A Short Stay in Denmark

Our middle son, Tom, lives and works in Aarhus, the second city of Denmark, so as part of my visit to UK last month, I flew over to spend a few days with him. I have only visited him once before, in mid-summer, so I was looking forward to seeing Denmark in the Winter. My first impressions were not favorable as I landed in thick fog, but from then on it could only get better.

Of course I took loads of photos and ever since my return I have promised my blog friends that I would post a folder of them. It has taken until today to sort them out, but here they are now. (I should warn you here, that this post is long with a lot, and I mean a lot, of photos, so make yourself comfortable before you read any further!).

My first day was a Thursday. Tom had to do some video conferencing for work, which he could do from home, so I took myself off to walk around the city, and give him some space. 

It was a dull, fairly chilly morning but at least it was dry. The main shopping street is pedestrianized and all the big shops put their wares out on the walkways. It is a good way to ensure they catch your eye when new stock arrives, but they do it whatever the weather, and the air is often damp there, so you have to wonder how they keep everything in good condition.

Most of the Christmas lights were up by then, ready for the switching on ceremony the next night. At the end of the main street I found this huge sphere, covered in lights that were being tested. I later learned it was a photo booth, where you could pose with your friends for a Christmas selfie.

At this point I went down some wooden steps to the lower level where there is a wide walk-way along both sides of a canal. It was full of holiday makers seated outside the many cafés in the summer, and even now it was a pleasant walk.

I like this picture for the reflections in both the water, and the glass fronted office blocks that line the canal. Although many of the trees had already lost their leaves, there was still plenty of Autumn glory to enjoy. This was taken in the park at the end of the canal walk.

This is almost the equivalent of a car park in Danish cities. Very few people use cars. Car parking is at a premium and there is a good network of bus routes. But most people seem to cycle. They 'abandon' their bikes outside the shops. Some are chained but many are not. I don't know how anyone manages to extract theirs from the centre of the pile.

Parking at the railway station is much the same. Part of the popularity of cycling is the complete lack of any hills in Denmark!

At lunch time on my first day, Tom came out to meet me and he took me to a lovely roof terrace bar on top of the largest departmental store there. The empty wire basket at the front of this photo, was originally filed with warm blankets that any customer can take to wrap around their knees or shoulders while eating 'al fresco'. The Danes are a hardy race, and enjoy outdoor life all year round. Most bars and restaurants have blankets on all their outside seating to encourage its use in all weathers.

On this particular day the sun had come out, and we were quite warm sitting there without a blanket, and as you can see, the patio heaters were all turned on as well.

From our table, Tom pointed out a new viewing platform that had only opened a few months earlier. It stretched out beyond the edge of the terrace, so when we had eaten, I wanted to go and see the view. 

When we got up there, he told me that the floor of the platform was glass so you could see down onto the street below! I did manage to stand on it, but it did make my legs feel a bit wobbly.

And I even managed to smile was I was doing so!

I walked across to look down the street, but I was quite happy to step back onto solid concrete ground again! This was the road below us.

The next day Tom had to work from his office and I wanted to revisit the ARoS art museum, which is just a stone's throw from Tom's flat. One of the main attractions there is the rainbow walk; a circular tube of glass that changes colour as it goes around the roof terrace of the museum.

But first I visited some of the galleries, so here are just a few of my favourite exhibits. I took too many to show on here, and I am sorry, I have temporarily lost the information about these. But this was at the entrance to the 'Art across the ages' room. It was called Kitchen Totem, and was made entirely from pots, bowls and other utensils that are found in most kitchens. I am only showing two paintings although there were many other interesting ones. I liked The wave, an almost abstract painting in fairly neutral colours. The second one I liked because there was so much going on in it. I sat and looked at it for ages.

Of course I finished my visit with a walk around the rainbow gallery. It is strange inside because the light constantly changes as you travel round it and view the city landmarks through different filters. This picture was taken on sunny day when we visited in the summer.

But this visit it was a much duller day so the colours were more muted, but it was also less crowded with tourists, so I took a selfie in each area (I seem to have missed the blue one!), and I have put them all together in a strip.

It is a fun and interesting place to visit and I would recommend it to anyone. There is another attraction there, a statue just called 'The Boy' by Ron Mueck, which was shown in the millennium dome in London, but now has a permanent home in ARoS museum. It stands nearly 5 metres tall, and it is the absolute image of one of my grandsons when he was a little!

