Vie de Reilly: Copenhagen

Alright, after an EXHAUSTING month of traveling, entertaining, and cramming for midterms (nothing lower than a B+!!!) I have decided to finally upload my pictures from Copenhagen at the beginning of the month. Before Andrew, Austin, Spencer, Hilary and I went on the trip we had heard that Denmark was too cold, the food was horrible, everything was expensive, and that the people were mean. Talk about a pleasant surprise! Copenhagen was everything I wanted it to be, and nothing like what we heard it would be. I spent less money the entire weekend than I did in Barcelona and had an incredible time. We spent the first day walking around the city, getting lost and enjoying ourselves. The next day we got up and made a trip to the castle from Hamlet and then the Louisiana Museum, which was incredible. The last day we went to a beer tasting at the Carlsburg brewery and then took the long, long, long way home before catching our plane back to Paris!

The first place we stumbled upon was the Copenhagen Town Hall, near Tivoli.

I was really blown away by tradition Danish decoration. Very clean and simple compared to what I'm used to in Paris.

The combination of colors was odd to me as well. In Paris, everything is basically gold. In Copenhagen, greens, dark blues, and reds seemed predominant.

This was the interior of a church at the bottom of a huge tower. Though the organ looks like it could be Parisian, the white vaulted ceiling seems like a signature of Danish architecture.

Oh, Northern Europe!

This was a huge, free museum that was unfortunately closed when we found it. It was right next to the harbor and made me feel like I was in a classic European port.

The Copenhagen Opera House (I think that's what this is) was so interesting to me! It started on the harbor and jutted out over the water, so the walkway around it seemed like a harbor. We walked by it again at night and it was so, so beautiful.

The harbor by night!

Elsinore, as Shakespeare called it, the town in northern Denmark where the castle Kronborg was located- about 20 minutes by train.

Entrance to Kronborg (check out Spencer and Austin getting their walk on)!

So many swans and this guy let me take a close up. Sup, baby?

Sitting in Denmark, looking at Sweden.

Tah-dah! Kronborg!

Does this look familiar? (Barcelona)

Interior- quite the opposite of Versailles! So bare, so clean.

Early Danish furniture.

The castle was originally built for diplomatic relations with neighboring countries and for defense because of it's proximity to the shore. Most everything in the castle seemed as utilitarian as a castle can be.

I'm not sure who this is supposed to be, but the castle's church had a bunch of wooden characters like him inside of it.

The castle also had a maritime museum in it and this was my favorite bow (is that what it's called? i'm not going to pretend to know/care about boats).

After the castle, we headed to the Louisiana Museum. The building itself was very mid century modern and felt like a house. It was located on top of a steep hill overlooking the shore and boasted some impressive views. I'd highly recommended making the trip to see visit it if you ever make it to Copenhagen. This sculpture is Juan Munoz "Half Circle."

To my delight, most of the museum was an exhibit dedicated to color. I spent hours looking at Stellas, Kleins, Rothkos, and just about every other 20th century artist who used color in some way. Unfortunately, photography was forbidden so I don't have many pictures. This large scale painting is by Sigmar Polke and is called "Hyperborean." Reminds me of the 19th century Japanese prints that influenced Impressionists.

Me in front of Sam Francis' "Big Red II" in the Louisiana theater.

View from our hotel, this was the "bad" part of Copenhagen!

We got lost in a neighborhood on the walk to Carlsberg and a friendly Dane heard us speaking English and helped us find our way- not kidding, Denmark rocks!