Double Rainbows (two of many for the day)
Little dark rain cloud floating by
I don't know what the stream of white is coming from the cloud,
hail maybe but it was pretty cool looking!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Denmark weather, wait 5 minutes it will change
A quick little update for everyone. Today we had some crazy weather here! There was a lot of rain clouds and even some thunder and lightening and 9, yes that's right NINE rainbows that appeared throughout the afternoon. The weather in Denmark always seems to be changing and the rain clouds are like the little Winnie the Pooh rain clouds that just seem to come and go. The storm clouds never actually came near Joe's apartment but you could tell it was raining hard down by the fjord. So here's a few pictures to show you what we experienced today! In another 5 minutes it will probably change! (The sun even came out for a while today too among all of this) Enjoy the photos!
Double Rainbows (two of many for the day)
Little dark rain cloud floating by
I don't know what the stream of white is coming from the cloud,
hail maybe but it was pretty cool looking!
Double Rainbows (two of many for the day)
Little dark rain cloud floating by
I don't know what the stream of white is coming from the cloud,
hail maybe but it was pretty cool looking!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Forest, Dinner and Trapholt
Hello everyone!
This week I’ve had some fun adventures. On Tuesday I decided to take my bike over to the forest in Kolding. Joe and I rode our bikes there last week but just road the trails and then came home. I didn’t have my camera so I couldn’t take any pictures, this time I came prepared with my camera and ready to explore. I took a new trail which ended up connecting with one Joe and I had gone on last week. I stopped at the fields and admired the animals there. There was a deer and some horses. I love watching the animals. The deer was so pretty! It’s nice to be so up close to the animals and nature. I was going to keep going but some threatening rain clouds made me choose otherwise and I headed home.
Last night Joe’s co-worker invited us to his home for dinner. I met Joe at work and we took the bus down to his house. His home was beautiful. The Danish architecture is very open and spacious. He had a beautiful backyard with lots of trees and plants and a nice sun room and patio. It was a beautiful day yesterday so we were able to eat outside! (I even got a little bit of a tan from sitting in the sun!) He made us a traditional Danish meal of chicken with a tomato based sauce and rice. We had some salad as well (fresh cut up veggies and cheese) and bread. It was a delicious meal! After dinner we went for a walk in the neighborhood. The area was very beautiful and the houses are so gorgeous! Joe and I agreed we are both big fans of Danish architecture! :) I made my famous brownies (most of you know the ones I’m talking about) and they were a big hit! He really enjoyed them. Apparently they don’t have brownies in Denmark. Maybe I should stay here with Joe and open a brownie business? :) I bet it would be successful. :) We got home late but had a very enjoyable evening!
Today was the day I had decided to visit the Trapholt museum in Kolding. In true Denmark fashion I decided I would ride my bike the 5.5km or roughly 3.5 miles to the museum. I knew there were going to be some hills involved so I was ready to get there. Several times I was convinced I was lost and about to call Joe to tell him I needed help and then a wonderful sign appeared telling me to turn right to get to the museum. After going down an extremely steep hill (which I knew I’d have to go back up later) and then up and even steeper one (I didn’t even bother trying to ride this one, it wasn’t happening) I finally made it to the museum. I got my ticket for free. The first several sections of the museum were under construction in a way because the exhibit is changing. The Kolding Design School will be exhibiting the graduation classes work after June 23 so I missed out on that. I did get to see some of the pieces and was impressed by what I saw. I continued on to see other modern art and enjoy the museum. The Danish furniture was my favorite part! The Trapholt museum is featuring several pieces from the “Walk the Plank” award which is “given to a furniture designer or cabinet marker who works in accordance with the principles of a refined craftsmanlike standard, a through aesthetic appreciation, and not least the will to date to ‘walk the plank” (http://www.trapholt.dk/00258/00585/). The museum was featuring designs from GamFratesi, two designers. They had many different pieces and explained how each of the chairs were designed and how they were inspired to make these pieces. There were several other chairs which were all very cool. I really do like the Danish designs. After wandering around a little longer waiting for the tour of the Arne Jacobsen summer house I met a family traveling from Indiana who was also waiting for the tour (turns out no 1pm tour would be given because everyone was at a meeting...really? you schedule a meeting when you’re suppose to be giving a tour? Joe claims this is very Danish!). We talked for a while and discussed some other things they might be able to do while visiting Kolding before heading to Copenhagen. It was fun to talk with someone else from the States and find out what they were planning on doing while visiting Denmark. So I wandered around the summerhouse and peaked inside to see what I could and headed back to my bike to get home. I might have to go back again after the Design School exhibits are set because I would like to see those as well. We shall see! :)
So it was a good week here in Denmark. We’re thinking about a day trip this weekend (thinking about it, nothing planned for sure yet) to Odense the home of Hans Christen Anderson. We’ll see how expensive the train is. :) So more updates to come and one more week till Holiday 1! Holiday 2 is almost all planned. We changed it around a little and will now be visiting Barcelona (YAY beach since we’re unable to visit VA Beach this summer, and sad to miss that time with everyone), Rome, Naples and Pompei. I’m still in search for a Barcelona hotel but other then that everything else is set. Exciting stuff!
Hope all is well in the States with everyone.
Love from Amanda
This week I’ve had some fun adventures. On Tuesday I decided to take my bike over to the forest in Kolding. Joe and I rode our bikes there last week but just road the trails and then came home. I didn’t have my camera so I couldn’t take any pictures, this time I came prepared with my camera and ready to explore. I took a new trail which ended up connecting with one Joe and I had gone on last week. I stopped at the fields and admired the animals there. There was a deer and some horses. I love watching the animals. The deer was so pretty! It’s nice to be so up close to the animals and nature. I was going to keep going but some threatening rain clouds made me choose otherwise and I headed home.
