Danish Michelin stared restaurants
In Denmark only restaurants in Copenhagen are awarded with Michelin stars though some of the best Danish restaurants are other places in the country. In 2011 Copenhagen’s restaurants got 11 Michelin stars and maintained its position as northern Europe’s gourmet city. But no restaurants had 3 stars. The world’s best restaurant for the second year in a row, Noma, got 2 stars as the only one in Denmark, while Geranium (also in Copenhagen), where the world’s best chef, Rasmus Kofoed, is head chef was wondering why they didn’t get any stars at all.
In the rest of Denmark we wonder why the Michelin Guides don’t include restaurants in Denmark outside Copenhagen. According to the Danish Gourmet Guide 2012 (Den Danske Spiseguide) the best restaurant in Denmark is:  Henne Kirkeby Kro.  It is placed at the West Coast, exactly 61,3 km from Danhostel Ribe.
Could Henne Kirkeby Kro get 3 Michelin stars if they had the chance? When it comes to the New Nordic kitchen you don’t get better products than those from the salt marshes in the Wadden Sea National Park. And of course you find these products at Henne Kirkeby Kro. In Michael Booth’s blog are photos of some of the dishes they serve.

Danish 3 star Michelin attractions. Maximum three stars awarded attractions in Denmark
Michelin’ green guides award attractions in the world from 1 to 3 stars.
14 Danish attractions have 3 stars.
Attractions in the world with 3 stars you might know:  Tower of London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Empire State Building in New York, the Sphinx of Giza in Egypt, Pompei in Italy, etc.
But we are so lucky, that our view (see the photo) gets both 2 and 3 stars, since Ribe town (Ribe by) gets 2 stars and Ribe Cathedral (Ribe Domkirke) 3 stars.
It’s possible to have the best view of both Ribe Cathedral (Ribe Domkirke) and Ribe old town  for Danish hostel prices at Danhostel Ribe.

A wintertime view from Danhostel Ribe (Ribe Cathedral, 3 stars in Guide Michelin ), Wintertime in Ribe town (Ribe town 2 stars in Guide Michelin)

The only other one with 3 stars in the peninsula Jutland is the Open Air Museum in Aarhus: Den Gamle By – “The Old Town” (see the photo).
In Funen the quarter around H. C. Andersens house has 3 stars, the last 3 starred attractions in Denmark are in Copenhagen and Sealand:  Copenhagen City, Nyhavn Port (photo), the National Fine Arts Museum, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, the National Museum, Rosenborg Castle, the Museum of Art Louisiana, Frederiksborg Castle, Kronborg – Elsinore Castle, Roskilde Cathedral, Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde
The highest awarded cities in Denmark are:  Aarhus, Roskilde and Ribe – 2 stars and Copenhagen 3 stars

What do the Michelin Stars mean?
1 star for attractions the Green Guide finds interesting
2 stars for attractions the Green Guide finds worth a detour
3 stars for attractions the Green Guide finds exceptional and worth a special journey

Confused? Did you hear about placed with 4 or 5 stars?
1-3 Michelin Stars are awarded for the quality of the food and not for the luxury of the place.
1-5 Michelin “forks and knives” are awarded for the luxury of the place, five being a “Luxurious restaurant”.
1-5 In many countries hotels five being “Luxurious restaurant”. Danish hotels are rated 1-5.
1-5 Danish Family- and Youth Hostels called Danhostels have their own rating system from 1 to 5:
Danhostel Ribe has 4 stars.

Nyhavn Copenhagen. Guide Michelin 3 stars

The old town in Aarhus - Den gamle by i Århus. 3 Michelin Stars

Enjoy a few photos from the celebration

Click here to see our youtube video from the free zumba trial in Ribe Fritidscenter

Danhostel Ribe in Denmark is working with its neighbours and the surrounding community on a proposed solar energy project, ‘RIBE SOL’. If the project is approved by parliament, it will significantly reduce their CO2 emissions and be much more cost-effective in the long term, helping their town become greener.

