The Danish Chair

Time and time again I am struck by the beauty and simplicity, not to mention the comfort of the chairs that I encounter, be it in a train station, a little café or a fancy hotel. Here are a few of the beauties.

A day exploring Aarhus

 First things first, the theatre. A great space in an old school building. Some poaters around town that seem to imply that there is a show coming.

 

Peter has a real art for routing out the interesting and off the beaten track places in a new town. This one is another free roaming space that must have been railway land. People have now made homes and workshops out of railway cars there is a communal space in the old customs building as well as showers and toilets and little gardens and playgrounds tucked in and around. It is all a very intriguing mix of anarchy and order.

This building houses a big flea market and some artist's studios. The sloping roof s much like the deck of a ship.

This is a truly amazing space, a glorified 'free store', a place where one can bring things that are no longer wanted and collect things that one might need - all free of charge. Again, housed in containers, each container contains one sort of item - books, sports equipment, furniture, kitchen stuff, children's toys, etc. Each container is impeccably organised and an inviting space to be as you see by this sitting space in the book container. Some of the containers even have green roofs! Ils sont fou ces Danois!

This is a recycling education centre - all made of recycled windows.

The danish do seem to be a rule abiding nation. Here are some of the rules!

There is lots of art about town. Here this is a moving mobile structure, each of the three arms turns independently.

The opera house and it's very fine door.

Arriving in Aarhus

Just off the train.

My home for the next five days.

Out the window. Aarhus is the second biggest town in Denmark (after Copenhagen). It certainly has the feel of a bigger city.

Odense

Here we are again on the train between towns. We have done this stretch of track three times on this trip. We are getting to know it! Odense was a beautiful town.  The name Odense comes from the nordic god Odin - it means Odin's town. We had bright sunny days, the spring flowers are all in bloom, there is a lovely river through town - great for running along. It was a short stay, two and a half days with two shows and so our time to look around was limited but here is some of what I saw...

These narcissi are all around town. Joy full greetings!

Hands Christen Anderson comes from Odense and he seems to be it's principle claim to fame. Here we are in front of the house where Anderson grew up - I think it belonged to his grandmother.

This is our hotel - Motel Ansgarhus

My room is the balcony on the right. I didn't spend much time there but what a treat, to have a place to sit in the sun in my own room.

My lovely little room.

 Momentum theatre

We don't often see this. Two nights completely sold out. The presenter here said that they could easily have filled a third show too. I was very impressed with the audiences here. They are very educated and cultured and are obviously used to seeing all sorts of performances. The theatre does a great job at making a welcome space for people to come and see and share.

This is the smallest theatre that we have done so far with PRISMES. It was a bit of a squeeze but we ended up fitting it all in.

Some colours

 I had two great runs along the river. The first morning that I was out I came across this... a tiger! It turns out that there is a zoo on either side of the river so as I was running along I saw tigers and camels and giraffes, monkeys, and ostriches... not our usual companions on our morning runs!

One of the runs along the river the others went by bicycle and I ran along. We discovered this installation, part art object, part teeter totter.

There are all sorts of childrens's parks - for children young and old! 

Aalborg

Second stop on our tour - here is Aalborg up almost as far north as you can get in Denmark. Allborg is an industrial port city with an old center and lots of huge industrial sites as well as lots of new buildings of architectural interest if not always success!

Here, to begin, the view from our room (I was sharing with Elinor)...

Out the left window you see the beginning of the older town, out the right window you see the enormous Nordkraft center. The theatre where we were performing is in there as well as art studios, cinemas, restaurants, student centres, a gym, a library, it seems that there is a whole town in that building alone! The building used to be a coal burning electric power plant. Quite an improvement!

Here, looking further to the right, you can see the new opera house. A very imposing building. I think that it tries a little too hard at being grandiose without quite succeeding. 

University buildings - I think that these are more interesting.

Here is the opera house from the front. There is a definite Frank Gary influence.

Funny that they have to illustrate their point!

 I stumbled upon this, or rather this series of buildings which I thought very beautiful contemporary design. It turns out that it is the Jorn Utzon center. Jorn Utzon is the architect who designed the sidney opera house and many other gems. He comes from Aalborg and was the son of a ship builder and one can certainly see the shapes of the boats in his designs.

All the buildings sit around this inner courtyard. The center houses Utzon's firm (now run by one of his children) as well as a gallery and café and recital space.

Utzon Center with some daffodils 

I did make it to tango in Aalborg. It was a very fun evening but all I have to show for it is this picture taken as I walked across a very windy bridge on my way there.

The flowers in the streets were all like this. Something that I have not seen before.  The earth is mounded up high and the pansies and tulips are planted all over - solves having to deal with the relative height of the plants.

The old streets are tiny. From a distance they look dwarf size.

Our hotel - "Hotel Aalborg" right across the street from Nordkraft.

Alex, Peter and Elinor - the three musketeers  - I am the fourth!

The sun is setting across the fjord. 

Led by Peter, we rented some bikes for an hour from the hotel and rode off to the outskirts of Aalborg to this chalk mine. So nice to be out on two wheels. Such freedom!

Chalk mining in process.

Three intrepid cyclists.

Our rented steeds.

Nordkraft and the music house - two imposing buildings side by side.

Just to prove that we are in fact working here. Here are some pictures inside the theatre in rehearsal.

Daffodils in the sun.

Goodbye Aalborg!