Last night Joe’s co-worker invited us to his home for dinner. I met Joe at work and we took the bus down to his house. His home was beautiful. The Danish architecture is very open and spacious. He had a beautiful backyard with lots of trees and plants and a nice sun room and patio. It was a beautiful day yesterday so we were able to eat outside! (I even got a little bit of a tan from sitting in the sun!) He made us a traditional Danish meal of chicken with a tomato based sauce and rice. We had some salad as well (fresh cut up veggies and cheese) and bread. It was a delicious meal! After dinner we went for a walk in the neighborhood. The area was very beautiful and the houses are so gorgeous! Joe and I agreed we are both big fans of Danish architecture! :) I made my famous brownies (most of you know the ones I’m talking about) and they were a big hit! He really enjoyed them. Apparently they don’t have brownies in Denmark. Maybe I should stay here with Joe and open a brownie business? :) I bet it would be successful. :) We got home late but had a very enjoyable evening!
Today was the day I had decided to visit the Trapholt museum in Kolding. In true Denmark fashion I decided I would ride my bike the 5.5km or roughly 3.5 miles to the museum. I knew there were going to be some hills involved so I was ready to get there. Several times I was convinced I was lost and about to call Joe to tell him I needed help and then a wonderful sign appeared telling me to turn right to get to the museum. After going down an extremely steep hill (which I knew I’d have to go back up later) and then up and even steeper one (I didn’t even bother trying to ride this one, it wasn’t happening) I finally made it to the museum. I got my ticket for free. The first several sections of the museum were under construction in a way because the exhibit is changing. The Kolding Design School will be exhibiting the graduation classes work after June 23 so I missed out on that. I did get to see some of the pieces and was impressed by what I saw. I continued on to see other modern art and enjoy the museum. The Danish furniture was my favorite part! The Trapholt museum is featuring several pieces from the “Walk the Plank” award which is “given to a furniture designer or cabinet marker who works in accordance with the principles of a refined craftsmanlike standard, a through aesthetic appreciation, and not least the will to date to ‘walk the plank” (http://www.trapholt.dk/00258/00585/). The museum was featuring designs from GamFratesi, two designers. They had many different pieces and explained how each of the chairs were designed and how they were inspired to make these pieces. There were several other chairs which were all very cool. I really do like the Danish designs. After wandering around a little longer waiting for the tour of the Arne Jacobsen summer house I met a family traveling from Indiana who was also waiting for the tour (turns out no 1pm tour would be given because everyone was at a meeting...really? you schedule a meeting when you’re suppose to be giving a tour? Joe claims this is very Danish!). We talked for a while and discussed some other things they might be able to do while visiting Kolding before heading to Copenhagen. It was fun to talk with someone else from the States and find out what they were planning on doing while visiting Denmark. So I wandered around the summerhouse and peaked inside to see what I could and headed back to my bike to get home. I might have to go back again after the Design School exhibits are set because I would like to see those as well. We shall see! :)
So it was a good week here in Denmark. We’re thinking about a day trip this weekend (thinking about it, nothing planned for sure yet) to Odense the home of Hans Christen Anderson. We’ll see how expensive the train is. :) So more updates to come and one more week till Holiday 1! Holiday 2 is almost all planned. We changed it around a little and will now be visiting Barcelona (YAY beach since we’re unable to visit VA Beach this summer, and sad to miss that time with everyone), Rome, Naples and Pompei. I’m still in search for a Barcelona hotel but other then that everything else is set. Exciting stuff!
Hope all is well in the States with everyone.
Love from Amanda
Monday, June 14, 2010
BBQ and Vejle
Greeting everyone!
Time for an update on our latest adventures in Denmark. Again, I swear this entire blog is not about food but I do have to start with Friday night which requires a discussion on food. :)
Joe’s building is also the same building that is home to a restaurant called Bone’s. Sounds appealing right? Many a nights we’ve seen people walk out of the restaurant with these big take away boxes and wondered how good they might be. Well this weekend we decided to give them a try! Turns out, SUPER DELICIOUS! :) So Friday night we ordered a “Family box” complete with 2 spare ribs, 2 BBQ chicken breasts, 4 orders of potatoes (1 baked potato with garlic butter and 3 orders of Pommes Frites (fries)) a big salad and some sauces. Equipped with our take away box we came back to the apartment and stated to eat. We split one of the ribs and a chicken breast and had some fries (me: potato with garlic butter) and salad. It was really good. Now for those of you New Yorkers this BBQ certainly didn’t compare to a trip to Dinosaur BBQ but it was still very tasty! (Joe and I did discuss how we could really go for some Dinosaur when we get back to the states, I guess I’ll have some before him!). We had a repeat dinner the following night which was fantastic! Easy way to get 2 nights worth of meals for not a bad price in Denmark.
So enough about food lest I make everyone crave some BBQ, on to the rest of the weekend. We had an enjoyable weekend here in Kolding. The rain finally decided it didn’t need to grace us with it’s presence anymore and the sun tried to come out though it was still pretty windy. We were extremely lazy on Saturday but decided we would make a day trip to Vejle to explore the town and visit one of the Gothic Churches and a Museum. We got up a little earlier than normal for the weekend and headed over to the train station. I packed us a picnic lunch to eat between our stops and we were off.
We got to Vejle around 11:15am. Vejle is a little bit bigger than Kolding so their main street area had more things to explore. Now being there on a Sunday none of the shops were open so we couldn’t go into any of them but we still walked around and enjoyed the scenery. We saw the classiest looking McDonald’s I’ve ever seen too!
