Copenhagen and Aarhus: Part II

Barbara wrote recently about our week in Denmark, where she was attending a three-day conference. In this blog I'm going to add a few more photos of our time, and my own adventures while she was busy.

Barbara's reading in the cozy flat (4th floor; we seem to be drawn to developing legs of steel by our choice of apartments--but the views are great!). This was our first time getting a place to stay through "AirBnB," which connects people willing to rent their spare room for a few days to those of us who are passing through and who wish something less expensive and more homey than hotels usually offer. Our Copenhagen flat was a nice one, lots of interesting design features without being fancy (I was reluctant to leave!). We even had the place to ourself.

We also enjoyed our neighborhood, which had a lot of immigrants (with a variety of small cafes, fruit and vegetable shops, and other small businesses) from the Middle East and South Asia (note the barber shop in the photo to the left, the "Salon Bagdad," the "Halel" butcher shop farther on, and a Middle Eastern sweet shop behind that. After months here in Tallinn, with many days when I saw no one less white than Barbara, we felt "at home" in a familiar way. We had several good lunches at Turkish buffets, and enjoyed a brief conversation with the imam ("pastor") of the Turkish mosque and his wife.

Barbara noted that Copenhagen was some weeks further into spring than we had so far reach when we left Tallinn, and it was lovely to feel the warm breezes, see the flowers, walk through a neighborhood street party, explore the botanical gardens and parks--some of which featured statues of famous Danes like Soren Kierkegaard.

I also spent time myself exploring the local bookstores, especially around the university area. The photo to the right shows one of the cafe bookstores popular with young folks there, though a close look seems to show them all absorbed in their laptops rather than the books nicely shelved above their head (!).

Denmark is known as among the most "green" countries in the world, with perhaps the highest percentage of its energy use produced by renewable sources. At least a small part of that must be due to Copenhagen's good (if expensive) public transportation, complemented by bicycle mania. Bicycle "parking lots" typically are found in many squares, near transit stations, and the trains. Bicycle use is encouraged by the fact that the city seems to be almost flat (and just above sea level, which would give it an additional motive to fight global warming), and the fact the bicycle "lanes" are actually set apart from (and between) the center lanes for cars and the sidewalks for pedestrians--so bicyclists have a dedicated lane on all larger streets, perhaps eight feet wide, for their own use (rather than a narrow painted one). This seems to work out well, with hundreds of bicycles zipping by, though there is some challenge for the foreign visitor who's only used to watching for cars.

Some among our loyal readers may be wondering at the lack of mention so far to Copenhagen's famous "Little Mermaid" statue our in the harbor. We did not actually see it, so instead I

include the photo below of "My Little Mermaid," along one of the famous canals (sometimes we felt like we were in Amsterdam!).

The day we walked along the canal, the street above it was packed with locals and visitors eating (lots of seafood!) at the many outdoor cafes, soaking up the warm sunlight and listening to the occasional musical groups.

We ourselves were often seeking less expensive places to eat. As I've mentioned, Copenhagen seemed quite pricey to us (though I expect this may be typical of the several northwestern European countries we'll be visiting before we return to Minnesota). We sometimes wondered how the various immigrant groups could manage to flourish, and whether their earnings could cope with the kinds of prices the more affluent native Danes would more easily afford.

While Barbara was at her workshop, I hopped on the bus to Denmark's "second city," Aarhus (a journey which was actually half on a ferry). Tabassum, someone I'd known long ago as a student at St. Olaf (graduating in 1997) had married a German mathematician, and they and their two children were living there. She extended a warm welcome should I be able to come and visit, and I had a wonderful visit with the whole family--catching up a bit on the past 14 years, and in effect getting to know each other in a new way.

In the photo below, Tabassum is getting the two kids ready to go to kindergarten. Denmark is one of the Scandinavian states with extensive "social welfare" policies--health insurance for the population, good quality child-care and kindergarten provided from the age of 6 months for parents who wish it (who can also take off much of a year with pay after the birth of a child), and so forth--all in exchange for a tax rate around 50%.

I appreciated having part of a day with Tabu to explore Aarhus, while the rest of the family was off doing their thing, including lunch at her favorite inexpensive Thai cafe, and exploring the architecturally impressive art museum. Time with the kids gave me a chance to revive (from some place long set aside) my German (which the household shares)-- since I have the vocabulary of about a three year old, I found we could get along just fine, using English to fill in when necessary (the kids know something of four languages at this point, and they haven't even started "real school" yet!).

In the photo on the right, I'm seen with my inner child (for whom I can now stop searching!) (but perhaps running from instead?). This incredibly (and eerily) life-like work is featured in the art museum in Aarhus.

I also had some time on my own to wander around Aarhus, including the Cathedral (in the photo on the lower left), a wonderful old church. My visit was enriched by a soloist who was practicing her music for a later time--her voice soared through the entire sanctuary. I also visited the Women's History Museum nearby, and particularly liked trying to figure out both the parallels and the differences between the women's movement in Denmark and in America. (Note also the cartoon below the photo of the cathedral--not from this museum but rather from the Workers' Museum in Copenhagen--which captures some of the growing consciousness among women in the modern era, many of whom were finding that even voting, educated, and working women needed more hands to accomplish their tasks than they had!)

The last two photos (and sorry these are not in the order I'd originally intended--I seem to be technologically challenged when writing these blogs!) are on the lower right. One is the steeple of the church (imitating a Near Eastern ziggurat) which is next to Christiania, the long experiment in more or less anarchistic community life found in Copenhagen. I wandered through it early one morning, when residents seemed to be getting the day set up, having their coffee, talking in small groups (under prominent signs forbidding photography, hence I have no photos of my visit to share). They've run into troubles with authorities over drug use, but it was interesting to me as both a sociologist and a child of the 60's that this kind of experiment has survived this long.

And the lower photo is one Tabu took of me when we biked to a lake near the family's house, and found a peaceful morning, lakebirds, and gardens awaiting. Till next time! Bruce