For some reason in the last post I don't think I mentioned the tour my Danish class took of the Christiansborg Castle last Wednesday. It is the 3rd castle that has stood in that spot because the first 2 burned down. 3rd times the charm :) It is beautiful. First we went downstairs and looked at ruins from the first castle. The walls were so thick to keep enemies from getting through and they had a very extensive system of pipes that got not very clean water all the way from a lake north of the city into the castle. My camera actually died during this visit but I got a few videos with my ipod. Let's see if I can get them on here. Ignore my dialouge...sorry about that. Someone asked me a question right before I took the video and this was the only good shot of the outside.
Excellent, well that was just the outside of the castle. To the left and right of where I was standing are the "wings" of the castle and that is now where parliament resides. All of the ministers, I believe they are called, conduct meetings and rule the country from there. The Royal family no longer lives at this castle, but the Queen still comes here to host large parties a few times a year or have meet and greets with various important people from all over the world.
Fortunately, we got to go on a tour of the second floor where they host these parties, and we got to wear these goofy blue plastic booty things to keep the floors clean. Unfortunately, once you get up there, where all of the really beautiful things are, you aren't allowed to take pictures or anything. . I just wish I could show you one picture of a chandelier. There must have been 50giant, beautiful and unique chandeliers throughout the various rooms. Each of them has countless crystals that have to be taken one by one downstairs to be polished once a year. I bet it takes the entire year just to clean all of them...and then they have to start the process all over! Besides the chandeliers, we also saw a library full of old books in many languages and as students in Copenhagen, if we wanted to check a book out from that library, we could! Not sure if I'll ever want to read such a book in it's original Latin, but it's nice to know it's available :) And I can't forget the amazing tapestries lining the walls. Each room was decorated in a different color with such intricate designs. The large ballroom, where all the guests eat dinner at a party, has 17 tapestries that were designed by artist Bjørn Nørgaard. The tapestries were woven in France and it took at least 10 years to make all of them! They depict scenes from the Viking Age, the Middles Ages, the Absolute Monarchy, the Reformation, World War II, the Present and even the Future. There is one with Queen Margrethe and her husband Prince Henri portrayed as Adam and Eve. It is quite the sight. The one we looked at very closely was the last one and it has the most current information. It has portraits of many Danish leaders as well as world leaders (including, but not limited to, JFK, Einstein, Neils Bohr, Satre, etc). It was more fascinating than I ever expected. The guide said these tapestries are a great way for Danish schoolchildren to learn about history, instead of through boring textbooks. I agree.
Ok, that was much longer than I expected but hopefully you enjoyed it.
Later on Wednesday I went on a trip with my 20th and 21st century Danish Architecture class. We went to Christianshavn, which is on the island of Amger, and looked at some housing developments right near the water. We analyzed who they were made for, whether they seem to be used and enjoyed and if there could be changes that would make them more "family-friendly" and so forth. Here are a few pictures from that trip.
It's probably hard to get the idea of that development but it was basically all of these nice apartments connected by an inner walkway but it is totally open to the sky...that is why there is snow on the ground. It is a really cool idea but we talked about how people might not make use of the space because it doesn't get enough direct sunlight. Also, there are grassy areas outside so kids would most likely want to play over there and not stay in the cement common area. Anyway, I thought it was very pretty and not at all like something you would see in the states. Oh, and there is a boat dock directly behind where I was when I took this picture so you can just walk out of your apartment, go down a few steps, hop into your kayak and be on an adventure. Pretty cool :)
So that lengthy update brings up to the weekend and my Roskilde trip! DIS organizes a lot of trips and tours at the beginning of the semester so we can do all those fun tourist-y things. Roskilde used to be the capitol of Denmark, from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. In the early 11th century (or around there) Harold Bluetooth (Viking king) erected a wooden church there. Since then, there have been 2 or maybe 3 churches in the same spot, and now there is a beautiful cathedral that is a mix of Romanesque, Gothic and other styles from each century.
There are at least 22 Kings and Queens buried in the Roskilde Cathedral (or I should say underneath the cathedral). Here are some of the more recent royal family members:
The Queen has a beautiful sarcophagus that she has approved. It is waiting to be built, but we saw a model and it is very elegant.
Here is a picture from outside the cathedral looking out to the water, so pretty:
Ok, on to the Viking museum:
The quick and dirty version of the story is that some number of years ago the Danes discovered something at the bottom of the fjord. After much work, they realized there were viking ships down there. They began the projecting of making a man-made island around where these boats were and ever so slowly they began to disassemble the ships.. After being in the water for so long, the wood was basically the consistency of foam...if disturbed it would just dissolve. So they had to submerse the wood in a glycol (?not so sure if that is correct) substance that sucked the water out and held the molecules together. Annnnyway...once they did that they were able to put the boats back together. Everyone expects the ships to be complete and amazing, but they left them exactly as they found them, incomplete, but still very impressive. Oh wait, I bet you are wondering why all these ships were at the bottom of the fjord. Well, the Vikings were clever and they sunk them so enemies could not pass through. The Vikings themselves knew how to navigate their way around them but these blockades did a great job of protecting the capitol of Roskilde. How genius! It's especially awesome that they sunk 5 different kinds of ships so we now have a much better insight into Viking life.
Fun fact: Vikings didn't actually wear the helmets with the horns...just plain helmets. I know, I could hardly believe it.
I feel as though I can't write coherently right now and I have all sorts of wonderful things to say so I will go get myself a cup of tea (et kop te) and calm my brain before writing about Sunday and this week.
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