I saw this on my previous visit and it is beautifully sculptured and incredibly life-like. Sadly, when I asked where he was this time, I was told he was 'on holiday' in an upstairs room while they were rearranging the spaces, and would be on view again this December.

I had a rest when I got home because we were going out again for two events that evening. The first was to listen to the bells ringing out in the Town Hall clock tower. This is a modern structure, again only five minutes from Tom's flat. Last year Aarhus was Denmark's city of culture, and as part of its celebrations, 48 new bells were installed in the tower. They are still rung by hand, and on the first Friday of each month, at 4.00, they ring out a thirty-minute concert, so we stood in the rain to listen.

We rushed home for some quick tea and then set out again at 6.00 to see Santa arrive and parade through the town. He came on board a fishing boat, and we joined the crowds at the dock to see him arrive.

He left the boat while the band was playing, and got onto his open carriage, which then paraded all around the town along with children dresses at Christmas trees and stars, other animal characters, and about twenty other santas! I don't have photos of the parade as I am too short to see enough in such a crowded place, but the atmosphere was fun,and we did see the lights all along the street, come on for the first time.

Here is another view of the lights taken from that glass platform up above us. (Not my photo I must add! But as Tom said, it is probably easier to stand on it when it is dark). We met up with some of Tom's friends that evening and went on to a very friendly bar with them after the parade. So here we are with three friends, one is Welsh, one German and one Romanian! He does have Danish friends as well, and I gather they usually meet up when they want a night out. They were in the bar with us, but didn't make it into the photo!

On Saturday we had planned to walk along the coast, so despite some rather cold drizzle, we set off. We did the first bit on the bus, and then set off along the sand. Tom took this photo because it has (just) got the Danish flag flying behind me.

It was the first time I had needed to wear my raincoat all holiday, but I was glad of it that morning. We were heading for an infinity bridge that was installed last year, and I was keen to see it. It was a narrow platform running in a circle from the beach, out onto the sea and back to the beach again. Unfortunately when we arrived at the site, it had been dismantled for the Winter, and only the first part of the framework that was embedded in the sand, was still there!

So we had to turn back, going inland a little and following the path that ran parallel with the beach, past this pretty waterfall and back down to where we had started.

We decided that instead of catching the bus back, we would walk all the way. It was quite a distance. You can just see the misty outline of buildings across the bay. That are where we were heading for.

It was good to just take our time, chat together, and enjoy the scenery. We were constantly unzipping our coats because we were too warm, and then zipping up again against the next shower, so we were quite glad to get back to the dock and the start of the city again. We entered across the open area under the new library that has been built on the dockside. The city tram runs under it, and there is also a high-tech machine that parks your car for you! Next to the booth for this there is this intriguing sculpture of a city hanging upside down. I don't understand the significance but it is quite fun.

We thought we deserved a treat after all our walking so we went to a little bar and ordered a glass of Glogg each. This is the Danish traditional Christmas drink and it was delicious. The girl behind the bar spooned generous portions of plump dried fruit that was soaking in a spirit, into a glass, added finely chopped almonds and filled the glass with hot mulled wine. She then twisted strips of orange peel to release the oils and dropped it into our glasses and served it with crisp almond biscuits. It was a great way to warm up and set us up well for the short walk back to the flat.

Sunday was my last day and we had intended to hire a car and explore a bit further away from the city, but the weather was bad with heavy rain and high winds, so we cancelled that idea. But after lunch it cleared and we walked out to the Botanical Gardens. Here are just a few of the pictures I took there. The exotic room was the best, and there were lots of butterflies in there, but I didn't catch many of them on camera.

We had out tea there before we waked back to pack, and we had tomato soup served in a dish made from a dried palm leaf.

We finished with a Danish apple cake, which had very little to do with 'cake' but was delicious all the same.

We both had to get back to pack then as we were up early the next day, me for my flight back to UK, and more travels to visit our other sons, and Tom for his flight to Stuttgart for a work conference. It was a lovely few days, and I shall try to do it again; maybe in the Springtime next time.

I hope you have enjoyed travelling around with me. Thank you to those who have stayed the course!