Danhostel Ribe

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Posts Tagged Ribe

When pagan Vikings in Denmark sold slaves at Viking markets in Ribe – and the buyers were Christians

4 February 2011 9:43 PM

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Ribe Viking Market. Reconstruction of Ribe about 700 AD

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

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

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/

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Christmas Card from Denmark’s oldest town

3 December 2010 12:14 PM

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Cristmas Card from Denmark

Cristmas Card from Denmark

A new Christmas card from Danhostel Ribe  as a tribute to our beautiful town and as one of the last celebrations of Ribe’s 1300 year anniversary this year.
It’s really been a fantastic year and we have had many happy guests visiting us.

The picture is from the poetic footpath over Ribe River from the hostel to Ribe old town. The bench is just one of Ribe’s many benches where the Ribe citizens sit and enjoy our beautiful town while they discuss important matters when the weather is a little warmer.
The photographer is Gudrun Rishede, who has also made the hostel’s postcards Vadehavskort and all the Ribe and Wadden Sea National Park photos that you can enjoy at the hostel.

The Christmas card can be seen/bought at Danhostel Ribe from now.

 

Julekort fra Danmarks ældste by. Resume på dansk:

Danhostel Ribes julekort viser gangstien over Ribe å fra vandrehjemmet til den gamle by og én af Ribes mange bænke, hvor ripenserne nyder den smukke by og diskuterer stort og småt, når vejret er lidt varmere. Postkortet er fotograferet af Gudrun Rishede, som også har fotograferet vores andre postkort ”Vadehavskort” og alle de mange fotos fra Ribe og Nationalpark Vadehavet, der har sørget for vandrehjemmets helt en egen stemning.

Julekortene kan ses/købes på Danhostel Ribe fra nu af.

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How our hostel try to engage guests through the social media Facebook

26 November 2010 10:57 AM

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Danhostel Ribe's Winter View

Danhostel Ribe's Winter View

Our hostel, Danhostel Ribe, has been using Facebook (-and this hostel blog) for more than a year now, but we still feel like newcomers. We are still learning – we are still experimenting – how can we engage our customers and potential guests in the best way through social media?

We are very thankful for so many facebook friends wanting to follow us – more than twice as many as any other Danish hostel. Therefore we have decided to thank our facebook friends by giving them an accommodation offer: ½ price accommodation  until 19th December. We can’t wait to see how many will accept this offer – and will we have newcomers?

We know we can offer them some wonderful days in Denmark’s oldest town. Our nice hostel Christmas elves are welcoming our guests and Ribe is so beautiful when the old town is decorated for Christmas.

We hope this will make us wiser. Because we still don’t know if our facebook friends want news from the hostel, from the town, from green travelling  or from a little of all? Do they want offers, photos or a little of all?

Danhostel Ribe Facebook

Danhostel Ribe Facebook

Take a look on our Facebook. How do you think we use the social media to have just as many friends as the big hotels :-)

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Animation Festival 2010 in Ribe, Denmark.

1 November 2010 10:41 AM

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animationsfestival… Animation starts where live action gives up. November 8th to 14th 2010.

The first animation festival in Denmark is made as a tribute to animation film and to two of the grand old men within animation film: Børge Ring (89) and Kaj Pindal (83). Both of them born in Denmark and both of them turning up in Ribe not only to be celebrated but also to inspire other film animators coming to Ribe to show off their creations, get inspired and create networks.
Kaj Pindal and Børge Ring are fellow animators and lifelong friends. Oscar winner Børge Ring writes to Kaj Pindal´s 80th birthday “We are buddies and we are soul brothers”.
The festival is for everyone. Young and old will have the possibility to see both some rare and some famous animation films and meet the animators.

Ribe Animation Festival 2010 from Amir Avni on Vimeo.

