In 1906, Aakjær received the fellowship, "Anckerske Legat" (Anckerske Scholarship), and commenced to tour Europe with his friend Lauritz Larsen. After a period of time on the continent, he went to Scotland by himself to connect with and be inspired by Robert Burn's work. It was during this trip that he suffered a relapse of a chronic digestive illness. This prevented him from spending much more time touring and he would only get one more chance to travel. In 1913, he was able to tour Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and England, with his son. In this latter trip, it was again cut short, this time by a painful foot blister and he skipped his Scotland portion.