The Old Town - Aarhus, Denmark

Perhaps my favorite museum visit, ever, was to Den Gamle By in Aarhus on Jutland. Besides the fact that I love old buildings, I had just the right conditions for visiting this place. I arrived almost an hour before they opened, and the guy at the gate let me in so I got to walk around and imagine myself traveling back in time several hundred years without tourists ruining the illusion. By the time I left a couple hours later, The Old Town was filling up and the ambiance had totally changed.

I believe today’s photo is the inner garden surrounded by “The Mayor’s House” (aka “The Old Mayor’s Residence” or “The Merchant’s House”). This building dates back to the 16th Century and was moved to its current location in 1914 as the first building in Den Gamle By.

Posted on June 9th, 2012 under Denmark. Tags: aarhus, den gamle by, museums, Nikon 18-200mm VR II. Comments Off on The Old Town (Den Gamle By)

A little different than yesterday’s viking axes, today’s photo is from Denmark. Inside the Moesgård Museum on Jutland you can find these beauties. The museum is most famous for its bog body known as Grauballe Man. I’ll have to get photos of him up on here soon.

Posted on April 12th, 2012 under Denmark. Tags: jutland, Moesgard Museum, museums, Nikon 18-200mm VR II, nikon d7000, vikings. Comments Off on Viking Axes

From central Oslo you can catch a ferry over to Bygdøy to check out the Viking Ship Museum (Vikingskipshuset på Bygdøy). There isn’t much in the museum except for three, original, viking ships. All three are very cool, but I like this one the best. Perhaps the finest find of the Viking Age, you can read more about the Oseberg ship here.

Posted on February 4th, 2012 under Other. Tags: museums, Nikon 18-200mm VR II, nikon d7000, norway, oslo, vikings. Comments Off on Viking ship (Oseberg ship) in the Viking Ship Museum

Seeing people kiss in Tokyo, or anywhere in Japan, is a rather rare occurrence. Head over to Ueno in Tokyo, though, and you’ll be able to see not just any kiss but this rather famous one.

Several versions of Rodin’s sculpture can be found in the world. I’ve also seen “The Kiss” in Paris and a marble version in Copenhagen. The bronze version, pictured above, is more common.

Posted on January 21st, 2012 under Japan. Tags: museums, National Museum of Western Art, ueno. Comments: 1

Anne Frank House Secret Annex from Westertoren

“Monday, July 26, 1943

Dearest Kitty,

Yesterday was a very tumultuous day, and we’re still all wound up. Actually, you may wonder if there’s ever a day that passes without some kind of excitement.

The first warning siren went off in the morning while we were at breakfast, but we paid no attention, because it only meant that the planes were crossing the coast. I had a terrible headache, so I lay down for an hour after breakfast and then went to the office at about two. At two-thirty Margot had finished her office work and was just gathering her things together when the sirens began wailing again. So she and I trooped back upstairs. None too soon, it seems, for less than five minutes later the guns were booming so loudly that we went and stood in the passage. The house shook and the bombs kept falling. I was clutching my “escape bag,” more because I wanted to have something to hold on to than because I wanted to run away. I know we can’t leave here, but if we had to, being seen on the streets would be just as dangerous as getting caught in an air raid. After half an hour the drone of engines faded and the house began to hum with activity again. Peter emerged from his lookout post in the front attic, Dussel remained in the front office, Mrs. van D. felt safest in the private office, Mr. van Daan had been watching from the loft, and those of us on the landing spread out to watch the columns of smoke rising from the harbour. Before long the smell of fire was everywhere, and outside it looked as if the city were enveloped in a thick fog.”

I’m guessing that the little window in the center of today’s photo is one of the windows those hiding in the Secret Annex were looking through during the above quoted air raid. Perhaps it is the loft window?

Tomorrow I’ll wrap up Anne Frank week with a wider angle view of this same location showing the canal and the long line of tourists waiting to get into the Anne Frank Museum.

Posted on September 8th, 2011 under Other. Tags: amsterdam, anne frank, museums. Comments Off on Anne Frank House Secret Annex from Westertoren