Trip To Denmark – 2009 « The Bald Heretic

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Copenhagen – Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

After we’d had our fill of the fireworks Cynthia settled in to get a few hours of sleep before we had to be at the airport (recommended three hours before the flight, thank you very much diaper bomber!) and I processed a few images before calling it a night.

I set the alarm on my phone to wake us up. This alarm has been flawless each and every day of this trip and our previous two trips.

I found myself being awakened by Cynthia who was telling me “the alarm didn’t go off!” and sure enough, it hadn’t. The good news is that we experienced our second Christmas miracle on this trip in that Cynthia just happened to wake up and decided to check her watch to see how much time she had left to sleep and it was only 15 minutes after the alarm was set to go off. WHAT A BREAK THAT WAS!

Seems we (meaning “I”) tried to ruin this trip not once, but twice. Fortunately fate was inexplicably on our side coming and going.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, cleared security (twice) and made our way home. Aside from the enhanced screening the flight was pretty much normal in that we didn’t have to check any luggage and there were no unusual restrictions during the flight.

It was a very interesting trip. I don’t know that we’ll go back to Denmark, but I am glad we went. I’ll be digging into the photos and presenting some of the better shots here on this blog as time allows. For now we’re still shaking jet lag and trying to get our internal clocks back on US time.

Thanks to everyone who followed along, here and on Facebook and Twitter. The comments were always something we looked forward to and Cynthia was particularly pleased with the interest shown to William The Sheepie’s Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed any of the updates you can see a chronological list of blog posts from this trip by clicking this link.

Posted in Travel, Trip To Denmark - 2009 | 1 Comment »

Copenhagen – Last Full Day

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

The last day in Copenhagen. New Years Eve. We’d wanted to go to the Nationalmuseet (National Museum) after running out of time the previous day (read: we couldn’t find it). Alas, it was closed due to the holiday

We figured not much would be open and decided just to walk around for awhile which lead us to the Børsen (Stock Exchange) building which features a tower formed by the tails of four dragons twined together

From there we spied the telltale tower of Vor Frelser Kirke. If you look closely you’ll see there’s a spiral staircase that goes around the outside of the tower.

It’s open to the public, but not at this time of year….

Even more unfortunate, the church was closed for the day but we did spend some time outside shooting pics.

From there we walked leisurely back to the hotel and upon arriving asked the hotel concierge for a recommendation on a place to get a traditional Danish meal and we were directed to Cafe Nytorv just off the Strøget. It was a charming place and the food was delicious. We ordered Carlsberg beers and snaps as our beverages. Cynthia is not a beer drinker. She hates it in fact. But she decided to be adventurous and ordered one and when she took the first sip she found that she actually liked it.

She did not, however, like the snaps. I had to drink hers as well as mine. Drat the luck!

After lunch we walked a bit more but then headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for the fireworks.

Posted in Architecture, General, Photography, Sigma 12-24mm, Sony 24-70mm Zeiss, Sony Alpha 850, Trip To Denmark - 2009 | No Comments »

Copenhagen – Happy New Year!

Friday, January 1st, 2010

We had heard that there would be fireworks in the City Hall Square, but had no idea what to expect. There’s not an organized display. Instead, citizens (and I would assume tourists as well) armed with any number of different pyrotechnics roam the city and detonate at will. As the midnight hour approaches, more and more fireworks can be seen and heard about the city.

Every now and then someone sets something off in City Hall Square.

Cynthia is skeptical that there will be much activity. Copenhagen dies down after 8 or 9 pm from what we’ve seen over the last few days. I explain that new years eve is a global party and I bet her there will be a ton of people and a ton of fireworks.

The people DO in fact start gathering and before long the square is surrounded by people. Some waiting to watch fireworks, others there to actually set them off. Our hotel balcony gives us front row seats to watch the event. Here is a video I shot from the balcony about 30 minutes before midnight

Fireworks in Copenhagen from baldheretic on Vimeo.

My fish-eye captures some of the excitement.

