If you’ve been reading this blog since the beginning you are probably wondering how I have gone through over forty blog entries on Denmark without mentioning Danishes (as in the pastries). Well, we didn’t ignore them even if I haven’t brought them up yet. In fact, we probably had almost one a day.

What we in the states refer to as “Danishes” is called “wienerbrod” here. I had one before each class on campus at the Copenhagen Business School canteen that was simply divine. I never got tired of “my Danish” or tried a different variety. It was simply perfect in every way. This Danish of mine didn’t necessarily look any different from those in the states, but it tasted much better. The croissant-like edges melted in my mouth and the jam was unlike anything I’ve had before.

The above photograph is of my kids in the pastry shop just around the corner from our Frederiksberg apartment. They enjoyed the cookies as well as the pastries, and, as you can see, could become quite transfixed by the sight of them.

The shop owner, above, assembled our choices as our mouths watered in anticipation.

I miss Denmark.

Posted on August 10th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: copenhagen, food, frederiksberg, living in copenhagen, pictures. Comments: None

The land at the top of the above picture is Sweden across the Oresund Sound from Denmark.

After seeing everything at Louisiana Museum for Modern Art (Moderne Kunst‎) we spent a few hours at the beach right next to the museum (and visible from many locations in the museum). We exited the beach by going up a long flight of stairs to the south. This put us on a street called Gammel Strandvej.

The homes on this street started out small and cute and then went on to become large and opulent.

Humlebaek, where the musuem is located, turns out to be a rather wealthy community. Gammel Strandvej is loaded with amazing houses overlooking the Oresund Straight.

Instead of heading for the main road back to train station we opted to walk Gammel Strandvej to check out the dwellings of Humlebaek residents. At the end of the street you make a right and you’ll be at the train station anyway. In other words, if you visit Louisiana don’t just take the main road (with nothing interesting to see) to and from the museum. Get off on a side street and see how the affluent Danes live.

The above house had garages for three cars and a Mercedes parked in the driveway. That may not seem like much to make a deal about in the U.S., but you have to realize that most people in Denmark don’t have cars (nor do they need them). Those that do usually only have one for an entire household. Having three is really unnecessary and seems to be saying little more than that the owner has money to burn.

A tax of sorts is placed on purchased cars in Denmark at almost 200% of the auto’s purchase price (which is already ridiculous in U.S. dollars). In other words, these cars cost over US$100,000 each, maybe over $200,000 each. Some luxury cars in Denmark, after the tax, cost over $300,000 even though they would be well under six figures in the U.S.

And if you think gas prices in the U.S. are high, you should also consider that Danes are paying almost three times as much for gas as Americans.

Further down the street there was a house with four garages, each with an identical Mercedes parked therein. I couldn’t believe it.

This last picture has a sign saying “Lille Hus” or Little House. I guess they want their neighbors to think that their Big House is somewhere else. Maybe it is.

Posted on August 9th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: beach, pictures. Comments: 1

Purchasing tickets for Denmark’s train system is one of the more unusual things about Denmark. There are so many different ticket options and prices to go from Point A to Point B that it leaves your head spinning. You never know if a given trip on the train will be cheap or expensive. Copenhagen Business School was paying for our trip to Louisiana so I didn’t have to worry, but before I found out they were paying I did a little research.

We could buy an all-day pass for 115 DKK each (about US$25). We could purchase one-way zone passes for 80 DKK each way. Or we could purchase tickets along with an entrance to the museum for 160 DKK round trip. I’m sure there were a dozen other options using other passes or klip variations or . . . The bottom line is that you never know how much a trip will cost, if you may get lucky and get a special that is going on that day, or if you go to a different ticket agent they may know of another less expensive way to get to your destination. It’s a crap shoot.

I prefer the Japanese system in which you always know the price and the price is much cheaper than in Denmark. For instance, to travel the distance we traveled to Louisiana from Copenhagen we’d pay no more than about US$5 in Japan. Here the price, again depending on the ticket agent of the day, ranges from about $12 to about $20.

Louisiana Modern Art Museum (Moderne Kunst in Danish) is in a beautiful setting in the town of Humlebaek (also spelled Humelbaek). I’m not a big fan of modern art; in fact, much of it does absolutely nothing for me. However, the settings for some of the pieces here really do make the works far more interesting than they would be on their own.

