on my last night in copenhagen, i ended up getting a free ticket to the tivoli symphony orchestra concert (courtesy my landlord/roommate, who plays the tuba in aforementioned orchestra…). it was kind of nice to come full circle…i’ve visited tivoli in all of the other seasons, and it was fun to see it packed that night with the beautiful-late-spring-weather- outdoor-enjoyment crowd. : ) i would really love to be able to stay longer in cph…

so the days are winding down…and i finally took the day trip i’ve been wanting to do all spring. i took my bike on the train and spent the day in/near klampenborg, visiting dyrehave and bellevue. jægersborg dyrehave (or ‘deer garden’) was once a private reserve for king frederick iii and is now managed as a forest park. about 2000 deer (of three different varieties! some albino…) live and roam free there (within the park boundaries) – it was really fun to be biking along and see them running through the woods. they’re not tame enough that you can walk right up to them, but are calm enough for a few action zoom photos. : ) after biking through dyrehave, i went to the beach at bellevue, where danish architect arne jacobsen designed a number of buildings in the 1930s, including some lovely and simple beach structures…which served as a nice background for some sunning and a little beach nap.

all of the park entrances have these official red gates

i’ve been told that peter liep’s house is a nice place to stop for a cup of hot chocolate in the park…but maybe not on such a gorgeous and sunny day. still, the decor is fitting…

also within the park is bakken, the world’s ‘oldest existing’ theme park…

the landscape in dyrehave is really great – lots of giant old trees…and some giant old tree ruin

my first close-up deer encounter

the lovely landscape…

…and the deerscape!

this was a great sight…two deer dashed out into the meadow in front of these riders

the ‘hermitage,’ a royal hunting lodge added by one of frederick’s successors

riders and the hermitage castle/detail of the lodge roof

on the other side of the hermitage, there were tons of schoolkids picnicking on the hill, looking out toward the øresund

landscape and hermitage/deer in the meadow, heading for the herd

deer crossing!

next stop was the harbour near klampenborg station…

explorer knud rasmussen looks out over the sound/looking down the beach toward bellevue

two residential typologies at bellevue

view of one of jacobsen’s beach structures

jacobsen structure details

changing/showering pavilions

beach-facing elevation detail – nice and simple! and white – very danish…

my napping spot…a perfect end to a lovely trip!

i was lucky enough to have two friends visiting at the same time last week – i’ve traveled in china, japan, and taiwan with both liz and makie, so it was really fun to spend some time with them here in copenhagen. i think it’s been more than two years since we’ve all been in the same place at the same time! since we’re all in design fields, i got to take them on my now-practiced architour of copenhagen… now with plenty of breaks for fika:

me, liz, and makie take a fika break near the central station

me and liz at lagkagehuset in christianshaven (this is my favorite bakery…they make amazing rhubarb muffins!)

but we did more than just eat pastry! me and liz use our map recognition skills in christiania

makie and i taking photos at the royal danish academy for fine arts school of architecture

liz and makie at the christianshavn canal

me and liz at the danish architecture center

makie and her friend clover on playground equipment near the tietgen dormitory

those chairs spin like crazy!

makie, clover, and liz on the see-saw

testing out the main design features of prags boulevard…lampposts and the prags chairs

makie and i are ready to devour a long-anticipated brunch at kvarterhuset in holmbladsgade

clover hard at work promoting the architour

me, makie, and clover at the kastrup public bath/liz and i at the gemini residence

clover gets a swimming lesson at kastrup public bath/makie and clover

a lovely end to a day of archi-touring…

…and a lovely place for a nap!

liz and andrea and i visited copenhagen’s botanical gardens (botanisk have) the other day, which were really impressive and beautiful! here’s the blurb from the garden website:

Botanical Garden & Museum is situated in the heart of Copenhagen. The garden is a living museum and room for the largest collection of living plants in Denmark. The main purpose is to maintain a taxonomically, geographically and esthetical diverse collection of plants to be used in research and teaching and for public information. The museum holds one of the largest herbaria of plants and fungi from all over the world.

we really enjoyed it – this time of year there are lots of vibrant colors, and the park itself is like a flowery oasis right in the heart of the city. i think my mom (who is an avid gardener) would really have enjoyed this. my favorite parts were the palm house and the plant exhibitions that were arranged throughout the gardens (with titles like: “exotic spices”, “poisonous plants in nature”, “plants from the bible”, “tropical fruits”, “botany in the golden age”, and so on).

as an end-of-the semester treat, scan|design arranged a trip to norway for us (‘thank you, scan|design!’). we took the ferry (= cruise ship) from copenhagen to oslo, and then marianne, our intrepid mentor, showed us around lillehammer and and the capital for three days. our trip coincided with norway’s national day, may 17, so we got to see traditional costumes, parades, and lots of other celebratory goings-on. in lillehammer, we got to visit maihaugen, an open-air museum that had an exhibit on norwegian history as well as several examples of traditional wooden buildings. after our day in lillehammer, we took the train back to oslo, where we visited the vigeland sculpture park (which i visited last november and love) and the newly opened operahuset, which was fantastic (and i have to say better than copenhagen’s…particularly in a roof-to-roof comparison). we had a great time, ate some delicious lefse, sampled different foods-in-a-tube (including, yes, the always-wonderful nugatti), and enjoyed some blueberry muffin ice cream at anker brygge, oslo’s new harbourfront development/restored warehouse district. having visited norway once in the winter, it was really nice to be able to see what the landscape, and oslo, were like in the spring. i was really impressed with the city – and got to see many places that i hadn’t visited before. it was also nice to be there for the national day and to learn a bit about norway’s historical ties to denmark. so again, ‘thanks, scan|design…!’