The Sankt Nicolai Kirke was suppose to be open from 9:00-12:00; however, they were in the middle of mass so we decided to walk around for a bit. This church is Vejle’s oldest building dating back to the Mid-13th century. On the outer North wall is the skulls of 23 robbers who were beheaded and their skulls bricked into the wall. (eww). Here I was expecting little skull faces to be looking at me but there’s not much there but the holes in the wall. Joe mentioned that probably from the weather and everything the skulls wore away and all that’s left is the back (Kind of more gross than skulls looking at me!). We finally made it inside after the mass was over and were welcomed with some interesting sights. The church holds the remains of a woman that was once thought to be the Viking Queen Gunhilde. The remains were found in the Haraldskaier Bog in 1835. Upon further examination it is now estimated that this woman is much older and likely came from the Iron Age. One of my favorite features of the church was the beautiful baptismal font. The information guide told us that this font was 1100 years old! The other interesting feature of the church was a beautiful wooden plaque that listed all the church leaders from the 1500s to the present. In fact the last space has the current leaders name. I guess they might need to start another one. Despite the fact that the church was small compared to other churches in Europe it was very interesting and provided a great amount of insight to the towns history.
Our next stop was the Vejle Kunstmuseum. The Frommer’s Denmark book suggested this art museum and pointed out its to main features being a self portrait of Rembrandt and the Eckardts Sambling Collection including 2,000 prints and drawings from 1450-1800s including some of Albrecht Dürer’s works and Rembrandt’s works. So we paid our admission fee and were off. The museum wasn’t very big but had some excellent modern art pieces that Joe and I enjoyed. We got to the last room and found ourselves wondering where this Rembrandt portrait was as well as the rest of the collection. (We actually walked back through most of the museum to see if we missed it!) None of the art we saw was older than the 1900s. So I asked about the Rembrandt art and was told that this portrait was in another room that required a key and when she asked if we wanted to see if I said yes. A man took us up to a room with about 20 prints and left us to observe the Rembrandt art. He was an extremely talented man I must say! The details of his works are amazing. After enjoying the few prints available in the rooms I again turned to our book and though "where’s the rest of the collection?" I again asked the woman in the museum and we were told this collection was not on display and that the Rembrandt art was saw was the highlight. We left a little disappointed considering that was the reason why we came. As we walked around we discussed why on earth a museum would not exhibit such a wonderful and important collection. Joe pointed out that the Danes like modern art, which I fully support. I’m a big fan of Modern abstract art, but I also like the classics and that’s why we came. Overall is was a good museum but a little disappointing when it came to the reason why we decided to go.
After the museum we stopped to eat our picnic lunch and decided to search for the Munkebjerg or “Mountain” in the town. This mountain offers a moving stairway to the top and gives a great view of the Vejle fjord. We found a city map but couldn’t find any indication of this stairway so we decided to bag it and head home. It was a nice day on Sunday but very windy and we were both a little cold.
This weeks adventure will be a trip to Trapholt the art museum in Kolding. And next week we’ll be preparing for our holiday 1 trip. Copenhagen, Warsaw, Krakow, Prague and Munich here we come! I won’t be bringing my computer on that trip so you’ll all have to wait in suspense to find out about all of our adventures but I promise I’ll post things as soon as possible! :)
Love from Amanda
Time for an update on our latest adventures in Denmark. Again, I swear this entire blog is not about food but I do have to start with Friday night which requires a discussion on food. :)
Joe’s building is also the same building that is home to a restaurant called Bone’s. Sounds appealing right? Many a nights we’ve seen people walk out of the restaurant with these big take away boxes and wondered how good they might be. Well this weekend we decided to give them a try! Turns out, SUPER DELICIOUS! :) So Friday night we ordered a “Family box” complete with 2 spare ribs, 2 BBQ chicken breasts, 4 orders of potatoes (1 baked potato with garlic butter and 3 orders of Pommes Frites (fries)) a big salad and some sauces. Equipped with our take away box we came back to the apartment and stated to eat. We split one of the ribs and a chicken breast and had some fries (me: potato with garlic butter) and salad. It was really good. Now for those of you New Yorkers this BBQ certainly didn’t compare to a trip to Dinosaur BBQ but it was still very tasty! (Joe and I did discuss how we could really go for some Dinosaur when we get back to the states, I guess I’ll have some before him!). We had a repeat dinner the following night which was fantastic! Easy way to get 2 nights worth of meals for not a bad price in Denmark.
So enough about food lest I make everyone crave some BBQ, on to the rest of the weekend. We had an enjoyable weekend here in Kolding. The rain finally decided it didn’t need to grace us with it’s presence anymore and the sun tried to come out though it was still pretty windy. We were extremely lazy on Saturday but decided we would make a day trip to Vejle to explore the town and visit one of the Gothic Churches and a Museum. We got up a little earlier than normal for the weekend and headed over to the train station. I packed us a picnic lunch to eat between our stops and we were off.
We got to Vejle around 11:15am. Vejle is a little bit bigger than Kolding so their main street area had more things to explore. Now being there on a Sunday none of the shops were open so we couldn’t go into any of them but we still walked around and enjoyed the scenery. We saw the classiest looking McDonald’s I’ve ever seen too!
The Sankt Nicolai Kirke was suppose to be open from 9:00-12:00; however, they were in the middle of mass so we decided to walk around for a bit. This church is Vejle’s oldest building dating back to the Mid-13th century. On the outer North wall is the skulls of 23 robbers who were beheaded and their skulls bricked into the wall. (eww). Here I was expecting little skull faces to be looking at me but there’s not much there but the holes in the wall. Joe mentioned that probably from the weather and everything the skulls wore away and all that’s left is the back (Kind of more gross than skulls looking at me!). We finally made it inside after the mass was over and were welcomed with some interesting sights. The church holds the remains of a woman that was once thought to be the Viking Queen Gunhilde. The remains were found in the Haraldskaier Bog in 1835. Upon further examination it is now estimated that this woman is much older and likely came from the Iron Age. One of my favorite features of the church was the beautiful baptismal font. The information guide told us that this font was 1100 years old! The other interesting feature of the church was a beautiful wooden plaque that listed all the church leaders from the 1500s to the present. In fact the last space has the current leaders name. I guess they might need to start another one. Despite the fact that the church was small compared to other churches in Europe it was very interesting and provided a great amount of insight to the towns history.
