Aarhus (4-7 April 2013)

I was in Aarhus(Åarhus), Denmark for a few days recently for a conference.  It is a smaller town than Copenhagen, population-wise, but I had the feeling that every bend I turned around there were more cool, tiny non-mainstream shops and awesome restaurants. They also have a pretty solid tourism-bureau presence (their 'slogan' is "Take a moment with Aarhus") and an app I can totally recommend that has offline maps of town that sync up with your GPS (if you allow it), so you can watch where you are on said map.

Here's one of the streets with cute little shops (ala google maps):

View Larger Map

And a view down another street to an odd mural of a lady being fed by a seagull:

weird mural of lady being fed by bird

I don't speak Danish, but was told by the foreign Danish-speakers that the people of Aarhus are much easier to understand (and be understood by),  basically because they actually say all parts of their words. E.g. in Copehagen, the Strøget is said, roughly "Stroy" and in Aarhus, "Stroyet".

AAHUS, which is roughly how you say Århus

The way from the hotel (Cabinn Scandinavia, Aarhus) to the department walked us (mainly) past this thing/sculpture, which I was ambivalent about:
View Larger Map


In case you weren't around for my original (from 2008) copenhagen adventures, you can read them starting here, which includes a stay in one of the Cabinn's in Copenhagen (there are several there), sharing a very small room with three other people.  Here's the room ('clearly' meant for four people, with the four beds) I stayed in in Aarhus:

Cabinn -- those are four beds. The two bunch beds are folded in against the wall

Also, because I don't know where else to put it, a random mural we came across when walking to dinner:

I don't know. 

There's also a museum that Aarhus is very proud of (ARoS), atop which sits this circular spectrum of colors that you can walk around and view Aarhus through. Their picture is much better than mine, due to the perspective which includes the harbor. Quite nice.

famous spectrum thingy atop a museum there

I have to catalog somewhere the crazy places I ate out at.

The first night, we went out for BBQ, at the most authentic BBQ place I've been to outside of where I lived in Illinois, or in Austin TX. This was Aarhus' "Memphis Roadhouse" (here's their yelp page), located along a river/canal near the hotel. I admit, I had some trouble understanding the waitress's English. I think words like "Burnt Ends" and "Misssisssipi Mud Pie" are kind of hard.  It was absolutely delicious, and they even managed to have hot sauce too hot for me (uncommon over here).  They also had sweet tea (it was too late at night for me to feel up for some, sadly), and even a gospel brunch on sundays.

We also ate out at Mackie's (website has pictures of the interior).  I split some super giant nachos and had a beer. Others had pizza and whatnot. The inside was strangely decorated, a weird scavenged-from-yardsales feel that reminded me of Chuy's. Their ''gimmick" is that they refuse to serve you utensils with your pizza, insisting that you eat it (American-style) with your hands. The pizza crust itself looked too thick to be NY style and too thin to be what I think of as "delivery-style" (e.g. Papa John's), but had some very tasty-looking possible combos of toppings. 

"Mackie's is an American inspired cafe and restaurant where one's eyes will always find something new to look at while food is being prepared. Come in and enjoy the good food and atmosphere in one Mickey's lifetime collection of rock legends, movie stars, football star, American Indian, the Buddha and our sweet staff."

Den Gamle By ("The Old Town"):
So, on day 1 I got in early and did some touristing. I went to Den Gamle By, which is the Danish answer to the though "Hey,town (insert name) doesn't have enough old stuff." That is, old buildings from Aarhus and further afield in Denmark (e.g. Aalborg) were moved, originally brick-by-brick, and now cut like big slices of cake and moved almost whole-sale, to Aarhus.

a building being assembled

I thought it was delightful, even with the 15 euro admission (which makes sense, when you think of the
work put into transport and reconstruction).

I kind of like the absurd modern building in the background.

quaint shops and buildings, near the (functioning) baker

some geese in the half-frozen pond in the middle

more quaintness

Warehouse. 1550. Something famous about the construction that didn't make much sense to me.

