23-25.4 Copenhagen
23.4 Saturday
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| The train to Copenhagen left early on Saturday morning. I was happily surprised that they actually had free Wi-Fi they worked in the train in Denmark :) |
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| Arriving to the beautiful train station in Copenhagen, on Sjælland, around noon. |
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| This weekend I spent together with Petrine, a lovely woman I met during my Erasmus in Hamburg. She lives in Frederiksberg and these beautiful Japanese trees were flowering close by. |
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| The weather was not the best one, it was pretty cold and rainy, but we still decided to go down town and to the see. The first stop was Nyhavn (picture). Part of the film the Danish girl was filmed here. It is a nice place with lovely colourful houses and a nice harbour. |
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| Denmark is also famous for the delicious homemade waffles and ice cream. At this Nyhavn canal area, in Vaffelbageren (up), we enjoyed a big cone of ice cream, topped with a meringue like soft cream, that tasted just delicious! It was pretty touristic place, but the service was quick, the place cosy and the ice cream and waffles super tasty (d.l). In the spring, just around this time of year, you can see these beautiful Japanese cherry blossom trees flowering (d.r). |
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| On our way to see the most famous statue of the little mermaid, a fairytale from H.C. Andersen, close to Kastellet, we went to see the palace and took a picture with one of the guards (up). We also went into the marmor church, Frederik's Church (down). The circular ceiling was really beautiful! |
Kastellet is a fortress in Copenhagen, also one of the best preserved in northern Europe. In the area are churches, a windmill on the King's Bastion,a prison complex. Even today it is active as an military area. However, this area is very peaceful, has the shape of a pentagram, serving as a big green park area with historical buildings. The weather got better and more and more people were walking or running here. There are two main gates into the Citadel: King's gate in the South and Norway Gate on the north side.
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| At the King's gate. |
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| Close to the King's gate you can find this Gothic styled Anglican Church, St. Alban's church. It was build in the end of the 19th century (up). (d.r): the Gefion fountain close to the English church. This is actually the largest monument in Copenhagen and is today used as a wishing well. It is located south of Langelinie, a park, promenade and pier (Langeliniekajen) where many cruise ships arrive in and where you can find many statues and sculptures, such as the famous little mermaid. |
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| The green area of the Kastellet with its five Bastions, Japanese trees and the surrounding water. |
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| The windmill at the King's Bastion. |
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| The little mermaid. Many people are surprised how small the statue is, but I think it was pretty big to be the statue of the LITTLE mermaid ;) |
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| Petrine and me standing under the Japanese cherry trees close to the Long Line, Langelinie, area at the Kastellet <3. |
The weather turned out well and in the evening, before enjoying spinach waffles for dinner, I went out for a run in a nearby park, close to the zoo.
24.4 Sunday
The weather got even more crazy and it was snowing, raining and hailing! I cloud borrow a bike, which made it easier to move in the city. Copenhagen is really a place to bike! The biking roads are very good and sometimes they close whole streets just for bikers!
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| Today we went to the opposite side of Nyhavn, to Christiania and biked along the Cristianshavns canal. Christiania is a Freetown, an autonomous neighborhood in Christianshavn with its own residents, 850 people. A very interesting area you need to see! |
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| (down): biking along the canals. (Up): the Parliament. |
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| We biked to the paper island and had lunch there, enjoying Copenhagen Street food. This place was amazing, with fresh food, also intentional. (d.l): the style inside the hall was interesting and I thought the toilet signs were funny. |
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| (u.l): self-made spinach waffles for dinner on Saturday. (u.r): lunch on the paper island. (d.l): self-made sweet potato soup for dinner on Sunday. (d.r): breakfast at the restaurant Grød, meaning porridge. A bit pricy but really really delicious and healthy food! |
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| At the lakes in Copenhagen. So beautiful and fortunately no rain! :) |
In the evening we had a relaxing girls-evening with movie, popcorn, nail polishing and Danish lakrits! :)
25.4 Monday
Today we wanted to spoil ourselves and went swimming, where on top of swimming we could enjoy sitting in the sauna, taking a dip in the cold water and then back in the warm sauna, doing an oil-salt body scrub and then into the stream sauna! It was so relaxing and just what we needed! The skin felt so soft afterwards and your body relaxed, ready for a train trip for my next destination in Denmark:
Århus, on Jylland/Jutland peninsula.
I really enjoyed my time here in Copenhagen, thank you for having me there Petrine <3!
My favorites in Copenhagen: Kastellet, biking through the city, seeing all the nice buildings and houses, as well as the lakes and canals, on the way. If the weather would have been better, a visit to the Tivoli would also have been nice, but going to the spa was as good as that ;)
25-27.4 Århus
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| Taking the train to Århus! |
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| The view is just amazing when traveling by train in Denmark, crossing the sea along bridges... And finally arriving to Aarhus train station (up). |
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| The next few days I get to spend together with these lovely people, Anna and Nicolai. They had cooked dinner and baked a cake!! So delicious and thoughtful! :) |
26.4 Tuesday
Today, the only whole day I will spend here, was literally raining! Pouring rain and really cold! Anyway, I wanted to explore the city and got to borrow the bike and biked downtown. Aarhus is actually the second biggest city in Denmark, located on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula.