Our next stop was the Vejle Kunstmuseum. The Frommer’s Denmark book suggested this art museum and pointed out its to main features being a self portrait of Rembrandt and the Eckardts Sambling Collection including 2,000 prints and drawings from 1450-1800s including some of Albrecht Dürer’s works and Rembrandt’s works. So we paid our admission fee and were off. The museum wasn’t very big but had some excellent modern art pieces that Joe and I enjoyed. We got to the last room and found ourselves wondering where this Rembrandt portrait was as well as the rest of the collection. (We actually walked back through most of the museum to see if we missed it!) None of the art we saw was older than the 1900s. So I asked about the Rembrandt art and was told that this portrait was in another room that required a key and when she asked if we wanted to see if I said yes. A man took us up to a room with about 20 prints and left us to observe the Rembrandt art. He was an extremely talented man I must say! The details of his works are amazing. After enjoying the few prints available in the rooms I again turned to our book and though "where’s the rest of the collection?" I again asked the woman in the museum and we were told this collection was not on display and that the Rembrandt art was saw was the highlight. We left a little disappointed considering that was the reason why we came. As we walked around we discussed why on earth a museum would not exhibit such a wonderful and important collection. Joe pointed out that the Danes like modern art, which I fully support. I’m a big fan of Modern abstract art, but I also like the classics and that’s why we came. Overall is was a good museum but a little disappointing when it came to the reason why we decided to go.
After the museum we stopped to eat our picnic lunch and decided to search for the Munkebjerg or “Mountain” in the town. This mountain offers a moving stairway to the top and gives a great view of the Vejle fjord. We found a city map but couldn’t find any indication of this stairway so we decided to bag it and head home. It was a nice day on Sunday but very windy and we were both a little cold.
This weeks adventure will be a trip to Trapholt the art museum in Kolding. And next week we’ll be preparing for our holiday 1 trip. Copenhagen, Warsaw, Krakow, Prague and Munich here we come! I won’t be bringing my computer on that trip so you’ll all have to wait in suspense to find out about all of our adventures but I promise I’ll post things as soon as possible! :)
Love from Amanda
Saturday, June 12, 2010
New designs!
On a completely unrelated note..YAY for new blogs designs! What do you think?
Tomorrow we're adventuring to Vejle Denmark to go to the Sankt Nicolai Kirke a Gothic church and the Vejle Kunstmuseum one of the art museums. A post on those adventures will soon follow. :)
Love from Amanda
Tomorrow we're adventuring to Vejle Denmark to go to the Sankt Nicolai Kirke a Gothic church and the Vejle Kunstmuseum one of the art museums. A post on those adventures will soon follow. :)
Love from Amanda
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Koldinghus Castle...and a good history lesson :)
Hello Everyone,
I hope that everyone back in the States is doing well! I miss everyone at home but am continuing to enjoy my time here in Denmark and Europe.
Yesterday I asked Joe to get me passes to the art museum so I could go. Instead he got me the passes for Koldinghus which was also on the list of things to do so despite the rain today (the weather this week has been a little less than favorable!) after having some lunch off I went to Koldinghus to discover some Danish history!
These are the inner walls of Koldinghus
Most of the plaques were in Danish so I didn’t learn a whole lot at the actual castle but the website provided some addition insight to what I observed while visiting the old castle. So to start off Koldinghus has been a museum in Denmark since like early 1990s. The original castle was destroyed by fire in 1808. The castle was build in 1268 and has served in many capacities in Denmark since being built. When the Renaissance period started in Europe Koldinghus was the home to King Christian III. He died at the castle on January 1, 1559 after battling illness since Christmas Eve. His wife and Queen remained in the castle until her death in 1571. King Christian III had the first Protestant chapel built in the castle which was used for many years. This chapel was destroyed by fire in 1581 and replaced in 1585. When King Christian IV finished his Palace chapel in 1600 there was no need for this chapel. It was converted into additional royal chambers and a bakery. During the restoration of the castle the chapel was restored to its original purpose. It is not currently used as a chapel but is used as a lecture hall.
The Palace Chapel
Other interesting aspects of Koldinghus include the following:
The Ruin Hall is currently used for many different exhibits. This halls shows the majority of the damage from the 1808 fire. This area is found in the south wing of the castle. It was really cool to see the inner walls from where the fire damage was done. So much of this part of the castle was destroyed.
Danish art, silver and fine and decorative art. Koldinghus houses many pieces that have been awarded the Karl Gustav Hansen Prize for silver. These pieces were so beautiful! I loved the detail and complexity of the designs. In one of the rooms they were showing a video of how a silver vase was made. It was so interesting to see how this flat sheet of silver was transformed into a beautiful and intricate piece of art. They had a beautiful porcelain collection as well. In addition there were several pieces from the famous Danish designer Thorvald Bindesbøll. He designed many beautiful pieces of furniture and provided pieces for the 1900 Worlds Fair in Paris. He also has many famous silver pieces and silverware.
While continuing to explore the castle I happened upon a very old book. Thankfully one of the security guides was there and explained to me what I was looking at. Turns out that the book I saw was the written law by King Frederick III that made Denmark an absolute Monarchy and no longer allowed for elected leaders in the Monarch. This law was very instrumental in Danish history and caused quite a stir with the nobility of the time. This is the only written copy of this type of law as well.