Posted in General, Photography, SAL-16F28, Sony Alpha 850, Travel, Trip To Denmark - 2009 | 4 Comments »

Copenhagen Day 5 – Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

We’d heard good things about The Glyptotek but were apprehensive as Cynthia and I are not big fans of sculpture museums. They tend to be dim and crowded. The Glyptotek was a huge surprise. Everything is open, well lit and nicely displayed. I also discovered that my fisheye lens is great for shooting this type of setting and used it for about 50% of the shots.

Interesting to note, the museum was named after Ny Carlsberg, the brewery owned by the founder, brewer Carl Jacobsen. He added the word Glyptotek, ’a collection of sculpture’, to indicate the pride of place taken by that art form and in recognition of his debt to the older namesake, the Glyptothek in Munich.

One thing I really liked about this museum was the lockers where you could stash your coat and other cumbersome items, making for a much more leisurely walk about the museum

The first thing you see is The Winter Garden, a huge open space with plants and trees and a fountain.

Designed to attract more people into the museum, I could see myself visiting regularly just to sit on a park bench all day long.

The rest of the museum is just spectacular. Cynthia and I had a wonderful time exploring all the rooms and walking amongst the sculptures.

There’s even one of the over twenty casts of the sculpture “The Thinker” by by Auguste Rodin.

If you are ever in Copenhagen, I heartily recommend a visit. What follows are some of the better photos I took while visiting. I know there’s a lot, but it’s only a small portion of what I got during this visit. I have never enjoyed photographing a museum more than this one, and I have been to a LOT of museums!

Posted in General, Photography, SAL-16F28, Sony 24-70mm Zeiss, Sony Alpha 850, Travel, Trip To Denmark - 2009 | 2 Comments »

Copenhagen Day 5 – The Rundetårn

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

We headed off this morning to climb The Rundetårn (The Round Tower) which is not too far from the hotel. Cynthia really likes to climb things when we travel. Fortunately, the tower had a mildly sloping ramp that winds up most of the 130 feet to the top. There is a set of small stairs at the very top which are tight and difficult to manage when there’s too much two way traffic.

The fish-eye lens made for some really good photos inside the tower.

About halfway up we found this little alcove. The sign says Kissing Corner in Danish and there’s a piece of missletoe hanging from the ceiling.

Once to the top there’s a pretty spectacular view of the city

Another successful adventure!

Posted in Architecture, General, Photography, SAL-16F28, Sony 24-70mm Zeiss, Sony Alpha 850, Travel, Trip To Denmark - 2009 | No Comments »

Copenhagen Day 4 Part 2

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

As I noted in my previous post, I had not met with success in my efforts to capture the Copenhagen Opera House at night. When we had gone out to the waterfront it was a Sunday night and the building was dark. Checking on line I saw that there were performances all this week so on Tuesday night I loaded up the camera bag and the tripod and headed out to try again.

This time I got what I came for.

Posted in Architecture, Photography, Sony 24-70mm Zeiss, Sony Alpha 850, Travel, Trip To Denmark - 2009 | 3 Comments »

Copenhagen Day 4 Part 1

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Today dawned bright and sunny. Still cold, but blue skies and sunshine. We had wanted to take the train over the Öresund Bridge to Malmö Sweden and this seemed to be the day to do it. Trains leave every 20 minutes or so and it takes about 30 minutes to get there.

We have no Swedish Kronier and we don’t have a map and we don’t really know what we want to do when we get there. My primary interest was crossing the bridge, which is half tunnel and is an architectural marvel. Plus I like the idea of making this a two country trip.

On the way over to the train station I grab a shot of an art installation on loan from Poland called the Tree Hugger Project.

We get to the train station and pretty quickly sort out getting out tickets and finding the platform to catch our train. There’s some confusion as there’s a train at the platform already, even though our train is not due for 15-20 minutes. We finally see a sign that says in three languages “Do Not Board This Train”.

