Today I had a date with the embassy (an ongoing saga at the moment). I hit the NZ Consulates Office as soon as they opened, and although they were very nice about it, I was told that the Consulate was unavailable all day. They redirected me to the British Embassy (again), I went and saw them first when in Prague. Well if I thought the security was tight in Prague, that was a dream compared to here in Copenhagen. It was like getting into a prison, I was just hoping that they would let me out again. However it is reassuring to know that if you ever do need them, and you do manage to get inside, then you will probably be pretty safe … from the outside. And I have to say that the dealings once you get in there, are very pleasant indeed. Anyway without boring you with the details, two hours after starting out I managed to walk out again with the signature that I required.
While I was doing all that Justine was browsing though the Danish National Gallery. Once I caught up with her in the gallery there were a couple of sections here that I had read about that I really wanted to see. I had read that there was quite a bit of Picasso and Matisse here and I wanted to see them before we left. To say the least, what they had didn’t reach the expectation of their promotional material. There were two Picasso pieces and about six from Matisse. The two Matisse sculptures that I saw were very cool though. There were many Danish works that were well worth the visit too.
After finishing here we went for a drive up the coast. This was going to be flying visit as we had spent more time in the city than we had expected. We stopped off at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. We were just going to have a wander around the surrounds, but the large Henri Moore sitting outside the museum door was a bit of a tantalizing taste just begging us to go in … but we didn’t succumb … this time.
Our next stop was Kronborg Castle. We started having walk around the grounds, however our visit was cut short by torrential rain. That seems to be the order of the day here today. Intermittent showers means, a hot sunny day interrupted by cold squalls that last between 10 to 45 minutes. Enough to get you soaked to the bone. However we saw the castle that is known as ‘Hamlets Castle’ despite the fact this castle was built since the time of Shakespeare, so figure that one out. Also of interest is that this point of the coastline is the narrowest point with Sweden, hence the castle. In times of old Denmark made its money by charging every boat or ship that went through the channel a levy, and the castle was built to enforce that tax.
Further up the coast we came to a little fishing village called Gilleleje. This is a very cool little town with small, double story, thatched roofed houses. The main focus however is the fishing boats and this is obviously their mainstay. Boats of every shape and size, they are there. A lot of the commercial boats have quite a different shape to what my unpracticed eye is used to seeing. They seem to be very short and squat, some of them almost look like the proportions of the classic bath tub toy boat, but they must work for the waters that they have up here.
While I was doing all that Justine was browsing though the Danish National Gallery. Once I caught up with her in the gallery there were a couple of sections here that I had read about that I really wanted to see. I had read that there was quite a bit of Picasso and Matisse here and I wanted to see them before we left. To say the least, what they had didn’t reach the expectation of their promotional material. There were two Picasso pieces and about six from Matisse. The two Matisse sculptures that I saw were very cool though. There were many Danish works that were well worth the visit too.
After finishing here we went for a drive up the coast. This was going to be flying visit as we had spent more time in the city than we had expected. We stopped off at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. We were just going to have a wander around the surrounds, but the large Henri Moore sitting outside the museum door was a bit of a tantalizing taste just begging us to go in … but we didn’t succumb … this time.
Our next stop was Kronborg Castle. We started having walk around the grounds, however our visit was cut short by torrential rain. That seems to be the order of the day here today. Intermittent showers means, a hot sunny day interrupted by cold squalls that last between 10 to 45 minutes. Enough to get you soaked to the bone. However we saw the castle that is known as ‘Hamlets Castle’ despite the fact this castle was built since the time of Shakespeare, so figure that one out. Also of interest is that this point of the coastline is the narrowest point with Sweden, hence the castle. In times of old Denmark made its money by charging every boat or ship that went through the channel a levy, and the castle was built to enforce that tax.
Further up the coast we came to a little fishing village called Gilleleje. This is a very cool little town with small, double story, thatched roofed houses. The main focus however is the fishing boats and this is obviously their mainstay. Boats of every shape and size, they are there. A lot of the commercial boats have quite a different shape to what my unpracticed eye is used to seeing. They seem to be very short and squat, some of them almost look like the proportions of the classic bath tub toy boat, but they must work for the waters that they have up here.
No comments:
Post a Comment