One of the last things I saw was the room full of toys! Who doesn’t like a room full of toys!? Especially toys from far back in history. I learned some new and interesting things while exploring this little room. First off did you know that the original doll houses were not actually used to play with? No, these fancy little houses were actually taken our during special occasions for adults to admire. No way! Who wants a doll house if you can’t even play with it! :)
After the toy room I climbed a bunch of stairs to get up to the tower. On a cold and raining day it wasn’t to pleasant to be up there but I managed to get some good photos anyway. The original tower had four statues on each corner that represented the great kings of the time. One of those was Hercules. These statues bore the Coat of Arms of the King they represented. Parts of the Hercules and Scipio statues remain in the Koldinghus visitors center; however, the the rest were destroyed.
So I keep talking about this fire so maybe I’ll give you a little more about it. On March 30, 1808 fire broke out in one of the chimneys of the castle. The Hvlid family was residing in the castle at the time. In addition there were many Spanish soldier staying in the castle due to the Napoleon wars. It turns out that people were worried about the possibility of a fire with the soldiers there so there were watchman assigned to make sure this didn’t happen. The fire burned for several hours and the smell of smoke was throughout the castle but everyone thought it was just from the fire which happened when the wind blew just right. Well interesting fact the watchman weren’t actually there when the fire started in the guardroom! By the time anything could be done about the fire tremendous damage was already done. The fire burned in the castle for a long time. Thankfully Mrs. Hvild was able to save many of the family items through a window. The castle ruins remained in Kolding for many years without plans to restore or rebuild the castle.
Eventually it was decided that Koldinghus would become a museum and plans to restore the castle were finally put into place. In 1991 the castle restoration was complete the castle has been used as a museum ever since.
This trip through history was fun and exciting. I really enjoy learning about European history since it’s so much more in depth than American history!
(I’m such a trained graduate student too and feel like I have to cite everything, though in my blog not strictly APA style, so for those of you who would like to read a lot more or want to know where all this came from please visit http://www.koldinghus.dk/ If you click the British flag it goes to English!)
Thanks for reading! More to come soon!
Love from Amanda
I hope that everyone back in the States is doing well! I miss everyone at home but am continuing to enjoy my time here in Denmark and Europe.
Yesterday I asked Joe to get me passes to the art museum so I could go. Instead he got me the passes for Koldinghus which was also on the list of things to do so despite the rain today (the weather this week has been a little less than favorable!) after having some lunch off I went to Koldinghus to discover some Danish history!
These are the inner walls of KoldinghusMost of the plaques were in Danish so I didn’t learn a whole lot at the actual castle but the website provided some addition insight to what I observed while visiting the old castle. So to start off Koldinghus has been a museum in Denmark since like early 1990s. The original castle was destroyed by fire in 1808. The castle was build in 1268 and has served in many capacities in Denmark since being built. When the Renaissance period started in Europe Koldinghus was the home to King Christian III. He died at the castle on January 1, 1559 after battling illness since Christmas Eve. His wife and Queen remained in the castle until her death in 1571. King Christian III had the first Protestant chapel built in the castle which was used for many years. This chapel was destroyed by fire in 1581 and replaced in 1585. When King Christian IV finished his Palace chapel in 1600 there was no need for this chapel. It was converted into additional royal chambers and a bakery. During the restoration of the castle the chapel was restored to its original purpose. It is not currently used as a chapel but is used as a lecture hall.
The Palace ChapelOther interesting aspects of Koldinghus include the following:
The Ruin Hall is currently used for many different exhibits. This halls shows the majority of the damage from the 1808 fire. This area is found in the south wing of the castle. It was really cool to see the inner walls from where the fire damage was done. So much of this part of the castle was destroyed.
Danish art, silver and fine and decorative art. Koldinghus houses many pieces that have been awarded the Karl Gustav Hansen Prize for silver. These pieces were so beautiful! I loved the detail and complexity of the designs. In one of the rooms they were showing a video of how a silver vase was made. It was so interesting to see how this flat sheet of silver was transformed into a beautiful and intricate piece of art. They had a beautiful porcelain collection as well. In addition there were several pieces from the famous Danish designer Thorvald Bindesbøll. He designed many beautiful pieces of furniture and provided pieces for the 1900 Worlds Fair in Paris. He also has many famous silver pieces and silverware.
While continuing to explore the castle I happened upon a very old book. Thankfully one of the security guides was there and explained to me what I was looking at. Turns out that the book I saw was the written law by King Frederick III that made Denmark an absolute Monarchy and no longer allowed for elected leaders in the Monarch. This law was very instrumental in Danish history and caused quite a stir with the nobility of the time. This is the only written copy of this type of law as well.
One of the last things I saw was the room full of toys! Who doesn’t like a room full of toys!? Especially toys from far back in history. I learned some new and interesting things while exploring this little room. First off did you know that the original doll houses were not actually used to play with? No, these fancy little houses were actually taken our during special occasions for adults to admire. No way! Who wants a doll house if you can’t even play with it! :)
After the toy room I climbed a bunch of stairs to get up to the tower. On a cold and raining day it wasn’t to pleasant to be up there but I managed to get some good photos anyway. The original tower had four statues on each corner that represented the great kings of the time. One of those was Hercules. These statues bore the Coat of Arms of the King they represented. Parts of the Hercules and Scipio statues remain in the Koldinghus visitors center; however, the the rest were destroyed.
So I keep talking about this fire so maybe I’ll give you a little more about it. On March 30, 1808 fire broke out in one of the chimneys of the castle. The Hvlid family was residing in the castle at the time. In addition there were many Spanish soldier staying in the castle due to the Napoleon wars. It turns out that people were worried about the possibility of a fire with the soldiers there so there were watchman assigned to make sure this didn’t happen. The fire burned for several hours and the smell of smoke was throughout the castle but everyone thought it was just from the fire which happened when the wind blew just right. Well interesting fact the watchman weren’t actually there when the fire started in the guardroom! By the time anything could be done about the fire tremendous damage was already done. The fire burned in the castle for a long time. Thankfully Mrs. Hvild was able to save many of the family items through a window. The castle ruins remained in Kolding for many years without plans to restore or rebuild the castle.
