Danish Gymnastics in Viborg, Denmark!

Viborg is a wonderful Danish city to visit and is located in Jutland Denmark! From the Gymnastics and Sports Academy, to the cathedral and its bustling city center, Viborg is full of treasures of traveling and has much to offer the foreign traveler. Check out some of those treasures below.

After visiting Copenhagen, we continued our month long journey of exploring Danish culture through the study of Danish Gymnastics in the city of Viborg which is located in central Jutland! Viborg is actually one of the oldest cities in Denmark.

City of Viborg

Looking over Søndersø Lake to the city of Viborg and its Cathedral.

Viborg was actually settled by vikings in the late 8th century due to being so close to the Lim Fjord, which was once considered an important waterway through Jutland. Due to the central location of the city, Viborg was important both politically and religiously during the middle ages. Also, the elections of all the Danish monarchs occurred in Viborg. Viborg actually gets its name from two old Norse words. They are ‘vé’, which means holy place or sanctuary, and ‘borg’, which means a type of fortress. The word ‘borg’ originally came from another Danish word ‘bjerg’, which basically means a hill or a mountain so technically, Viborg means a sanctuary on a hill, which helps to sum up Viborg nicely! It is believed that the city existed when King Harald Bluetooth (yes, our current electronic capability of connecting wirelessly to other electronic devices is named after King Bluetooth of Denmark) formed the first Danish Kingdom in the tenth century. Today, Viborg is a vibrant city and is known as one of Denmark’s leading cities for sports and is a great place to visit!

Read more about Viborg, the cathedral and the Danish Gymnastics and Sports Academy on Treasures Of Traveling website!

-- Luke Keeler

5 Places to Visit on a Short Trip to Copenhagen!

There are so many treasures of traveling to discover while visiting Copenhagen, but if you are short on time, here are 5 interesting places to explore while touring the capital city of Denmark.

Copenhagen was the start of our month long journey of exploring Danish culture through the study of Danish Gymnastics! Berea College made all students participate in what is called a short term course of study during one month of the year. Two other students, along with myself decided to complete our independent study by immersing ourselves within multiple Danish Gymnastics Schools throughout the country over a four week period. It was one of the most physically demanding experiences I have ever participated in, but also a fantastically fun experience that I will never forget! I loved Denmark, the people and the culture, but I will advise anyone to visit the country during the summer months as the winter was just too cold for me. It always seemed to be grey and gloomy and snowing off and on over the entire month. I was also not a fan of the extremely short days where the sun would rise around 9:00 am and set around 3:30 pm.

Luke and Greg waiting for the next train at Islev station in the cold and snowy weather.

We chose to study Danish culture because our college participated in a Danish American Cultural Exchange Program where a Danish Gymnastics Sports Instructor would come and teach the students at Berea College for the entire year while some students would also have the ability to travel to Denmark to experience Danish culture through the help of the Danish Gymnastics and Sports Association (DGI) which is a national organisation, working through sports and other cultural activities to strengthen the work of local amateur associations in an endeavor to promote the education of both youths and adults in a community based sports environment. I thank DGI for supporting our independent study and allowing us the opportunity to experience Danish Gymnastics by immersing ourselves into multiple schools throughout the country!

Luke and Sarah Beth finally warming up on the S-train after waiting in the cold snowy weather at Islev station.

We arrived to Copenhagen after a long delayed flight where all of our luggage had been diverted to another airport so it did not arrive on the same plane as us. It was unfortunate that our luggage had been lost, but what made it worse was that we didn’t have any clothes to change into or basic necessities like our toothbrushes, soap and shampoo. Luckily, Air France gave us a t-shirt and a small toiletry kit. We each wore that same shirt for three days until our bags finally arrived in Copenhagen. I was so happy to finally get my suitcase full of warm clothes so I wouldn’t have to walk around everywhere and be so cold all the time!

Eating Breakfast with the Host Family

After that ordeal, we settled in with our host family in Copenhagen who were part of DGI and who were absolutely fantastic. They lived near the Islev train stop where we would catch the train into downtown Copenhagen for our different activities. They showed us around so many interesting places throughout the city! 

To discover what these five treasures of traveling while visiting Copenhagen are please visit Treasures Of Traveling website! 

-- Luke Keeler