The hostel is already certified with the Green Key label and is working on the ‘RIBE SOL’ project with its neighbour, Rio (Ribe Jernindustri), which is a huge factory that produces radiators. Both the hostel and Rio have land in the Wadden Sea National Park nearby and it’s great to see a manufacturing company and a hostel working together to help make the town greener.

Danhostel Ribe, RIO (Ribe Jernindustri) and part of the Wadden Sea National Park seen from top of the Cathedral

Recently a small delegation went to the Danish parliament to have a meeting with its Energy Committee about the proposed project. The meeting had been suggested by one of the 2 local members of parliament, who fully support the project.

The ‘RIBE SOL’ project has received some great publicity so far to help the cause. Michael Boel, the Director of Rio, was interviewed by the town’s biggest local radio station following the meeting and the project was also mentioned on other radio stations too.

Here are some facts about the project: 

• Size: 28000 m2 of the roof on Rio 
• 10000 m2 solar panels (5000 m2 solar collectors for heating and 5000 m2 solar cells for electricity) 
• Investment: 30.000.000 d.kr. (3.529.478,22 £) 

If the project does go ahead, it will produce 55% of the heat and 20% of the electricity for Rio and Danhostel Ribe, reducing their CO2 emissions by 870 tonnes every year. This is the equivalent of 360 cars (Ford Ka) driving 20,000 km a year or a car going around the earth 180 times!

Aalborg University in Esbjerg is also involved in the project. Their aim is to create a big research programme to collect more information on solar energy, which will in turn help the development of solar technology. This is important research, which will help gain further knowledge on the amount of PV solar cells used for bigger industries.

‘RIBE SOL’ is a unique project, which would significantly help the development of green energy. If you have any questions about it, please contact the Danhostel Ribe Hostel Manager, Jens Philipsen at ribe@danhostel.dk.

Ribe Cathedral and Ribe Harbour seen from Danhostel Ribe

When it came to choosing the most worth seeing church in Denmark the readers of the Danish national newspaper “Kristelig Dagblad” choosed Ribe Cathedral as number 1 in front of Østerlars Kirke (Church) on the island Bornholm.

That has just been stated and we agree with the choice.
We enjoy the view of the Cathedral from Danhostel Ribe’s windows every day, though we must admit that right now the view is a little less beautiful because the tower is  wrapped up because it  is undergoing a restoration.

Carl Henning Pedersen. Decorations in Ribe Cathedral

Ribe Cathedral has had an amazing ability to combine old and new.
From the beginning about 1150 build in Romanesque style but since it took so long to finish it ended up being a combination of Romanesque and Gothic style.
The most amazing change in this century is the modern decorations of the famous COBRA-artist Carl Henning Pedersen.
Read Ribe Cathedral’s history here: Ribe Cathedral– The Church of Our Lady
And read about the rune stone that was found in the excavation just outside the Cathedral in May this year: Rune Stone

Ribe Cathedral has been rated with 2 michelin stars Michelin Travel Guide Scandinavia (Michelin Green Guide of attractions).

It is possible to climb the tower and you don’t have to count the steps, because I know you will count 248

14. nov. 2011. NB! Since this article was written Ribe Cathedral has been upgraded to 3 Michelin Stars

“Viking Music, Viking warriors, Viking children, etc. Ribe VikingeCenter, Denmark”

has been seen 3250 times the first year. Gudrun Victoria Gotved is the Viking Woman playing the flutes

The comments to this video have been very different:

• Danish vikings!
• shes hot
• Yak! Does she really put the flutes in her mouth after having them in her nose???
• Go Gudrun:)
• What the fuck?
• what place is this? Where people don’t want to live in the modern world and decide to live as our forefathers instead??

Though we have seen this Viking woman play nose flutes we can still be facinated by others doing the same. Take a look of  this Nose Flute Musician in Mumbai

More than 10.000 people have seen one of our YouTube videos the first year.
The second most seen is our breakfast video (in Danish).