Eventually it was decided that Koldinghus would become a museum and plans to restore the castle were finally put into place. In 1991 the castle restoration was complete the castle has been used as a museum ever since.
This trip through history was fun and exciting. I really enjoy learning about European history since it’s so much more in depth than American history!
(I’m such a trained graduate student too and feel like I have to cite everything, though in my blog not strictly APA style, so for those of you who would like to read a lot more or want to know where all this came from please visit http://www.koldinghus.dk/ If you click the British flag it goes to English!)
Thanks for reading! More to come soon!
Love from Amanda
Monday, June 7, 2010
Seeing the Queen and other adventures!
So, I know you’ve all been dying to know what on earth has been going on here in Kolding Denmark! Well let me tell you it’s been an exciting few days! :)
Holiday 1 is pretty much set. Last week I spent a good amount of time finding accommodations for us while we’re traveling. So the good thing about Eastern Europe is that it’s extremely cheap! I found an adorable little B&B to stay at in Warsaw. It has 7 total rooms and and was a great price. After that we head to Krakow and again I found a great hotel in the Jewish district of the city for not a lot of money! Heading onto Prague I found a great little room in an older building in the heart of Prague. Joe’s in charge of the Munich hotels since he was just there with his family so I’m on to planning Holiday 2! Right now the most challenging aspect of this is the cost of travel. Mid-July is a big time for Holiday here in Europe so things are pretty expensive. We may change our plans and go to Barcelona instead of Valencia but I still have some planning to do. Either way I’m super excited about our first trip! When we get back to Kolding I’ll have visited 5 countries in Europe and if you count my flights in and out of Amsterdam I’ll have been on the soil of 6 European Countries! AWESOME! :)
Friday night was a big celebration and sale in the shopping area of Kolding. We went out for some ice cream and to listen to some music that night. On Saturday when everything was closed we looked up why and discovered that June 5th is Constitution Day in Denmark. Here’s a little history for you. in 1849 the Danish king signed the Denmark Constitution which established Denmark as a constitutional monarchy. Another constitution was signed in 1953 which is also adopted on the same day (See Wikipedia for more details). In addition to that the Secretary of the State, Hillary Clinton recognized the day in Washington D.C. on June 3rd this year. There’s some history for you! :)
So this weekend was absolutely beautiful and so Joe and I decided it would be fun to take our bikes to the beach and have a picnic and go for a ride along the trails. Joe took us to this great little spot where we had a picnic lunch of runde stykker (round pieces or rolls) and cheese as well as some fruit. We had a beautiful spot and after we ate we went along the trails for a while and saw some beautiful Danish Country side! :) It was wonderful!
On Sunday we decided to go for a walk by the lake and as we were there we noticed a parade across the lake by the train station. We walked back into town to discover what was going on. We stopped at the Town Hall and discovered many guards and such on horses parading down the streets. We stayed and watched for a while and then when we got home I used the wonderful internet to figure out what it was we just watched. (Everything was spoken in Danish so we had no clue what they were saying). So low and behold what we had witnessed was the rehearsal for the Queen’s visit to Kolding which would take place on Monday June 7th. So naturally I got really excited and decided that since I don’t have anything else to do during the day that I would walk over to the middle of town and watch the parade on Monday and see the Queen!
So here’s some more history for you! (Oh no my blog is turning into a history lesson!) Denmark has one of the oldest Monarchies dating back to 936AD. There has been an unbroken line of Kings and Queens since this time. (http://kongehuset.dk/english/history/lineage/) . The current Queen of Denmark is Margrethe II and has been Queen Regnant since 1972. She is 60 years old. Margrethe is the second female Monarch since Margrethe I who ruled the Scandinavian countries from 1388-1412. (Compliments to Wikipedia and my Danish Language book for the information!)
Each year her and the prince make a tour of Denmark in the summer and today’s stop was Kolding. So this morning despite the fact that it was pouring down rain and a little cold I got myself up and ready to watch the parade from town. I got there around 10:15am and the Queen and Prince were suppose to start their tour at the Harbor area at 10:25. I had a great spot right near the front and was able to see everyone as they went by! It was so amazing to watch the Queen and Prince go by in the carriage! Such a cool experience.
The rain finally stopped this afternoon and so tonight Joe and I went over to the lake to see the baby ducks we’ve discovered. I brought some bread to feed them and such enough they came off their nest right up to where we were to eat! It was adorable. We kept walking around the lake only to find that the family of swans (7 babies) were coming to the edge of the lake to feed so we got to watch them for a while. Ultimate cute factor to see 9 little baby birds at the lake! I fully realize that I’m a big dork for being so excited about that but they were just really cute! :)
So a good ending to the evening. This week I’m planning on doing to the art museum in Kolding so I’ll post about that later this week! Hope everyone is doing well at home!
