Ribe is Denmark's oldest town, founded around 700 AD when the Vikings established a trading market here at the edge of the Jutland marshes. It is also the country's best-preserved medieval town: the entire centre is a maze of half-timbered houses, cobblestone streets, and centuries-old churches, presided over by the five-aisled Ribe Cathedral. The flat salt meadows and tidal flats of the Wadden Sea begin just outside the town.
For all its antiquity, Ribe is lively rather than museified. In summer the atmosphere in the market square turns almost Mediterranean, cafés spill onto the streets, and a night watchman makes his evening rounds through the old streets, singing and telling tales of witches, floods, and fires. In spring and autumn, huge flocks of starlings perform their "black sun" murmurations over the surrounding marshes at dusk — one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in Denmark.
The museums here are genuinely good: Ribes Vikinger covers the Viking era and the Middle Ages, the Ribe Viking Centre is a living history park, and Ribe Art Museum holds an excellent collection of Danish Golden Age paintings. The Wadden Sea Centre at Vester Vedsted, 10km away, is the gateway to exploring the tidal flats.