solitary_summer | (no subject)

[ edited & typed: 07-12 ]

:: They seem to be helpful about the broken glasses, though there's nothing definite yet. It's still an annoyance, I don't really want to spend my last day worrying about that & chasing after a person who might actually be in charge. ::

Monday = museums are closed, hence lots of churches I'd avoided so far. Which have rather restricted opening hours, too, no idea if that's a protestant or a scandinavian thing. I'm under the impression that churches at home are kept open as a rule, except for the night, but then again, i might be mistaken; it's not as if i'm a regular visitor.

Anyway. Found a functioning city bike & pedalled off...

Holmes Kirke: nice. There were a couple of people in there who appeared to be praying though, so I got only a rather cursory look.

Vor Frue Kirke (cathedral): very white and very classicist; there's a reason why I skipped the Thorvaldsen museum. However there are some more modern additions - electric chandeliers, stands for devotional candles, the organ - of minimalist, almost severe design, that temper the classicism somewhat and create a quite pleasing general impression.

:: I don't really like those half-days at the end of vacations when you've got to catch your flight home at some point... I tend to get emotional and melancholy, neither quite here or quite there... part of me wishes I could either stay or were on the airport already. I'm just too exhausted already. ::

Vor Frelsers Kirke: airy and light with large windows, setting off the baroque elements, especially the altar, beautifully. Very impressive carved late 17th century organ supported by elephants. Climbed the tower - a staircase, then steep wooden stairs, the last hundred steps or so on a spiralling staircase running along the outside of the spire, and did I ever mention I am afraid of heights? The fact that the tower had only recently been thoughrouthly restored offered some reassurance though, and the view is very much worth it.

The Royal reception rooms in Christiansborg Slot: modern, as the palace is only early 20th century, but rather nice, we had a German-speaking guide, who was quite funny, too. The newly restored Knight's Hall has modern tapestries by Bjørn Nørgaard commissioned by Queen Margarethe II, that cover the Danish history since the Viking age in great detail. The guide told us the artist had asked for total freedom for the design, which he was granted, and so the 19th century tapestry includes the rise of the socialist movement and a portrait of Karl Marx. I'd love to see something like that done at home - Austrian politicians and public would be in an uproar for months over every single figure to be included or not to be included, and that's not even touching on the probable controversy about the style...

[panorama view]

Finally got to look at the modern part of the Royal library, which is amazingly beautiful and offers a great view of the harbour... I'd really like to work there. :: insert nostalgic sigh :: way beats the stuffy reading rooms of our national library.

Sitting on the wooden steps in front of the library on the harbour front, watching the water busses and tourist boats dock and undock... sun warmed wood at my back, chill wind... feeling decidedly melancholy and unwilling to leave, though I'm not quite sure if it's because of the place I'm going to leave or the place (& life) I'll have to return to.

Walked to the Fredriksberg gardens in the time remaining, rather nondescript baroque palace that serves as a military academy, regretted for a moment that I hadn't gone to the zoo after all, what with the hassle over the glasses. Pretty park with a chinese tea house not open to the public. (or not open today, whichever)

The flight home was annoying, screaming children, annoying women next to me who first talked me out of my window-seat and then chatted with her husband across the aisle and popped her chewing gum all of the time, irritated stewardesses... but then, catching glimpses of the sunset as we were flying south, it struck me (though perhaps that's not all that original) that it was rather preposterous how we're sitting there, something that has been an age old dream of humanity not only realised but taken for granted and reduced to banality, being served small meals, people bitching about there being no coffee... but maybe that's only natural and I'm being melodramatic.