Love from Amanda
Holiday 1 is pretty much set. Last week I spent a good amount of time finding accommodations for us while we’re traveling. So the good thing about Eastern Europe is that it’s extremely cheap! I found an adorable little B&B to stay at in Warsaw. It has 7 total rooms and and was a great price. After that we head to Krakow and again I found a great hotel in the Jewish district of the city for not a lot of money! Heading onto Prague I found a great little room in an older building in the heart of Prague. Joe’s in charge of the Munich hotels since he was just there with his family so I’m on to planning Holiday 2! Right now the most challenging aspect of this is the cost of travel. Mid-July is a big time for Holiday here in Europe so things are pretty expensive. We may change our plans and go to Barcelona instead of Valencia but I still have some planning to do. Either way I’m super excited about our first trip! When we get back to Kolding I’ll have visited 5 countries in Europe and if you count my flights in and out of Amsterdam I’ll have been on the soil of 6 European Countries! AWESOME! :)
Friday night was a big celebration and sale in the shopping area of Kolding. We went out for some ice cream and to listen to some music that night. On Saturday when everything was closed we looked up why and discovered that June 5th is Constitution Day in Denmark. Here’s a little history for you. in 1849 the Danish king signed the Denmark Constitution which established Denmark as a constitutional monarchy. Another constitution was signed in 1953 which is also adopted on the same day (See Wikipedia for more details). In addition to that the Secretary of the State, Hillary Clinton recognized the day in Washington D.C. on June 3rd this year. There’s some history for you! :)
So this weekend was absolutely beautiful and so Joe and I decided it would be fun to take our bikes to the beach and have a picnic and go for a ride along the trails. Joe took us to this great little spot where we had a picnic lunch of runde stykker (round pieces or rolls) and cheese as well as some fruit. We had a beautiful spot and after we ate we went along the trails for a while and saw some beautiful Danish Country side! :) It was wonderful!
On Sunday we decided to go for a walk by the lake and as we were there we noticed a parade across the lake by the train station. We walked back into town to discover what was going on. We stopped at the Town Hall and discovered many guards and such on horses parading down the streets. We stayed and watched for a while and then when we got home I used the wonderful internet to figure out what it was we just watched. (Everything was spoken in Danish so we had no clue what they were saying). So low and behold what we had witnessed was the rehearsal for the Queen’s visit to Kolding which would take place on Monday June 7th. So naturally I got really excited and decided that since I don’t have anything else to do during the day that I would walk over to the middle of town and watch the parade on Monday and see the Queen!
So here’s some more history for you! (Oh no my blog is turning into a history lesson!) Denmark has one of the oldest Monarchies dating back to 936AD. There has been an unbroken line of Kings and Queens since this time. (http://kongehuset.dk/english/history/lineage/) . The current Queen of Denmark is Margrethe II and has been Queen Regnant since 1972. She is 60 years old. Margrethe is the second female Monarch since Margrethe I who ruled the Scandinavian countries from 1388-1412. (Compliments to Wikipedia and my Danish Language book for the information!)
Each year her and the prince make a tour of Denmark in the summer and today’s stop was Kolding. So this morning despite the fact that it was pouring down rain and a little cold I got myself up and ready to watch the parade from town. I got there around 10:15am and the Queen and Prince were suppose to start their tour at the Harbor area at 10:25. I had a great spot right near the front and was able to see everyone as they went by! It was so amazing to watch the Queen and Prince go by in the carriage! Such a cool experience.
The rain finally stopped this afternoon and so tonight Joe and I went over to the lake to see the baby ducks we’ve discovered. I brought some bread to feed them and such enough they came off their nest right up to where we were to eat! It was adorable. We kept walking around the lake only to find that the family of swans (7 babies) were coming to the edge of the lake to feed so we got to watch them for a while. Ultimate cute factor to see 9 little baby birds at the lake! I fully realize that I’m a big dork for being so excited about that but they were just really cute! :)
So a good ending to the evening. This week I’m planning on doing to the art museum in Kolding so I’ll post about that later this week! Hope everyone is doing well at home!
Love from Amanda
Thursday, June 3, 2010
The planning begins...and other adventures
Hello everyone!
I hope that things back in the states are going well for everyone. Things continue to be very comfortable and relaxed here in Denmark! :)
So ever the adventurous one this week has lead to a few new adventures :) On Tuesday I took the bus all by myself to visit Joe and have lunch with him at the factory. It was fun to ride up there and see him during the day since I don’t have much else going on most of the time. So we had a nice little lunch and then I headed over to Bilka to do some grocery shopping. Ever in the need for snacks I decided that in addition to the dinner ingredients for the evening I would find some crackers or other snacks and something dessert-y for us to have instead of ice cream that never would have made it home. :) So I wandered up and down the rows of Danish food and Danish words in search of snacks. I can upon some trail mix things which seemed interesting but not exactly what I wanted. So I finally found some crackers! We’re not talking about Triscuits or Wheat thins though, oh no! Crackers in Denmark are different! Here’s what I found. I quickly discovered that these crackers are better with something on them. So far I tried cheese and jelly both good choices.
Now I swear my whole blog is not going to be about food but I also have to share these treats too! These cookies right here are about the most amazing things in the world. KLM serves them to you on the plane as a snack. (The ones on the plane are a little more awesome because they’re covered with chocolate and also have white filling inside in addition to the chocolate) Needless to say these bad boys were 2 for 25 DKK (about $4) so I had to buy 2! Joe and I have been enjoying them as dessert each night!
Now aside from my grocery store adventures last night Joe and I took the train up to Fredericia (My mom’s best friend was there as a student!) and met a guy who was selling his wife’s bike. So equip with my not so shiny and new to me bike (his wife rode this bike 20km EVERYDAY to work and back) we rode the train back and now the adventures could begin.
So in search of something to do today I decide to take my new bike to the beach which isn’t too far from Joe’s apartment but way easier to get to on a bike than walking. So I packed some snacks, a book and water stuck that in my little basket and off I went. Good thing riding a bike is a skill you don’t forget since it’s been a while. I forgot how nice it is to just ride and feel the wind in your hair and enjoy the ride. So I got to the beach which for a Thursday afternoon there was a good number of people there. I picked a little spot out and parked myself there for a while. It was so beautiful! I love how gorgeous Denmark is. It’s such a beautiful country. There’s a little beach that even though it was pretty windy some people were sun bathing and enjoying the nice day. Here’s some pictures of the area.