We understand people prefer to see a video about Vikings to a video about  Danhostel Ribe’s breakfast. And we also think it was much funnier to film the Vikings than our own breakfast.
But we are sure that those who like our Viking video also will like to taste our breakfast buffet when they stay at the hostel:-)
Here we will show the video in English. Breakfast at Danhostel Ribe

The third, 4th and 5th most seen  of our videos are from the Danish Championship in rock climbing in our sports hall, Ribehallen, 2010

The archaeologists Morten Søvsø and Troels Bo Jensen are showing the rune stone to Danish TV, journalists and photographers

It was a dream that come true when archaeologist and head of the excavation team, Morten Søvsø, found a rune stone in the medieval archaeological excavation just next to Ribe Cathedral.
Though Ribe is Denmark’s oldest town with lots of Viking Era finds this is the first rune stone found in Ribe – and even the first rune stone from all of South West Denmark. The closest earlier found rune stone is the Malt-stone that can be seen at Sønderskov Slot.

Ribe's rune stone is studied by Claus Feveile, Morten Søvsø, and Sarah Qvistgaard. 3 of the archaeologists who know most about Ribe’s Viking and Medieval Archaeology and history

A unique rune stone
The runic inscription on the Ribe rune stone is exceptionally beautiful and professionally done. A band formed around the stone shows a snake or a dragon, and even though it is only an 80cm x 50cm fragment of the original rune stone it is a unique find. The stone is probably from around the year 1000 – from the end of the Viking age around the time when Harald Bluetooth – who erected the large and famous rune stone in Jelling – was king of Denmark.
But not many runes are preserved on the Ribe stone. Syllables and a few words like: “fultrua”. The “t” in the word “fultrua” is part of the ornamentation in a way that is seldom seen, and when seen, it is on Swedish rune stones, like the ones the Swedish rune carver Åsmunde Kåreson made in the 11th century. The word is known from The Saga of the Jomsvikings and probably means: “a true friend” or “a trusted”.
Another word “sil(u)” can be interpreted as the word “soul” but other interpretations are also possible.
The Ribe rune stone doesn’t have any parallels in Denmark, but rune snakes or dragons with runic inscriptions starting near the animal’s head are known from the Danish island of Bornholm and from Sweden. Stones from there are the closest parallels to the rune stone found in Ribe.

Maria Knudsen has found a Christian skeleton in the excavation - letting the skeleton face towards the east is a way of letting the body see the rising sun and face the right direction during the resurrection

The archaeological excavation in Ribe 2011
The archaeological excavation at the 500 m² site has just started and will go on all of 2011. We hope they will find the rest of the stone. It is possible for tourists and local people to stand on the sidelines and follow the excavation.

Ribes rune stone has now been placed at the museum “Ribes Vikinger – museum for vikingetid og middelalder” (Ribe’s Viking Museum)

To see the rune stone you just visit the museum “Ribes Vikinger – museum for vikingetid og middelalder” (Ribe Viking and Medieval Museum).
Danhostel Ribe is located just 5 minutes’ walk from Ribe Cathedral, the excavation and Ribe Viking Museum. The photos on this page are taken by Danhostel Ribe’s photographer. We had hoped to be able to tell you the message on the stone, but more interpretations are needed – and probably also more of the stone…

Links:
1. The excavations own blog: Lindegården  (Danish)
2. The runologist Lisbeth Imer from the Danish National Museum in Ribe to study the rune stone, TVSyd (Danish Television)
3. The Danish National Museum and runologist Lisbeth Imer blogging about Ribe’s rune stone  (Danish)
4. From the first excavation the same place during 2008 and 2009: Denmark’s probably first Christian burials are found  (English)
5. YouTube Video from the excavation. Sydvestjyske Museer

Viking Women with hand-dyed colors

Viking woman

Once again an impressive Viking market in Ribe opened the season for Ribe Viking Centre (Ribe VikingeCenter).
See more Viking photos and find out where you meet the Vikings in Ribe on Danhostel Ribe’s homepage

When you are in Ribe don’t miss Ribes Vikinger (Ribe Viking Museum, Ribe’s  Museum of the Viking era and the Middle Ages). Thousands of artifacts found during archaeological excavations in Ribe, Denmark’s oldest town can be seen here – also a  rune stone  found last  week close to Ribe Cathedral. 
If you return to this homepage in a few days we will show you pictures of the stone.