Børge Ring was nominated to an Oscar in 1978 and was rewarded with an Oscar in 1986 for his animation short film “Anna & Bella”. He has also been involved in the early Asterix films as well as ‘The Pink Panther’ cartoons, and the Danish Viking ‘Valhalla’ cartoons
For Børge Ring, who has lived and worked in Holland a big part of his life, it will be a return to his birth town, since he was born in our street in Ribe, 50 meters from Danhostel Ribe, 89 years ago.
Here you can see Børge Ring´s Oscar winner: Anna & Bella

Kaj Pindal has lived in Canada for many years. He is also an award-winning animator.
He worked together with Børge Ring on – among others - the movies Karate Kids (dangers of AIDS) and Goldtooth (drug abuse). Animation films that succeed in telling about serious problems in an easy understandable way. Goldtooth won the Unicef Meena Prize 1996.

You can meet the 82-year old Kaj Pindal Friday the 12th November from 3 pm to 6 pm at the hostel. He will be showing selected films and tell about his life with animated cartoons. Among others he will show parts of his latest film series “Peep and the Big Wide World” for which he received an EMMY in 2005 as the best animation Children’s Tv Programme in the USA.
Friday evening animators from everywhere will meet at the hostel to present their films and enjoy networking.
You are also invited to watch examples of the latest films and meet some of the new talented animators behind them.
This was only a little part of the program. Other parts will take place at Brorsonsminde, Bispegade school, the Viking Museum, Taarnborg and other places in Ribe. See the entire program here: Animation Festival
The Animation Festival is at the same time part of Ribe’s 1300 Year Anniversary Celebrations

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Eco-friendly hostel instead of hotel? Environmental policy at hostels and hostels

12 October 2010 11:09 AM

Posted by admin in Hostel, Ribe, Sustainable Tourism, Wadden Sea National Park | 1 Comment

Danhostel Ribe is Eco-labeled with Green Key and mentioned among Best Green Hotels

Danhostel Ribe is Eco-labeled with Green Key and mentioned among Best Green Hotels

Danhostel Ribe congratulates The Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers for having been named the greenest hotel in the world by the travel and tourist organization Skaal International.

The more green accommodation we get in Denmark the better. And the more focus we get on sustainable accommodation the better. At Danhostel Ribe we can learn from Crowne Plaza –  can they also learn from us? Maybe there are things we just should do different because Crowne Plaza is a hotel and Danhostel Ribe a hostel?

 

 But if you as a tourist would prefer to:

  • get sustainable accommodation in Denmark’s oldest and best preserved town in the middle of the Wadden Sea National Park instead of in the middle of the busy city Copenhagen
  • get cheap green accommodation because you travel on a low budget
  • stay at a environmentally friendly hostel instead of a hotel
  • get accommodation on the West Coast instead of the east coast of Denmark

Well, then you have the possibility to stay at Danhostel Ribe. You can read all Danhostel Ribe’s environmental policy on this link: Environmental policy at Danhostel Ribe.  Danhostel Ribe is Eco-labeled with Green Key and mentioned among Best Green Hotels. Danhostel Ribe cooperates with INNOTOUR  for education, research and business development in tourism. It is dedicated to innovation.

 

HRH Prince Joachim inaugurates the Wadden Sea National Park  Friday 16th October 2010

AND if you come to Ribe this Friday, you can participate in the inauguration of the Wadden Sea National Park just outside the hostel at 12 o’clock. The Wadden Sea National Park is Denmark’s third, biggest and wettest national park. HRH Prince Joachim will inaugurate the National Park and also Karen Ellemann, the Danish minister of Environment will be there. From 10.30am to 2.30pm it´s possible to join different activities and study local wadden sea products, enjoy Rod Sinclair quintet play the new National Park Song, watch the shepherd and his dog work, listen to the local stories about storm surges and pirates - and much more. Welcome.

Eco-labeled Danhostel Ribe, National Park, and Ribe Old town

Eco-labeled Danhostel Ribe, National Park, and Ribe Old town

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Official Wadden Sea National Park opening outside the hostel’s windows on October 16th.