In addition to all my Kolding adventures Joe and I finally scheduled our Holidays. I love how they call it a Holiday here. It sounds so much nicer than vacation. So we’ll be taking two weeks of Holiday. The first one will start on my birthday! :) We’ll take the train to Copenhagen and Joe has whatever planned for that night (He of course won’t tell me) and then on Saturday June 26th we’ll be off and running. This first holiday will be Copenhagen, Warsaw, Krakow, Prague and Munich. We’ll come back to Kolding on July 4. I’m really excited about it! These are all places that Joe has been before which is good in some ways but our second Holiday will be all new cities! Holiday two will be July 9-18 and we’ll visit Paris, Valencia, Rome, Naples and Pompei. I’m so excited to go to Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain and France. This whole experience is so AMAZING!
If anyone has any suggestions about things to do, places to stay or good places to eat in any of these cities your suggestions are welcomed! :)
Tonight I booked one of the flights for Holiday 1 (the trip coming back). In an attempt to book the second flight I ended up getting frustrated. Every website here is in Danish (makes sense) well I still don’t read enough Danish to understand what the website is asking me so I had to copy and paste everything into google translate which got old quick. I was just about to be ready to check out when now I have to make a choice to pay with credit card and get charged more money for using a card, or to pay with a Denmark bank. Well Joe is at Danish class right now so I decide to just wait until he gets home because I don’t know what to do.
This weekend we’re planning on going for a bike ride along the bike trails by the beach and maybe doing a day trip somewhere or something. I think next week I’m going to visit Koldinghus and the art museum in Kolding. There’s a few other cities on the train route I’d like to explore too so I’ll find time for those trips as well!
Miss everyone back home.
Love from Amanda
I hope that things back in the states are going well for everyone. Things continue to be very comfortable and relaxed here in Denmark! :)
So ever the adventurous one this week has lead to a few new adventures :) On Tuesday I took the bus all by myself to visit Joe and have lunch with him at the factory. It was fun to ride up there and see him during the day since I don’t have much else going on most of the time. So we had a nice little lunch and then I headed over to Bilka to do some grocery shopping. Ever in the need for snacks I decided that in addition to the dinner ingredients for the evening I would find some crackers or other snacks and something dessert-y for us to have instead of ice cream that never would have made it home. :) So I wandered up and down the rows of Danish food and Danish words in search of snacks. I can upon some trail mix things which seemed interesting but not exactly what I wanted. So I finally found some crackers! We’re not talking about Triscuits or Wheat thins though, oh no! Crackers in Denmark are different! Here’s what I found. I quickly discovered that these crackers are better with something on them. So far I tried cheese and jelly both good choices.
Now I swear my whole blog is not going to be about food but I also have to share these treats too! These cookies right here are about the most amazing things in the world. KLM serves them to you on the plane as a snack. (The ones on the plane are a little more awesome because they’re covered with chocolate and also have white filling inside in addition to the chocolate) Needless to say these bad boys were 2 for 25 DKK (about $4) so I had to buy 2! Joe and I have been enjoying them as dessert each night!
Now aside from my grocery store adventures last night Joe and I took the train up to Fredericia (My mom’s best friend was there as a student!) and met a guy who was selling his wife’s bike. So equip with my not so shiny and new to me bike (his wife rode this bike 20km EVERYDAY to work and back) we rode the train back and now the adventures could begin.
So in search of something to do today I decide to take my new bike to the beach which isn’t too far from Joe’s apartment but way easier to get to on a bike than walking. So I packed some snacks, a book and water stuck that in my little basket and off I went. Good thing riding a bike is a skill you don’t forget since it’s been a while. I forgot how nice it is to just ride and feel the wind in your hair and enjoy the ride. So I got to the beach which for a Thursday afternoon there was a good number of people there. I picked a little spot out and parked myself there for a while. It was so beautiful! I love how gorgeous Denmark is. It’s such a beautiful country. There’s a little beach that even though it was pretty windy some people were sun bathing and enjoying the nice day. Here’s some pictures of the area.
In addition to all my Kolding adventures Joe and I finally scheduled our Holidays. I love how they call it a Holiday here. It sounds so much nicer than vacation. So we’ll be taking two weeks of Holiday. The first one will start on my birthday! :) We’ll take the train to Copenhagen and Joe has whatever planned for that night (He of course won’t tell me) and then on Saturday June 26th we’ll be off and running. This first holiday will be Copenhagen, Warsaw, Krakow, Prague and Munich. We’ll come back to Kolding on July 4. I’m really excited about it! These are all places that Joe has been before which is good in some ways but our second Holiday will be all new cities! Holiday two will be July 9-18 and we’ll visit Paris, Valencia, Rome, Naples and Pompei. I’m so excited to go to Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain and France. This whole experience is so AMAZING!
If anyone has any suggestions about things to do, places to stay or good places to eat in any of these cities your suggestions are welcomed! :)
Tonight I booked one of the flights for Holiday 1 (the trip coming back). In an attempt to book the second flight I ended up getting frustrated. Every website here is in Danish (makes sense) well I still don’t read enough Danish to understand what the website is asking me so I had to copy and paste everything into google translate which got old quick. I was just about to be ready to check out when now I have to make a choice to pay with credit card and get charged more money for using a card, or to pay with a Denmark bank. Well Joe is at Danish class right now so I decide to just wait until he gets home because I don’t know what to do.
This weekend we’re planning on going for a bike ride along the bike trails by the beach and maybe doing a day trip somewhere or something. I think next week I’m going to visit Koldinghus and the art museum in Kolding. There’s a few other cities on the train route I’d like to explore too so I’ll find time for those trips as well!
Miss everyone back home.
Love from Amanda
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