Vikings in the Viking manor

At Danhostel Ribe we celebrated it by giving free bicycle rent and a map of the Wadden Sea National Park to all our facebook friends that visited us on the 22th – Earth Day. We had just bought 30 new bicycles, so we thought this was a fine way to celebrate both the day and the bikes – and at the same time let our guests experience this fantastic nature just outside our door.

Yahoo! News  celebrated Earth Day by interviewing Gaute Hogh, publisher of the book 100 Places to Go Before They Disappear.
The Wadden Sea in Denmark was the first place that came to Hogh’s mind of the 100 places to go before they disseapear. The Wadden Sea is a low-lying coastal zone in Denmark where visitors can “walk on water” to see varied landscapes and migratory birds. Hogh fears what the rising sea levels will do to this place and its dynamic ecosystem.

 
At the hostel and in Ribe we know about this fear. We have seen the water level rise and the meadow outside the hostel being flooded. We have experienced the water level being almost at the top of the dikes at the Wadden Sea Coast in 1999 – and the only reason that we were not flooded was that the storm surge came by low tide. Had it come a few hours later by high tides our town – not only the meadow but also the streets and houses in Ribe town had been flooded.
So YES come and see the Wadden Sea before it disappears, but better: Listen to Gaute Hogh’s message so that we can enjoy this beautiful place also in the future:
“The whole purpose of this book was to show my children the effects of climate change,” Hogh says. “People usually show someone suffering and I wanted to show the positive side of it: If we don’t do anything, we’ll lose some of these beautiful 100 places.”
“One of my missions with the book is to show teenagers, if you don’t turn off the water or turn down the heat, these places will disappear,” Hogh says.  “They may say, ‘Why should I do this?’ But if I show them these pictures, they start to see it another way.”

At Danhostel Ribe we were happy to notice that the interview sent a lot of people to our article about the Wadden Sea the last couple of days. We hope to see some of them at the hostel
The photo left shows the hostel when the meadow is flooded.

The blog travelandleisure mentions some of the 100 places and ask for more ways to celebrate Earth Day – but you could also comment on this article.

At the hostel we are aware that we are probably not reducing CO2 emissions by taking part in this action and that we don’t save the earth by turning out the lights for one hour, but we think it is a nice way  to raise awareness about climate change together with people all around the world. In Denmark Earth Hour is arranged by WWF Denmark (World Wildlife Fund )

REFERAT PÅ DANSK:
For 4. år i træk deltager Danhostel Ribe i Earth Hour (Sluk lyset Danmark) arrangeret i Danmark af WWF (Verdensnaturfonden) I år er det d. 26. marts kl. 20.30 til 21.30. Esbjerg by slukker samtidig lyset i Ribe by. På vandrehjemmet serverer vi gratis te, kaffe og hjemmebagte småkager for både lokale og vandrerhjemmets gæster i stearinlysets skær. Teen er vores nye grønne ”Danhostel Ribe te”, netop udviklet af “Carstensens Tehandel” i Aabenraa og kaffen er økologisk Good Origin Coffee (sporbar fra bonde til kop) og kan til daglig trækkes i vores kaffeautomat for en 10’er.
Har man lyst til en snak om Danhostel Ribes miljømærkning ”Green Key” og hvordan vi arbejder med miljøet, så er vi samtidig klar til at fortælle og diskutere, hvordan vi gør vores vandrehjem grønnere hele tiden.
Den forfærdelige atomkraft ulykke i Japan minder os om, at atomkraft ikke er vejen til at løse den globale opvarmning. Andre løsninger må bruges.
Vi er klar over at denne aktion med at slukke lyset en time og tænde stearinlysene i stedet formodentlig ikke reducerer CO² udledningerne, men vi synes det er en god måde at minde hinanden om at vi alle bør arbejde videre med dette problem
På www.facebook.com/earthhourdk kan du se hvilke kommuner og firmaer, der deltager i Earth Hour i Danmark 2011. Vi har naturligvis også omtalt eventen på Danhostel Ribes facebook

