Western Denmark

Struer

Struer is a small town on the western coast of Jutland. We went there to visit Bang & Olufsen, one of the world's pinnacle manufacturers of high end A/V equipment. It was an amazing place, and we saw lots of the internal workings of the company that most people never get to see. At one point we were asked to hand over all of our cameras and cell phones because some of the things they are working on in the factory are still 'top secret'. The best part of the trip was being given what they refer to as the ultimate home theatre experience. We watched a concert on a crystal clear 100" projection with 3,500 Watt speakers.

This is the world headquarter's, standing on the edge of town literally 100 yards from a farm. The closest city is Aarhus, a 2 hour drive. Kind of an odd choice for a company that caters primarily to multi-millionaires.

The 50" TV costs around $20,000, each speaker is $10,000 and the full setup will run about $150,000. That includes the lights, blinds and doors which are all powered by a single remote. The speakers each provide 360-degree sound and so much bass that that they have to be 150 pounds just to sit still on the floor. This was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Aarhus

Aarhus is on the opposite of Jutland, facing the east coast. It's the second biggest city in Denmark, and with a population the same as Seattle I was hoping it would be a really cool place. We arrived there Thursday night and the bar scene was pretty much nonexistent. Friday we went to visit a company that makes stylish futons, but it was really boring and we could tell that they are having a rough time making a profit. Friday night DIS decided to switch us to a hostel 2 miles north of town in the middle of the forest.

Friday night was pretty fun; we went to a couple bars but they were unfortunately the same price as Copenhagen but I still didn't spend TOO much. $40 for dinner and a night out is pretty cheap for Denmark, some people ended up paying $150 because they decided to go out for Mexican which in Denmark is considered a fancy exotic cuisine.

Odense

On Saturday the other groups all got to go to Lego-Land and we were stuck going to the third largest city to see HC Anderson's birthplace. It was a pretty nice city but really nothing special.