I enjoyed their blurb about the following Victorian-style living room:

"Cosiness, a mixture of styles and an excess of furniture, pictures, bric-a-brac and houseplants. In order to make more space, much of the furniture was placed diagonally...Wallpapers and textiles were large patterend as well as many patterned. This furniture belongs together": 

Victorian-style living room, 1890s.

I really liked the bold color choices made on walls and in wallpaper. E.g.
The blue walls in a hat-makers shop:

Mid 19th C hat-maker's shop

The awesome (original?) wallpaper in a clock makers shop:

19thC clockmakers shop and workshop. The wallpaper is of a similar age.

The rich red of the tobacconist:

Mid 19thC Tobacconist. This sort of shop was somehow snooty/high-class.

The bright yellow of another room somehow involved in the tobacco/cigar-production facility:

part of the same tobacco/cigar shop/complex.

Also in Den Gamle By were various other shops, including the following for yarn/cloth:

yarn/dying workshop

I did not take a picture of the baker, in part because it was actually a functioning bakery and I felt a bit weird taking a picture of a place & person without asking first.

Here's a view down a side-street:

view down a side street

And this was above a doorway:

It looks like a bear is getting into the beer?

One of the houses/rooms was set up as a shop. People tended to bring their lunches and their employer would often sell them something to drink. This was the counter of such a drink-selling-area. The flasks below the counter are labeled as "Aquavit" ((popular) Danish spirit):

counter to buy some drinks

The room where people would eat and drink had a fireplace with an inscription above it that something like how they hoped the fire would burn, but not higher than it should (and then burn your food):

something about wanting the fire to burn high/sure, but not higher than it's supposed to (i.e. don't burn the food or the whole place down). 

I enjoyed the Museum-within-the museum:

Museum in a museum 

Which was set up according to sketches they had of an 1820s-era Danish museum

Not a great pic; included for the "forrige aarhundrede" label 

woo pottery 

I have to say, I think I prefer modern museums that try to tell stories. These were just sort of shelves with stuff on them, behind glass, and hardly any labels.

Moving on, we had still other shops and combination living-working quarters.

a post office, with real messenger bags! 

The following is a pretty swank (in my opinion) teacher's room. I think the couch looks especially nice (the wood, at least, and the cushion was at some point nice):

schoolteacher's living quarters, adjacent/in the same building as the schoolroom

The schoolroom (which I didn't get a good picture of) talked a bit about education and how it used to be very informal (children teaching younger children) until at some point some king passed a law mandating public education, and this introduced requirements about the people doing the teaching.

Moving on to more modern stuff, some signs:

Sale! Cheapest prices (~ billigste Preisen)! Biggest selection (~größter Auswahl)!

Drink Jutland beer in Jutland (?)

Nearby there was another museum-in-museum, this one for delftware and clocks, next to one for posters.

I enjoyed the delftware story. Apparently the king (Fred IV) was not happy that the Netherlands were making all the delftware than Denmark was buying, so he granted a certain company exclusive rights for 30 years (starting in 1722) to make all the delftware in Denmark (in hopes of encouraging people to buy Danish-made stuff).  The first manager, in 1725, stole all of the blue cobalt pigment (which was freshly acquired and super expensive) to set up his own factory in Sweden. Life went on, and after the monopoly was repealed, the place shut down for good. For the record, it was made in Kellinghusen, which is west of Itzehoe, in Schleswig-Holstein, which was nominally 'Danish' at the time.

so, creepy delftware.

There was a big Danish sea battle in 1677. In honor of it, they made a giant medallion (diam of 12.8 cm, weighs 457g and made of 24 carat gold). It is "the largest, and, technically speaking, the most perfect numismatic item ever struck in Denmark" (translation: biggest and most awesome coin minted in Denmark):

giant coin-medal

Also, a nod to the clock part of the museum: A map of denmark with clocks which are somehow characteristic of the specific regions:

Denmark clocks

Back to the streets and out-of-doors.

I enjoyed this little street of shops, including the travel bureau:

travel bureau

I don't know what the people who were persuaded to go to the states by this poster ended up actually experiencing, but I hope it was awesome:

America! All indians, all the time!

