Day 2: Skanderborg to Skagen

Friday, July 11, 2008

Wake up call at 6:30am. We had breakfast at the hostel: corn flakes and sandwiches and toast with jam, which was to be our breakfast most of the days on the trip. Apparently sandwiches for breakfast is a standard in Scandinavian countries.

Then we were off to our first stop, Den Gamble By, an outdoor air museum. We were supposed to go to the Town Hall at Arhus Radhus, but the prince of Denmark was there and he takes precedence. All of the houses at Den Gamble By are original and were taken apart and put back to together, piece by piece in this little fake town. There were also workers in period clothing walking around and working in the shops.









This picture is courtesy of Joe. Here is what I was working on:



It looks horrible because I don't have a scanner and I'm too lazy to mess with photoshop. I didn't finish it because I only had about 20 minutes for the sketch. It turned out a bit too cartoony for my taste.

After that, we headed to the Aros Art Museum, designed by Schmidt, Hammer, and Lassen in 2004. I am so sad that we only had 1 hour there––I could have spent the whole day looking at all the exhibits.







I spent a lot of time in the "Music to See" exhibit, which was showing music videos by prominent directors, such as Spike Jonze, Mark Romanek, and Chris Cunningham. My absolute favorite video of all time, "Weapon of Choice" by Fatboy Slim, was showing. If I were able to perform one dance to perfection, it would be the one done by Christopher Walken in this video. Here it is, for your enjoyment:



After Aros, we headed to Arhus University to eat our lunches (that we had packed that morning) in a Res Hall and walk around the campus. They opened up the campus chapel for us to walk around in.



The ceiling was beautiful! I want to design a chair that uses these materials.



Then we walked a bit more around the campus before heading off to Enghoj Kirke, a church designed by Henning Larsen Tegnstuen in 1991. It was even more beautiful than the first church.





Despite having very few windows, the church was very bright and naturally lit.

Then we had a long bus ride to the northernmost city in Denmark, Skagen. Bjorli put on a documentary, and I attempted to watch it but I was absolutely exhausted and fell asleep 10 minutes in. When we arrived, we were on our own for dinner, so a few of us walked to the harbor and found Ristorante Firenze Pizzeria, which I considered to be the Danish version of Italian, because it was definitely different from the American version, and I'm not talking about the Domino's-American version. I got the Margherita Pizza and a Coke Light with one whole ice cube!



After dinner, we just walked around at the harbor, listening to live acts and window shopping. Someone spotted a real-life version of Popeye the Sailorman, but I didn't have my camera with me. I'll have to steal a picture from someone else. Really, the resemblance was uncanny.

Walking back, it started raining and we got a little turned around, but were able to find the hostel as soon as the rain ended. I pretty much passed out after my shower, and it was a good thing, because I needed my energy for day three.