1 October 2010 1:36 PM

Posted by admin in Hostel, Ribe, Sustainable Tourism, Wadden Sea National Park | 1 Comment

view-ribe-danhostel
His Royal Highness Prince Joachim and the Danish minister of the Environment Karen Ellemann will open Denmark’s third and biggest national park, the Wadden Sea National Park on October 16th. 2010.

The official opening will take place on the meadow – Hovedengen – outside the hostel. Hovedengen is part of the national park, and Ribe is situated in the middle of this big new national park, that in Denmark goes from the German border to Ho Bay. All ready now we know it will be a big celebration.

Of course this means now that Danhostel Ribe can boast of this fantastic situation right at the very heart of the national park – and with a panoramic view of both the national park and Denmark’s oldest and best preserved town: Ribe.
And at the same time we are the only ecolabeled accommodation you can get in Ribe and its surroundings, since we have received the Green Key and furthermore been mentioned in Environmentally Friendly Hotel´s list of “Best Green Hotels”.
ribe-og-nationalpark-2

Another day I will tell you the story of how Hovedengen got it’s strange name “Meadow of the Heads”

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Is this a hostel breakfast?

5 September 2010 5:45 PM

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Yes, this is the breakfast buffet at Danhostel Ribe, Denmark. This little video takes you around the table. OK you might miss some unhealthy hot sausages or bacon, but instead you get quality products as air dried ham, homemade bread, the hostel’s famous homemade muesli, freshly baked breakfast rolls picked up every day from Ribe’s best bakery (I know that because the locals queue up every weekend morning – and they DON’T do it because the rolls are cheap), several cheeses to choose among, yoghurt, fresh fruit, etc. In summer time you can even eat the famous Danish Pickled Herring. This hostel is eco-labeled and don’t worry you can eat and drink as much as you want for only 65,- d.kr (half price for children with parents). SO can you live without hot sausages, beans and bacon, don’t miss the breakfast buffet at the hostel.

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Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Prince Henrik of Denmark visit Ribe

29 July 2010 1:18 PM

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HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark visit Ribe today 29th of July because of Ribe’s 1300 years jubilee 2010.
See here some of the preparations for the visit and the arrival in town.

The red carpets were rolled out several places in Ribe town and the Queen and the Prince are going to visit all these places in town: Ribe Cathedral, Ribe old town hall, the Viking Museum, the Viking Centre, the boat Johanne Dan, Tårnborg (where the famous bishop and hymn writer Brorson lived) and Sct. Catharinae’ square.
Lunch is served at the Cathedral School – and Danhostel Ribe has a representative at the lunch, because Jens is involved in the preparations for Ribe’s town jubilee…..at the hostel we are looking forward to hear him tell about it.
The queen will be visiting Ribe again at autumn this year

Her er den lille film om Dronning Margrethe og prins Henriks besøg i Ribe vist på dansk

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Stress af i Ribe i ferien

9 July 2010 7:02 AM

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Stress af i Ribe

Stress af i Ribe

Hvorfor sidde i bilen og køre sydpå med lange bilkøer og ulidelig varme, når man kan stresse af og nyde tilværelsen i Danmark?

Hvorfor er Ribe ideel til afstresning?

Først og fremmest fordi byen er autentisk. En gåtur blandt de gamle huse, smalle gader og toppede brosten giver ro i sindet. Man sætter automatisk farten ned for at nyde alle sanseindtrykkene. F.eks.