My kids pushed a button near the above work. Nothing happened. Then, about 10 seconds later, the bell started slamming the metal man in the head over and over again causing a huge noise that seemed totally out of place in this quiet museum. My kids freaked out. They thought security would be all over them. I’m not sure how this is art, but it did make things interesting.

You never know which of the museum’s Andy Warhol collections will be out on display. They have three. One is the “Marilyn” collection (which we’ve seen examples of in a museum at BYU). Another is “Flowers” (which we have seen examples of at the Smithsonian in DC). The third is what we saw at Louisiana, “Mao.”

I thought this last one was going to have a different title than it did. This work is called “Eyes” and is by Louise Bourgeois. There is also a very cool Bourgeois spider sculpture at Louisiana.

When my kids could take no more (actually they had a great time on the very long slide here and there is a workshop with lots of stuff for kids to do) we headed to the adjacent beach. More on that in tomorrow’s entry . . .

Posted on August 8th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: andy warhol, beach, copenhagen, living in copenhagen, museums, pictures. Comments: 2

I didn’t feel great about entering this last one. From the exterior it looked like it could come down at any minute. It reminded me of the nursery rhyme,
“There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse.
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.”

The whole Danish country side reminds me of nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

Posted on August 7th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: copenhagen, living in copenhagen, museums, pictures, thatch roof. Comments: None

Frilandsmuseet (or the Open-Air Museum in English) was not even mentioned in our guidebooks (and we have three different ones). Therefore, we weren’t expecting much. I loved the place though. It should not only be mentioned, in my opinion, it should be a recommendation for those with more than a few days in Copenhagen.

You can ride a bike there from downtown Copenhagen as it is under 10 miles away. Alternatively, you can take the train or bus to the Kongens Lyngby area. We took the train to Lyngby Station and then caught a bus (184 or 194) that dropped us off right in front of the place. To avoid missing the stop, like we did at Frederiksborg, we asked the bus driver how we would know to get off. He told use that he would say, “NOW!” and sure enough he did.

This museum is quite different from any that I’ve been to before. It is well over 100 years old and features buildings that are as much as 400 years old. Instead of wandering around rooms in a building looking at things you wander around outside and look at how people lived hundreds of years ago in Denmark’s past.

If your imagination isn’t so good you can go to about four different houses where they have live actors playing the parts of peasants or other roles in old Danish society. The actors were a lot of fun. They interact with the visitors as well (and in English if you let them know you don’t speak Danish).

The character players also put on a non-spoken play that was very well done. The skit was quite humorous, and it really did take you back. I felt, at numerous times during the day, that I was hundreds of years in the Danish, rural past.

You can walk through the buildings as well. We only had time to explore about half of the 60+ buildings. I don’t think you can do it all in one day. Some of the buildings were from nearby islands and Sweden as well. Most were from the 1600s and 1700s, and I believe all of them had thatched roofs.

The interiors were decorated to look like various eras. Perhaps most were from the 1800s. They were all authentic, rather than mere reproductions. Apparently when you are ready to rip down an ancient building in Denmark you can call this place, and they will take it for you.

The price is right too. It costs nothing.

Afterwards we decided to walk back to the train station instead of take the bus. This was a good idea and highly recommended if you are physically able to walk a few miles. Head west for some marvelous lakes. Head south for some nice parks (completely empty compared to those closer to Copenhagen). We ended up at a place called “Badfarten” which provided much fodder for 10-year old jokes and photo opportunities.

There is a pretty canal at Badfarten. You can hop in a boat there and tour the canal and connected lakes if you can stand the smell. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Actually, Badfarten smells just fine. We didn’t have time to do the boat ride (and didn’t want to part with more of our Danish Kroners), but I wouldn’t mind doing so on a subsequent visit.

If you want a quick trip to somewhere more rural than downtown Copenhagen or if you’d like to travel through Danish time, this is the place to do so.

I’ll post some more photographs of the old structures in tomorrow’s blog entry.

Posted on August 6th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: copenhagen, living in copenhagen, museums, pictures. Comments: None