Mondays, Churches, and Lemonade

One very important thing to remember in Denmark is that museums tend to close on Mondays.  While in Aalborg to get my rental bike fixed at Monk’s eftf (they did what they could and were very nice in the end), I attempted to venture to the Aalborg History Museum and the Franciscan Friary.  Alas both were closed on Monday, and I was left with lemons.

To make some lemonade, I headed to Budolfi church.  I had been meaning to visit.  It’s gorgeous even from the outside.

I love how the church appears to stab at the rain clouds, forcing them away.

Beautiful white walls, and an imposing yet almost natural architecture as nooks protrude away from the main church and the steeple pierces the sky.  Walking in, immediately I was struck by similarities and differences.  Again, smells hit me first.  Churches always seem to smell the same to me: wood and smoky incense.  This church might smell like churches back home, but it far surpassed most of the churches I had seen before in beauty.  I just could not get over the organ’s ornate carvings, or the large pipes climbing up the walls.  Wood carvings are everywhere.  White-painted brick give way to lofty ceilings making every sound echo.  Everything was a work of art.  It is no wonder to me this church is open for visitors.

Budolfi Church. Between the architechture, wood carvings, and frescoes, the entire building is an artful masterpiece.

As my morning wore on, more tour groups came into the church.  I was glad I came early to miss most of them.  I was able to enjoy the serenity offered by such an revered place.

I meandered down the pedestrian street and found myself in an artist’s cove.  This artist had quite a few pieces on display.

These are some of the better pieces, I think. What do you think of the art?

They were not to my taste.  I felt there was little talent in the many gaudy sculptures.  Instead, I found a glass blower’s shop, which was supposed to show how glass is blown.  I love watching glass blowing.  There is something hypnotic about how the glass flows and molds into beautiful shapes.  When I was in Cains, Australia, I watched a glass blower for hours.  Eventually, I bought a small sea turtle from him before he closed up shop for the evening.  I would have loved to watch this Danish glass blower at work, her work was beautiful.  Instead, I just saved a butterfly from its hopeless attempt to fly through the glass window.

To my surprise, there is ONE museum open in Aalborg on Mondays: Utzon Center.  It’s a art gallery and museum dedicated to Jørn Utzon, who designed the Sydney Opera House.

Compare how the Utzon Center is modeled in its namesake’s architechture style.
Sydney Opera House Picture courtesy of McDaniel Woolf Architects from the below website.
http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/sydney-opera-house

They have some of Utzon’s plans for the Opera House as well as some of his other designs.  The exhibit in the gallery probably would have been a lot more interesting to me had I understood Danish, but I still enjoyed the art.

For lunch, I found myself up at the top of the Aalborg Tårnet.  The Tårnet is similar to Seattle’s Needle, very high, with a round observation deck at the top.  I’m afraid of heights.  Eating an entire meal this high off the ground was quite the feat for me, especially because I could feel the structure sway in the wind.  However, this was my one of my best bargain meals of the entire trip!  A mere 82 kr got me a filling lunch and a view!  I had pølsnermix (cut up hot dog mixed with fries), which I realized is really for two people, and an orange juice (in Danish, orange juice is appelsin juice, I thought I was getting apple juice).  With a 360 degree view of the entire city and beyond, it was definitely worth every kronor.

Bird’s-eye view of Aalborg from atop the Tårnet.

Despite the great view, my lunch was quite salty.  I bought a Fruit Likes Water — Peach and Passion Fruit — at the bus terminal before taking my exhausted self back to Asaa to sleep before I begin again tomorrow.  It wasn’t lemonade, but it did the job.

So, what are your thoughts?  What do you enjoy about churches?  Is your church open for visitors?  Have you visited the Utzon Center or the Tårnet?  What did you think of them?  When have you made lemonade from lemons in your journeys?

Changing Conclusions, Changing Perceptions, and Changing Plans

Remember when I said you have to continually reassess your conclusions?  Totally right.  On my first day galavanting around Aalborg, I checked in on the local castle.  I mean, it’s Europe, castles galore, right?  When I say castle what comes into your head?

Something like this, perhaps?

Neuschwanstein Castle
Image courtesy of Albatross Travel Group via http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/life/europe-winter-wonderland-travel-2649.html

So where does this fit in?

Aalborg Slot (Castle). Yup. That’s a Danish castle. Please Compare with the German castle above.

Not quite what you imagined, huh?  Not quite what I imagined either.  That right there is Aalborg Slot, or Aalborg Castle.  It’s actually quite a gorgeous piece of architecture.  I’m a big fan of the tunnel through the building to get to the courtyard filled with sunshine, grass, trees, and sometimes flowers.  It’s like a tunnel to some secret garden or something.  Maybe it’s the romantic in me.

Aalborg Slot and Courtyard. Looking at the reverse view of the picture above. Much prettier on this side, yes?

There were a couple of intriguing tunnels into the structure.  The first one I went inside had a wonderful history of the castle.

Aalborg Slot teaches us some history while we explore the short tunnel. At least it was informative?

I’m not too good with history, but from my memory (maybe I should have taken notes…Naahh) it was the county’s governor’s home and a granary for most of its life.  Due to some very persistent people in the government it survived demolition interested in historical preservation.  My favorite part was the two parent birds feeding and protecting their nestlings.

More mysteries! Danish bird yet to be identified by me (if you know, please tell me!) who was very keen on feeding and protecting its offspring with its partner in crime.