There was also a door covered in old signs (showing that Roskilde has been going on since at least the 70s):

I also enjoyed the retro-style mural advert for "jolly cola" next to the advert for the place itself (Besøg is pretty clearly "Besuch", meaning "visit"):

I'd definitely be up for visiting again, hopefully getting to see a bit more of the town. Seems like a great place.

Munich (Easter Weekend - 29.03- 01.04)

I recently had two smallish trips, one to Munich in Bavaria, the southernmost 'state' of Germany and the other to Aarhus, Denmark. I'll start with the trip to Munich, which happened "Easter Weekend".

Munich (München)

Every house in Munich (not really, but it kinda felt like that)

Here in Germany, Easter Friday (Karfreitag) and Easter Monday (Ostermontag) and, of course, Easter Sunday -- are all national holidays. I feel a bit weird enjoying having a day off due to someone's religion, but, hey, days off are awesome.

Having not yet been to the region of Germany from which all our cultural German stereotypes arise, I figured it was high time to go wade through crowds of dirndl-wearing ladies carrying giant mugs of beer, while being serenaded by mustachioed oompa-oompa bands.

And, of course, eat lots of delicious artery-clogging food. Like schweinshaxe (pigs ankle) and spannferkel (roasted pig(let?)).

yum

The first Bavarian food eaten was at Zum Dürnbräu, clearly sort of family-run place. The waitresses were in varying dirndls and the barman in a well-worn lederhosen get-up.

We stayed in an awesome hotel, which was picked due to it's super-connectedness (major S-Bahn, U-Bahn, Bus and Tram hub), it's good rates, and the reviews online that insisted it was quiet.

The main things we saw in Munich were Schloß Nymphenburg, the English Garden and the Deutsches Museum.

(a) Schloß Nymphenburg 

As you approach:


The pond out front was still semi-frozen. It was fun watching this duck walk around, fall in, then clamber up and walk some more on a slab of ice, etc.


Schloß Nymphenburg was the/a summer residence for the local royalty. We never did make it to the main residence (called "the Residence") in town, so I can't compare the two.  A few exhibits were closed down, so we just opted for an audio guide and the sort of 'basic' area.

Here's a view from the main entrance looking back to the approach. Apparently, the wooden box thing is the winter cover for a statue. Clever idea, protecting the from the elements.



View out the back:



The palace was originally built by/for someone in honor of having a kid/boy. That's where all the really elaborate murals come from. The rest of the furnishings and busts and whatnot were apparently much later. Here we go, internet to the rescue:

To celebrate the birth of their son and heir, Elector Ferdinand Maria and his consort Henriette Adelaide of Savoy appointed architect Agostino Barelli to build them a summer residence west of Munich. 

Here's the mural ceiling in the main hall. Oriented the pic so that the picture is rightside-up, counter to the hanging chandeliers:



More of the main ballroom:


Bed where either Ludwig I or II was born:


Another famous bed:



The bedrooms (including this one) had side rooms, where the rooms' owner would only allow very dear/close friends to come hang out. This was called the 'china cabinet' due to its decoration:


It influenced the decoration of a nearby room (antechamber?) as well:





One of the big attractions is a 'Gallery of Beauty' that Ludwig I (I really like this portrait; he really looks like a ladies' man to me in it) had had commissioned, collecting portraits of ladies of all ranks and sorts who he thought looked lovely.

Gallery of Beauty

Some of the ladies had accompanying stories in the audioguide.
E.g. The former lady Ellenburg:


She 'loved adventure' and 3 or 4 husbands later, ended up in Damascus, converted to Islam and married to a sheik/sultan.

This one was the daughter of a cobbler, who got a job delivering toys for a toy-maker (the king saw her when she was delivering toys for the royal children). The costume is a snazzied up version of Bavarian clothes at the time (most likely commissioned by the king for the portrait) and would probably work just fine (although maybe a bit modest) at a modern Oktoberfest, I think:




This lady was trouble:

Lola Montez

 She was originally born in Ireland, one parent British, and auditioned for the dance company in Munich but was turned down, I think. She had decided to pretend to be Spanish, for whatever reason (increase her allure? Maybe Spain was 'exotic'). So, failing to get work as a dancer, she went to petition the (then in his 60's or so) king, Ludwig I. As she approached the throne, she 'fainted', which apparently really caught his attention. Then began a torrid affair that pissed everyone off, since his wife was super popular (so the people weren't happy about him cheating on her) and he did the standard 'elevate favorite to royalty' thing by giving her some land and a title, which was the rest of the annoyance. This then led to a bit of a rebellion that resulted in him stepping down from the throne.


