Skagen - bears and artists: Sunday 30 September

We started the day at the Skagen Bamsemuseum, a teddy bear museum.

The teddy bears on display belong to the owner, Jonna Thygesen and there are all sorts of teddies, displayed in an amazing number of ways. Here are some we particularly enjoyed.

Recreation of Michael Anchers' painting, The lifeboat is taken to the dunes

Anchers Hus, the former home of artists Anna and Michael Anchers, was our next stop. In the late 19th century the seaside town of Skagen was very popular with artists, due to the quality of the light, and several moved here 'to paint the light'. They became known as the Skagen School and the house has been restored to create the atmosphere of the artists’ home. It contains much of their original furniture and many of their paintings.

We had delicious lunch at Jorgen's Spisehus on the waterfront before setting off for our final destination, the Skagens Museum.

Interesting view from the restaurant

'Danish Fisherman' on the waterfront

The major focus of the Skagens Museum is the works of the Skagen artists and many of them are on display.

'Summer evening on Skaged Sanderstrand' by Peder Severin Kroyer

'The North Sea in Stormy Weather after Sunset' by Laurits Tuxen

'The Drowned Fisherman' by Michael Anchor

Another highlight is the former dining room of Brondums Hotel, where many of the Skagen artists used to meet, which has been moved in its entirety to the museum.

Aarhus to Skagen, Denmark: Saturday 29 September

We were up at 6am this morning to watch the first quarter of the AFL Grand Final on Ian’s tablet.

Collingwood was playing and Ian has vowed that we will never again be out of Melbourne on the date of the Grand Final in case Collingwood is a contender. It was hard for him to leave for the station in time for our train but at least he was able to get regular updates from Jenny and Claire on his phone when we were travelling. Unfortunately Collingwood was defeated by West Coast.

After a brisk walk from our apartment to Aarhus central station, we caught the 8.51am train to Skagen, a seaside resort in the north of Denmark. We arrived just after 1pm and walked to our accommodation. We are staying in a self-contained apartment which is adjacent to the house in the garden of our hosts, Inge and Calle. It has a lounge/kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom, with garden views and is quite spacious.

We spent the afternoon at Grenen, a beach on the northernmost tip of Denmark, about a 45 minute walk from where we are staying. It is one of the most popular destinations in Demark so there was quite a large group  of people there, all enjoying the experience of standing with a foot in each of two seas, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat, at the very tip of the headland.

Where the Skaggerak meets the Kattegat

We enjoyed dinner at a friendly local restaurant, Knuth's, in Skagen - a huge plate of fish and chips for me and a pepper steak for Ian.

Aarhus - Moesgaard Muuseum: Friday 28 September

This morning we took a bus from the city centre to the Moesgaard Museum in the suburb of Hojbjerg.

The museum has interesting sections on Prehistory (the Danish Stone Age and Iron Age), the Viking Age, the Middle Ages and ‘The Life of the Dead’. They are housed in a beautiful, very modern building which has a spectacular sloping grass-covered roof that appears to grow out of the landscape.

The most famous and dramatic exhibit is the Grauballe Man. He was an Iron Age man (2,000 years old!) whose well-preserved body was found in a bog in 1952 at the village of Grauballe, west of Aarhus. It appears that he died from a throat wound and that perhaps he may have been killed as a religious sacrifice. His body was preserved so well in a peat bog that even his hair and fingernails are still intact!

Grauballe Man

An amazingly lifelike model of a Neanderthal man

The Gundestrup Cauldron, another interesting item

We enjoyed a delicious lunch in the museum cafe – pearl barley risotto with asparagus, sun-dried tomato and chorizo sausage for Ian and a pickled herring salad for me.

We also couldn't resist these icecreams!

Outside the museum we followed a walking trail across fields, past farms and through beech woods. It was a pleasant walk but after nearly an hour we decided to turn back before we reached the trail end at the beach.

Aarhus - 'Den Gamle By': Thursday 27 September

We have had a lovely day exploring the historical theme park, Den Gamle By. Firstly we walked to the closest stop for the light rail and travelled to Central Station to reserve seats on Saturday’s train to Skagen (travelling during the Grand Final!!).
From there, we walked through the city to Den Gamle By where we spent the morning.

This is an open-air museum which presents several periods of life in the city as ‘living history’. There are around 75 half-timbered townhouses from all over Denmark that have been moved there, to create the impression of an old Danish market town.

Craftmen's workshop

Merchant's house 1593

After visiting the various houses, workshops and other attractions, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at The Simonsen’s Have Restaurant. Ian chose ‘crispy pork with parsley sauce, potatoes and beetroot while I had plaice, smoked salmon, shrimps, trout roe and salad.

Next we walked back to the city to the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, where we saw the amazing sculpture,  five-metre tall Boy by Australian artist Ron Mueck.

We also spent some time enjoying the view from the circular walkway on the roof of the art museum. Apparently that is also an art installation, called Your rainbow panorama, by Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, and gives participants beautiful views of the city through panels of coloured glass in various shades of the rainbow.

On our way back through the city we visited Aarhus Domkirke. This cathedral is in the Gothic style with a beautiful altarpiece by 15th century woodcarver Bernt Notkel. The pulpit also dates from the Renaissance. The thirteen windows are beautiful and the whole effect is most impressive.

Cathedral altar

The day was most enjoyable although it was slightly marred when Ian slipped on the edging of the bike path on the way home and had a fall. Luckily he doesn’t seem to have suffered any lasting ill effect!

Three sunset views from our apartment

Oxford to Aarhus: Wednesday 26 September

We left our Oxford accommodation at 5.50am this morning and were most relieved that the taxi we had booked online the night before turned up on time.

Our journey from Oxford to Aarhus in Denmark involved the following steps:

• Taxi to Oxford station
• Train from Oxford to Paddington station
• Taxi from Paddington station to Liverpool Street station
• Train from Liverpool Street station to Stansted airport, where we had brunch
• Flight to Aarhus, Denmark
• Bus from Aarhus airport to central railway station
• Taxi to our apartment

And it all worked seamlessly, thanks to Ian's meticulous organisation!

We are in a lovely, modern apartment in the Isbjerget building, with a view across to the Kattegat (the area of sea bounded by Jutland and Sweden).

Our apartment building

The view at dusk, in front of our apartment

After settling into the apartment, we walked along the strand to the local supermarket and bought some pizza, chocolate biscuits and fruit for dinner, which we enjoyed while watching ‘AFL 360' on Ian's tablet. 

Oxford: Tuesday 25 September

We had a most interesting morning at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. To give some direction to our visit, we followed the trail on the ’10 Highlights in an Hour’ brochure, starting in ‘The Ashmolean Story’ section where we saw Powhatan’s mantle on the basement floor and moving up each level to arrive at the restaurant on the 4th floor for a delicious lunch.

Guy Fawke's lantern, used in the Gunpowder Plot 1605

Japanese Samurai armour

                                               

 A light in the Ashmolian Museum

   ‘London Bridge at Night' by Holman Hunt

After lunch we joined the ‘Inspector Morse, Lewis & Endeavour Walking Tour’ where our excellent guide, Elizabeth Hudson-Evans, led our group of twelve on a very comprehensive walk around the sites which had been used in those series, as she reminded us of the various episodes. As a bonus, we saw some filming of the latest series of ‘Endeavour’ actually taking place!

Our time in Oxford has been full of interesting activities and we have really enjoyed this, our second visit to the city.