and Vejle are being turned into fancy apartments. Not this port. This is where all those rough-and-ready men go out to sea. There are 2 big towns on Fanø. One of them, Nordby, where the ferry lands, is a very pretty traditional fishing town with lots of old houses with straw roofs. Very picturesque. It is not a fishing town now, though. It is a tourist town, catering largely to the German tourists who love Denmark's west coast. If you don't mind touristy stuff, you can have a great time there. I recommend the Pancake House, serving pancakes with local ham and salmon. And if the weather's good, you can rent a bike and bike down to Fehmarn's second town, Sønderhavn, where you can reportedly see seals lying on the beach. We didn't make it there because when we visited, the weather was not good. And this is something to keep in mind when visiting the region. It's cold. It's windy. The locals wear raincoats and sweaters, even in the summer. And so should you, or at least have them along. You won't have any fun on your trip to the Esbjerg region if you're freezing and wet. Remember, Esbjerg used to be a fishing town. If you dress like a fisherman, you'll be fine. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. Come visit us on howtoliveindenmark.com or check us out on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. You can also book me for a speech to your group or organization at events.howliveindenmark.com. See you next time.