Ribe Viking Market. Reconstruction of Ribe about 700 AD

Denmark’s first “pedestrian street” was founded all ready around 700 AD in Denmark’s oldest town, Ribe. Walking on this “pedestrian street” through Ribe Viking Market, you could meet people from North Scandinavia and South Europe; even Arab salesmen came to the Viking Market bringing exotic luxury goods as spices and pearls.
At the marketplace newcomers’ first impressions were mixes of people shouting for better sales of their goods, foreign languages, smells of food, garbage, and cow flops, and craftsmen producing all kinds of crafts from combs of bone to jewelry from bronze, etc.
Ribe gave probably the most international impressions you could get in Denmark during the early Viking Age.
But why did this Viking market by Ribe River around 700 develop to be an enterprising metropolis with international commercial relations? And why did it quickly grow to be so big that Ribe was (maybe) the most important – town in Denmark? And why did it decline dramatically all ready again 150 years later around 850?

Slave trade could be a reasonable answer for some of Ribe’s rise around the Viking Age.
At the market it was possible to buy goods as drinking glasses, jewelry, spices, pottery, amber, leather, wool, food, wine, combs, grind stones, etc. – and PROBABLY ALSO SLAVES.
In the 150 years from 700 to 850 AD the Danes were still pagans. They believed in the old Nordic Gods such as Odin and Thor. But south of Denmark Europe was Christianized. In the early 700′s AD the Frankish Empire forced Christianity to the people around the Rhine. Christianity didn’t allow Christian people to keep Christian slaves. The Christian Church accepted slaves, but at the same time it was a good deed to free slaves. So what did they do? They probably went to their northern neighbour to get some pagan slaves.

Viking raid at Ribe Viking Centre

But why did Ribe decline again?
As Ribe was a major trading town it was an obvious choice for Christian missionary work. At the marketplace Christians mixed and traded with the pagan Vikings. About 855 the catholic monk Ansgar obtained some land from the Danish King Horik to build the first Christian Church in Denmark in Ribe. From now on Denmark starts to get Christianized and 100 years later, around 965 AD the first Danish king Harald Bluetooth (Harold Bluetooth) was baptized. He erected a runic stone in Jelling for his parents, King Gorm and Queen Thyra, proclaiming that he now had Christianized Denmark. This stone is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Jelling.Well it wasn’t that easy to Christianize the Danes, for many years Christians and pagans lived side by side, but of course it was not that easy any longer to buy slaves.
Another important reason that influenced Ribe’s situation was probably that around mid 800′s the Frankish Empire declined. After Charlemagne’s death (Charles the Great in 814) no strong central power ruled in the Frankish Empire and many wars between France and Germany continued for centuries. The European trade fell, people were getting poorer and also the first Danish Viking raids started in the late 700′s AD and when the Frisian capital Dorestad was attacked in the 830th the raids really escalated. Around 850 Ribe got surrounded by a town moat to protect the citizens. The good times for Ribe were over and didn’t return until the mid-11th century when Ribe rose again as a very important Danish Christian metropolis

Jelling rune stone. Unesco world heritage

I have to emphasize that we don’t know if pagan Vikings in Denmark sold slaves to Christians at Ribe Viking market – it is only a most likely hypothesis. Maybe we will get wiser when archaeologists in this month start excavations to find Ansgar’s first church in Denmark around Ribe Cathedral again, where they all ready a couple of years ago found some of the first Christian burials in Denmark. Millions have been donated for these excavations and it is possible for everybody to follow the excavations all 2011. Ribe Cathedral is 5 minutes walk from Danhostel Ribe.

Sources:
Claus Feveile: Vikingernes Ribe. Handel, magt tro
http://lindegaarden.wordpress.com/