The other tunnels must have been geared to show something, but I couldn’t figure out what.  They were just long dark tunnels.  Then as yet another testament to Danish friendliness, a man showed me one little cavern at the end of a tunnel had a light in it.  The tunnels were empty though, not even a sign in Danish saying what was supposed to be in there.  One wing of the castle looked as if it could have contained a small library and a couple of stores, but I couldn’t really tell.  I enjoyed exploring it.  It doesn’t take long to visit, and you can hit up the Utzon Center or the harbour strip afterwards, both of which are just across the street.

I didn’t go to the Utzon Center that day (but I do recommend it, particularly if you can read Danish).  Instead I meandered down the harbour walk.  It was about lunchtime, and I was in search of something tasty.  The first few places I found were recommended by the Aalborg pamphlet I picked up.  These little tourist brochures are very helpful to start with, but I find they assume I have a bit more money than I do.  I kept walking.  I wasn’t that hungry anyway, and with the walking I could build an appetite.  My goal was to get to Egholm, an island in the middle of the Limfjord River.  The hiking there is supposed to be great, and I was looking forwards to the little ferry across the river.  On my hike there, I found Kystens Perle.

Part of visiting a new place is eating their food and speaking their language.  I don’t know Danish, but I try.  I learned a few key words.  I find that learning at least the most key word in any language can be helpful when talking with the locals.  Sure, maybe they know your native tongue, or you have some other mutual language you can share, but perhaps there is some word in their language that comes up a lot and is a nice polite thing to say.  In Danish, I would have to say it’s “tak.”  “Tak” means thank you, and the Danes use it A LOT.  I find when I use it, even if I carried my entire conversation in English, I usually get a nice smile as I leave.  I love this smile.  This means I made a friend.  (Hopefully this also means I’m de-corrupting the US stereotype of egotistical, obnoxious, uncaring, and non-globally aware too).

While at Kystens Perle, I was set on trying to blend in as much as I could.  After reading through the menu outside, I decided I could order a smørrebrød (Danish open faced sandwich).  I see it’s a seat yourself type of atmosphere, and so I find a place.  I watch the locals for cues, and the waitress swings on by.  She quickly realizes I don’t speak much Danish, and just hands me an English menu.  What a total let down!  I just spent probably 10 to 15 minutes (the best part is you probably think I’m joking…) reading that menu outside so I could figure out what I wanted in Danish!  Can you at least give me a shot?  No?  Fine, then I’m going to do my best to order something without an English name.  So I did.  I got a rullepølse smørrebrød, which is an open faced sandwich with a rolled sausage on top served with raw onions, some sort of jelly thing, and flavored mayonnaise.  Coke and Orange flavored sodas are quite popular, and since water costs just as much, I washed down my tasty sandwich with an orange soda.

Back to people watching for cues.  My smørrebrød came overflowing with toppings, so I knew it had to be eaten with a knife and fork.  The interesting part came when I saw other tables order burgers and those were also eaten with silverware.  Of course, the burgers were about two inches thick, so that might be why.  After eating, I relaxed a bit, watching others and trying to figure out how to pay.  Turns out, you get up to pay at a register when you’re ready.

I was on my way again!  Heading to the ferry for Egholm in full force now.  Too bad once I got there it was already 14h15 and the ferry only leaves every half hour.  No problem!  I could take the 14h30 and still have an hour on the island before I had to leave and start heading back to my BnB (my host was taking me salsa dancing — told you making friends with the Danes was easy!)  Well, in my daydreamy state, I missed the 14h30 ferry.  I cannot tell you how upset I was with myself.  I was looking at starfish and birds.  I mean, really?  What kind of distracted idiot am I?  So, instead of being on the ferry, I watched it from the shore.  Plan B.

Plan B was the Maritime Museum I passed on the way to the ferry.  I got the student price (always ask, ALWAYS).  The museum is pretty informative, most posts are in Danish, English, and German.  The real gem, however, is the Springeren, the submarine open for you to walk through.  They even have a diving alarm playing every 15 minutes.  It was pretty neat to see all the small, tightly packed machinery.  I can hardly imagine living on there with at least 30 other people.  They also have a gas turbine-torpedo boat that is on display, and a couple of other smaller boats.  The large war boats steal the thunder, and for me, the outside display in general was much more interesting than all the artefacts behind glass inside.  Outside there are mines (US, Danish, and German examples), anchors, boats, so I ended up spending much more time out there even though most didn’t have English descriptions (the large war boats were exceptions).

Springeren Submarine on display. I loved the little sign that prepares guests for the loud diving alarm that goes off every 15 minutes. Beware!

Check out some of the small machinery in this tightly packed alcove on the Springeren!

Moored mine, German. Produced in 1960, contains 38 explosive kg.

Once I finished there, I raced back to the BnB to get ready for salsa dancing!  We went to Latin Salsa Club and learned the Bachata.  The instructor was very nice and patient (even with my TERRIBLE dancing skills, well lack thereof).  He took the time to show me exactly what was going on; I’m fairly thick-skulled when it comes to dancing.  All the dancers were the same.  The boys were all patient with me learning the steps, and occasionally stepping on their toes.  Sorry boys!  I thoroughly enjoyed myself dancing and talking with everyone afterwards.

I changed a lot during this adventurous day.  I changed my conclusions about castles, my perceptions on food, and my plans.  How often do you change things around when you travel?  Does traveling give you new thoughts, ideas?  Do you often find yourself looking to Plan B (or C, D, E, etc… as in my case usually)?