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| One famous museum in Aarhus is this art museum ARoS. This museum has 10 floors and different exhibitions on every floor, such as the nine rooms in the basement floor, "a new dynasty-created in China"-exhibition, paintings, Jani Leinonen's, a Finnish artist, work and if course, the rainbow panorama on the museum's roof floor. I really liked the museum, with so many different exhibitions so you did not get bored! |
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| Your rainbow panorama. It is a circular, 150 m long walkway, where the glass walls have all the colors of the spectrum of light. |
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| This was really creepy! Looked like a real man and it was huge! |
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| Among the art in the China exhibition you could find many interesting things. This Christmas tree is build out of plastic cans and symbolizes George Orwell's book 1984 (u.r). (U.l): a suitcase made of clothes, " made in China", representing Hamburg. From cigarettes the fur of a tiger is represented (d.r). |
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| From these two pictures you can see, how the colour of the fur changes depending on from which direction you look at the fur. These different types of art give room for many own interpretations. In the Chinese culture the tiger is important and symbolizes health and strength. The tobacco was invented in central America and was later exported out in the world, for example through Christoffer Columbus, who in mid 15th century took it to Europe. Today China is one of the biggest producers of tobacco! |
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| Some of the art of the Finnish artist Jani Leinonen. He wants to bring up the injustice of the world. Familiar brands, logos are to be seen, but changed a bit to more political and religious tones/own messages (up). The burger bar Hunger King (down) is inspired by the law in Hungary in 2014, where sleeping in the streets became illegal. There were also a part with Ronald McDonald and the exhibition of School of disobedience. With his work he wants to say: "the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery-have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience". |
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| I decided to try to see the old town with its shopping street, town hall (d.r) and the dome (d.l). Also went to the university, really nice area! But because of the terrible weather I was not able to see the harbour and finally decided to go back home. But from what I saw, even though in rain, Aarhus looks really cosy and a nice place to live in! |
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| (up): water ponds in the university area. (down): it stopped raining in the evening, after enjoying a delicious dinner I went for a walk along the nearby " Å" and lake. Really beautiful! |
27.4 Wednesday
Before going to the train in the morning, I went for a run at the lake, it was a bit raining but it was not that bad ;)
Århus is, despite of the bad luck with the weather, a nice city! I would love to come again and see how it looks in the summer. I am sure it is beautiful!
My favorites in Aarhus: ARoS, university, small streets in the city, the dome and in the summer of better weather the harbour and the beaches! Thanks for hosting me and letting me get to know your hometown!
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| Last stop in Denmark before returning to Germany again was Odense, where I also visited one of my friends from Erasmus, Christoffer. I stayed here only for a few hours, but with a good guide I got to know and see all the important parts of the biggest small town in Denmark, wanting to become a big city by building new houses, reconstructing the harbour and the inner town by building tramways and buy that luring more people to Odense. The city is situated in the middle of Denmark on the island Funen. The name of the city comes after Odin. |
27.4 Odense
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| I met Christoffer at the station and he showed me places around in the center and told me a lot about the city. Odense is also known as the city of Hans Christian Andersen, because his birthplace is here and lived his childhood in Odense. Around in the city you can find something resembling of him or his fairytales, such as this sculpture (d.l). We also went for a very nice and delicious brunch (d.r). |
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| After the meal my private city tour started. We passed the city hall (up) and went into two churches. The story behind the name for the Odense cathedral, St. Canute's cathedral, or Sct. Knuds Kirke, which is named after the a Danish king Canute the Saint (Knud den Helige). Here you can find two crypts with remains of the king (d.l) and his brother Benedict. Knud was King of Denmark from 1080 a.d. and got killed in the Sct. Albani church nearby this church in 1086 on his way to collect taxes in another city. Later he was made as a saint and buried here in this church. |
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| (Left): St. Albani church. On the picture you can also see construction works. Close by is also old ruins. (right): there are two main streets in the newer part of the city. These small pillars can also be found there. Funny about them is that on every pillar you can find one Gummy Bear ;) must be something the children like when trying to find them! |
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| Outside the Hans Christan Andersen Hus. Here you can visit his childhoods home as well as the museum. |
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| The houses where his childhood home is also situated are so cute! Colourful, beautiful, just lovely (up)!. (d.r): we had enough time to go down to the harbour, crossing the railways and passing by Denmark's railway museum. In the water you can find a big statue from H.C. Andersen, however, just the head of him is visible above the water level. The statue was dropped in the water as a protest against the state, because they decided not wanting to have it raised in the city. Magically the sculpture is turning around in the water! This is because it was just dropped in there, without being attached to anything! |
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| At the harbour. They are putting down old buildings and with a lot of noise building new big houses. I hope it is going to be nice when it is ready! |
So these three hours in Odense was just enough to get to know the lovely city and say hi to Christoffer! Around two in the afternoon I continued my trip, actually again to Hamburg, but the time just to sleep over, meeting friends and the next day continue southwards.
My favorites in Odense: the inner city with its fairytale sculptures, harbour, area around the H.C. Andersen house.
Thanks for this lovely afternoon and for showing me your city ;)
