When you come out of the station, there are some steps leading down to the taxi rank and the bus stop. On Saturday mornings at least, there aren't usually many buses to be found, or taxis either. The floor is cobbled, until you get to the park, which you can either walk through, or next to on the path running beside it. The first thing you see in the park is a fountain in the shape of a frog that spits water. It’s never on in Winter at least. There are also a series of wooden columns which have what appear to be tribal symbols carved into them and painted in blue and red. Though in winter when it’s misty and damp, the colours don’t stand out so much.
After the park, you cross the road in 2 halves. Once on the right, there are signs pointing to the college, and on the left, there is the post office depot. Walk past the depot and cross over, and there is a photocopying / printing shop which advertises special offers for students. Keep walking and go under the bridge. There’s a lot more traffic on the other side of the bridge, and you cross the road in 2 halves again. At around 11am on a Saturday, there’s usually a bus turning right to go under the bridge you just came under. Once you’ve crossed, you’re in front of the Culture House, where there are lots of adverts about upcoming shows and events. Carry on past the Culture House, and you’ll end up in a quiet residential area where there are a few parks, lots of cars and gorgeous apartment buildings. If not, cross the road in 2 halves again, and there’s a pharmacy on the corner called Linda.
Keep walking and you go past a haberdashers which has fancy wools in the window, and then there’s the kebab shop which also advertises special offers for students. Go right at the end of this road and you can either go in to the quieter entrance of the shopping centre, or there’s a small supermarket. Carry on further and there’s a main road to cross, and a bridge to go under where you end up climbing a hill to get to another residential area, and lots of nice restaurants.
However, if you go left after the kebab shop, there’s a hill and then a quaint little shopping street on the left with narrow alleys leading to closed-off (at one end) courtyards.
If you go straight ahead though, there’s a small square where there is a market on Saturdays, selling fish, cheese, vegetables… It’s full of interesting smells. At the top of the square is the most lovely little church with a big green door, and invariably, a man on a ladder in the entrance hall, on a ladder fixing something. It’s not the most fancy, decorative church in the world, but it’s peaceful, and when a choir is singing, the acoustics are great.
Carry on along the main street (a pedestrian zone where the pavement is all bright white and clean), past the square, and there is the main shopping centre, with a café as soon as you go inside. Avoid this place if you don’t like crowds. There are always lots of people here.
Walk past until you get to another little shopping centre, and turn right. Now you’re on the main road and see the main bus station. On the left there is an Etnies shop, which is never busy even though it’s pretty well priced. Keep walking along and you don’t know whether to look at the harbour, with its ships and restaurant in the white wooden building on the right, or the pretty wedding dresses in the shop on the left. The buildings in the harbour are colourful and Nordic style, with dark wooden beams. Though there are always lots of cars whizzing past, it’s a peaceful place, and it is nice to stop and sit and look at the cathedral on the other side of the water.
Go left up any one of the small side streets and after walking past more little colourful houses, you’ll end up back on the main shopping street. The end of the main street leads up a very steep hill to where the rum distillery is, and also a newsagents which sells really nice salami rolls on seeded bread for €1.
Back on the main street, and it’s quieter than at the station end. At one point, there are wires strung between buildings on both sides, and there are shoes hanging on them. Whose modern art this is, I don’t know. On the right you see the Danish library, a strangely shaped building. Further down and on the left, there is the old gate to the city, an archway above cobbled stones. Just after here, there is sometimes a small carousel.
Keep walking and you’ll be back where you started before you left the main shopping street.
I never had a Paris je t’aime moment. But I had a Flensburg ich liebe dich moment the first time I saw Holm. I’ve only been there 5 times, but it’s these images that have stuck in my mind the most clearly of anything I’ve seen since I’ve been away. Of everywhere I’ve been, it’s the one place I know that I think I could live and be happy in. But should I try and forget it now, or do I do something about it…?