• De flotte døre, stokroserne og blomsterkrukkerne som ripenserne sætter
   uden for døren for at glæde sig selv og andre.
• Vandet, der klukker i de mange åer i byen, og som har givet Ribe tilnavnet
   ”Danmarks Venedig”
• Gedernes brægen, ændernes rappen, frøernes  kvækken, rørdrummens
   kalden, suset fra stæreflokkens vinger (sort sol), vinden i træerne – alt
   efter hvilken af byens parker man besøger og på hvilken årstid.
• Lyset, der spiller så smukt i Carl Henning Pedersens flotte glasmosaikker i
   Ribe Domkirke
• Domkirkeklokken, der bryder stilheden med tonerne til Dronning Dagmar ligger udi i Ribe syg og Brorsons: Den yndigste rose
   er fundet.
• Vægteren, der med sin lygte i hånden, synger ripenserne til ro, når solen er gået ned
• Det store udsyn over Ribemarsken og Vadehavet (Nationalpark Vadehavet)  – over 30 km. i klart vejr fra Ribe Domkirkes tårn -
  når man har kæmpet og pustet sig op ad de 248 trin til toppen
• Smagsløgene kan tilfredsstilles i én af de mange caféer med borde ved åen, i gårde og på gågaden
• Osv., osv., osv.
Bliver man træt, kan man sætte sig på én af de mange bænke – i byen, i parkerne og ved åerne – og nyde indtrykkene og filosofere lidt over tilværelsen. Bænkene kan dog meget vel være optaget af ripenserne selv, der sidder der og følger med i gadens liv eller ”klarer verdenssituationen”.

 

Ripensere på bænk

Ripensere på bænk

Jo, stressede arbejdsmennesker kunne have gavn af sådan en tur.

Vi andre nyder det hele dagligt. Også i vores arbejde, for Danhostel Ribe ligger midt i det hele med Ribes mest fotograferede udsigt til Ribe Domkirke, Ribe Å, Skibbroen – og alligevel også med Hovedengen (Nationalpark Vadehavet) uden for døren.

 
Og det bedste af det hele.

Vi behøver ingen forskere til at fortælle os, at alle disse dejlige indtryk har stor betydning for menneskers velvære, vi kan nemlig mærke det på os selv og på vores gæster .

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New Scandinavian Cooking and Claus Meyer in Ribe, Denmark 2010

20 June 2010 8:22 PM

Posted by admin in Hostel, Ribe, Wadden Sea National Park | 3 Comments

TV Chef Claus Meyer visited Ribe and the Wadden Sea as the only destination in Denmark in the television series New Scandinavian Cooking.  New Scandinavian Cooking is a cooking series but at the same time a travelling series, so you can look forward to both delicious food and beautiful filming. (Other names for the same: Perfect Day – Smag på Norden – Smag på Danmark)

Danhostel Ribe had the pleasure of Claus Meyer and his crew staying at the hostel for several days
while they were filming this program in Ribe and the Wadden Sea. Some of the program was filmed on the meadow just outside the hostel with Ribe Cathedral and the River as background. In this trailer you can see the view from the hostel (06:59-7:01), and on the film photo over this text you can see Claus Meyer on Ribe River – with the Cathedral on the right side  (06:37- 06:59) (the hostel is situated on the left side of the river)

 
The last programs in the Scandinavian Cooking program were shown in more than 60 countries all over the world.
Probably these new programs with world premiere in 2010 will be shown in even more countries, because Nordic food has been even more popular since in 2010 the Danish gourmet restaurant NOMA with the chef René Redzepi and 2 Michelin stars  – and chef Claus Meyer as one of the co-owners – won the unofficial “world championship” for restaurants “the San Pellegrino Awards”. It is the first time a Danish restaurant wins the price in the magazine ahead of restaurants as Spain’s El Bulli and Britain’s The Fat Duck. To help elect the best restaurant in the world were 806 chefs, gastronomers and food reviewers.
The other chefs in the cooking series are Andreas Viestad, one of Norway’s most famous TV-chefs and a respected food writer and Tina Nordstrom, who is by far Sweden’s most celebrated TV-chef.
We hope you will enjoy the trailer – though it is in Danish – but if we find it in English we will let you know. And if YOU find out before us please let us know

If you don’t know: NOMA means Nordisk Mad (Nordic food)
Enjoy this new  film from  NOMA, the world’s best restaurant 2010 (this one is in English…) – and read about the Food Snob’s visits at NOMA 

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