(b) Munich downtown/English Garden

Down/old-town Munich is pretty cute and quaint.

brightly colored houses!

I enjoy the patterning (paint? Wallpaper?) on this tower thing

Whatever it is, it dates back to 1264.

We ate at Augustiner am Platzl on Saturday, since the Hofbräuhaus was packed to the brim, including the only group of mustachioed lederhosen-wearing men I saw the whole time (who also happened to be in an oompa-oompa-band) and a lot of people singing

"In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus,
eins, zwei, (words I don't remember)"

[Here's a short video of someone walking into/through the place].

The food at Augustiner was tasty. The place was super busy, including a table of stereotypically loud and clueless-sounding American teenage boys nearby. Unlike Zum Dürnbräu, the waitresses all had the same sort of black dirndl, which I later learned is sold as a sort of uniform.

The Rathaus/town hall is cute and famous for the figurines that come out and (barely) move when the clock chimes (certain hours?):



Downtown-ish Munich misc sights:

i have no idea what this rock and waves have to do with landlocked Munich

This was sort of around the corner from the 'New' Rathaus.

approaching military monument and yellow church

Turns out, one does not see monuments to military victories in Germany....ever. Outside of the still-standing WWII-era WWI monuments (drumming up nationalism). Munich has a pretty big monument. Don't remember for what particular military kerfuffle.

What military monumnet is complete without lion statues? 

Adjacent to this monument is an astonishingly yellow church:

Theatine Church

And some strange wall decorations when you duck into a nearby courtyard (I think this was somehow part of the Residence):

walking into some random courtyard, saw this: faux columns. I thought it was cute. 

Also part of the residence courtyards: random historical murals. This about something from 1155.

I have no idea what this was about.

(c) English Garden

A large and rather prominent thing in Munich to go look at. The ground was wet and mushy; it had snowed and sort of melted that morning.

You can kind of see how went the path is by how shiny it looks (it's just dirt, so its shininess is a reflection of how much water hasn't been absorbed or evaporated off of it).

nice stream

The stream led to a nice waterfall; the 'famous' waterfall where people go surfing was in the other direction, and I didn't feel like more muck-trudging to go find it.

waterfall for nice stream

There was also a "chinese tower". I found it a bit anti-climactic:

'Chinese tower'

(d) Deutsches Museum 
I'm not sure what the theme of this museum was.  Mostly (out of date) technology. It had some cute maps/globes, reallllly old astrolabes, watches, etc.

But, it is "probably the most safe place in Munich!" (not sure why, or why you'd advertise that...)




En route to Deutsches Museum, we got yet more snow:



Also very strong wind.  Wind + snow -- yielded a bike coated in snow on one side and not the other:

snow-bike. Snike?

We had a super long wait in a huge line to get in. Upshot: found waldo.

find him yet?

View of said line from inside and above:

grrrr

The kicker was that once you got inside the museum itself, there were more lines, separate from the big snakey line outside, at which you could buy tickets. Grrrr.

The Museum had a barometer:




House rules specifically forbid you from posting pictures from the museum on the internet. So, to be nice, I am omitting said pics (sadly).

What's a (bavarian) museum without a statue of God chilling in the coatroom?:

Ok. One museum pic. Technically in the cloak room, so I figure it's fair game. 

Have a view of Munich (from the museum window):

sorry for the glare

After the museum, we killed some time waiting for the various restaurants nearby to open up. Ended up at this Austrian place that had good reviews. It was delicious:

yum Austrian food.

The following ad is kind of sad/amusing. Munich (and Germany) is trying to get people to wear helmets when they bike.

A hole in my head looks embarrassing! I wear a helmet. 

[So, I did end up getting a dirndl. Not sure when I will wear it exactly, but it looks enough like a 'normal' dress, that I may just wear (pieces of it) this summer when the weather's better :) ].