This Explains So Much

So there’s this podcast about living in Denmark as an expat that I like to listen to. Most of the things the author mentions, I’ve already experienced, but it’s nice to commiserate and to know I’m not alone. But every once in a while, she mentions some facet of life in Denmark that I haven’t encountered yet, and it always fascinates me how this new tidbit sheds light on what I’ve experienced about Denmark. 

For example, her podcast from the 5th talks about biking in Denmark. I have my bike here and have biked around town and am already familiar with the Danish biking rules and etiquette and their crazy hook turns. However, what I didn’t know was that many Danes own an extra “ugly bike” which, well, Kay explains it much better in the quote below than I could. But let me just say that it finally explains why so many rusty, crusty bicycles seem to just sit in the train station parking lot getting rustier and crustier.

“Most people in Copenhagen have more than one bike, sometimes three. One might be a sport racing bike, or a mountain bike, and the other might be a ‘shopper’ bike, with a big basket for bringing home groceries.

It’s also quite common to have an extra, ugly bike.

An ugly bike is a bike that gets no love, and often no maintenance. It’s a rusted, broken-down bike you use for short commutes and leave at the train station.

When I used to work at Carlsberg, the beer company, I’d take my shopper bike to the train station by my house, get on the train, get off at the stop near Carlsberg, where I had another bike waiting – an ugly bike.

It wasn’t a nice neighborhood, so I needed a not very nice bike, something that wouldn’t be worth the effort to steal.

I’d ride the ugly bike to work. At the end of the day, I’d ride the ugly bike back to the station by Carlsberg, leave it there, get back on the train, get off at the stop by my house, and ride my shopper bike home. Two bikes and a train – that’s a pretty typical Copenhagen commute.”

((via)) Written by Kay Xander Miller in her podcast and blog: “How to Live in Denmark: An Irreverent Guide.”

The Weekend’s Adventure: Biking and Art

Since most of our adventures happen on the weekend, it’s looks like I’m going to have reoccuring posts titled “the weekend.” Lets just make that a thing, shall we? From now on, I shall post on Monday about the adventures we had over the weekend.

This past weekend was filled to bursting with fun activities. I finally got out on my bike, and on Saturday Brian and I rode up north to Risskov along a bike and pedestrian path that runs right on the edge of the shore between Risskov forest and the sea. It’s a beautiful ride and quite flat since you’re riding along the shore the whole way.

Taking a water break.

A view of the shore on the way back.

A view of the shore on the way back. You can see the harbor.

Hi there!

Hi there!

It seemed like we were the only ones in Aarhus wearing helmets, apart from the people out long distance riding on their road bikes. But none of the people just biking into the city center for the day or running errands seem to wear helmets.

Then yesterday we went to the ARoS art museum.

Well, first we made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and took it to a coffee shop:

At Baresso.

The view out onto the pedestrian street.

Since it can be quite expensive to eat out, even for lunch, we thought this was a good compromise.

Then we went to the art museum. Brian gets free tickets from work, so we’ve waited to go until he could arrange those. The building is one of the most distinctive features of the Aarhus skyline due to the permanent art installation, “Your Rainbow Panorama” by Olafur Eliassons, on top of the building.

The view from the front entrance.

The rainbow from on top of the museum.

It’s a rainbow colored walkway that guests can walk through to experience a panoramic view of the city tinted many different colors. And it’s lots of fun!

Aarhus caught in a rainbow.

A study of Brian in purple.

A study of Brian in Orange.

A study of Allison in pink.

A study of Allison in yellow.

The actual museum is also really interesting. They currently have an exhibit called “Guld” which takes you through paintings from Denmark’s Golden Age in the 19th century. The exhibit pairs paintings with explanatory text that really helped us to understand more about Denmark and that turbulent period in the country’s history.

They also had an exhibit called “The Director’s Cut” where the art director chose to display specific unrelated artworks together because of the tone or feeling that they created when placed together. It’s a rather creative approach to museum exhibits, and I totally loved it. It meant so much more to me as the viewer (the audience?) than just wondering through pieces chronologically that don’t have anything to do with one another. I feel like all modern exhibits should be done this way!

Here is some of the fun and interesting art we saw:

These are some paintings from the Guld exhibit.

That giant boy is a famous sculpture – titled, wait for it, “Boy” and created by Ron Muecks – and is a permanent feature at ARoS. It’s really realistic and actually quite creepy in person. There was also an interactive exhibit (bottom right) with these balls on a track. When a person entered the room, one ball was released onto the track. You were supposed to follow your ball around the room as it spun through the corse. And then the person on the bottom left is a living statue. She stayed in that exact position for the 3 hours that we were at the museum! I have no idea how people do that.

So those were our adventures this past weekend. Well, we had a few others, but those will be included in posts to come. I’ve got to keep you wanting more!

Off To Work We Go

Or one of us at least. Brian rode his bike to work for the first time today.