The ride to Malmö is kinda of fun and exciting for me. For Cynthia, it is rather terrifying. She really hates being underground. And the recent London/Paris Chunnel passenger stranding which was all over the news didn’t help.

Malmö is quite charming. We set off toward the city center and explore our surroundings.

After walking for awhile I mention to Cynthia that I’d really like to see the Turning Torso which is an example of Deconstructivism architecture.

We could see if from the train coming in and I had a rough idea which direction it was, but as I mentioned before we don’t have a map and no Sedish Kroner to pay for a bus or a cab so we just walk. After a short time we spotted it in the distance.

We had hoped to walk a short distance and get a clear view of the building for a good photo, but it seemed no matter how far we walked, there was always some buliding or another in the way.

We kept walking and did eventually walk right up to the Turning Torso after traversing (on foot mind you) the industrial district of Malmö Sweden.

I will tell you this, it was worth the walk. I got some great photos!

Posted in Architecture, Sony 24-70mm Zeiss, Sony Alpha 850, Travel, Trip To Denmark - 2009 | 4 Comments »

Copenhagen Day 3 Part 2

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

After our great day visiting the castle and seeing The Little Mermaid we rested for a bit in the hotel. Next on the agenda was Tivoli Gardens to see the lights and witness the fireworks show. The park opened on August 15, 1843 and is, with the exception of Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Klampenborg, the oldest amusement park in the world.

Sadly, my shots of the fireworks didn’t pan out. We staked out a spot that was too crowded and also behind a giant Christmas tree which obscured the view. Still, the park is amazing. I can’t even imagine how people ride those rides in the freezing temperatures, but they do. The whole park is filled with screaming and laughter as the rides buzz, whirl and whoosh right over your heads. And everything in the park is completely covered in multi-colored lights.

Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen

Posted in General, Sigma 12-24mm, Sony 24-70mm Zeiss, Sony Alpha 850, Travel, Trip To Denmark - 2009 | 1 Comment »

Experimentation

Monday, December 28th, 2009

I am always up for trying local customs and foods. I ate haggis in Scotland and liked it. The breakfast buffet at the hotel has pickled herring so I thought I would give it a try. It is a local delicacy after all.

Cynthia documented the event.

herring1

herring2

Posted in Travel, Trip To Denmark - 2009 | 2 Comments »

Copenhagen Day 2 Part 2

Monday, December 28th, 2009

The goal for this night was to walk from the hotel down the Strøget to Nyhavn for some night shots and then down to the waterfront to see if the new opera house might be worth taking a photo of.

I loaded up the camera, some lenses as well as the tripod and my remote shutter release and we headed off.

The walk down the Strøget at night was pleasant. Cold but no rain. Musicians on the street and lots of people walking about.

We had spotted an interesting restaurant in our previous excursions that looked promising. Their menu offered Italian and Mexican food of all things. The pasta options had the most appeal to Cynthia and I’m always down from some Italian food. We like eating Italian just about anywhere we go and we like to find one restaurant and, if we like it, go back several times. We find that once the proprietors realize you are not just the typical tourist grabbing a bite and never returning they treat you really well.

This place ended up being delicious and the waiter and some of the other staff even spoke Spanish and were impressed when Cynthia started speaking Spanish. You could see that they were surprised to have American tourists who could speak more than one language. We’ll be going back to eat there again.

We finished eating and proceeded to Nyhavn. I scouted out a spot and proceeded to setup the tripod when I discovered that I was not yet ready to stop being absent minded and forgetful.

Wouldn’t you know it, I forgot the piece that actually lets me mount my camera to the tripod. It had to be detached to fit the tripod into my backpack before we flew over and I plum left it in the hotel room.

Ok, no big deal. It’s early and only a 20 minute walk back to the hotel. We hoof it back, retrieve the part and make our way back to Nyhavn. Only lost an hour in the process, but we’re now starting to wear out a little and the pleasant buzz from the food and the wine is wearing off.

I set up the tripod and take a few photos. They don’t really come out so great.